32 PROJECT REPORT: HERITAGE & CONSERVATION
Interior images ©Sara Reynard Photography
building’s “massive, deep foundations” were amply capable of supporting the “fairly small and lightweight” new build element. As such, the team managed the project without piling, just using traditional insitu poured concrete.
He describes how the existing brick frame starts off very thick at the bottom, and gradually gets thinner toward the upper stories. Structures were typically constructed this way in the pre-steel era, masonry and cast iron columns having to take the vast bulk of the buildings’ loads. The existing brickwork of the Mill was “in pretty good condition,” the architect tells ADF, and as such there weren’t many necessary remedial works – only “a few bits” of pointing and repairs to sills. When it came to the added brickwork elements in the new wing, however – which were also constructed as load-bearing masonry with concrete planks to fit with the existing structure – Cooper says it took some “fairly lengthy” technical analysis to achieve LABC accreditation.
Roof
Moving up to the roof extension, sitting above both the new build and restored sections, the team turned to Fusion Building Systems to create a structure lightweight enough to be supported by the brickwork. Cooper explains that these additions were necessary to meet the client’s brief for an increased number of homes in the
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project’s footprint. The retained chimney previously stood alone together with “a kind of boiler house,” so the architects enacted the wing extension through this new linking block that wraps around it, and which subsequently “leads it all back to the mill.” Then, in order to achieve the two new floors added above all this, the team had to remove the pitched slate roof from the existing brick portion, as well as undertake the removal of some “insensitive additions and links” made in the past during the building’s conversion to office space. “The developer did a really good job of sourcing all these materials to recreate the key details,” the architect adds.
Structural stress
When it came to structural challenges around adding the new floors above the existing building, “there was a lot of technical work necessary to get it right,” Cooper explains. A bespoke, “highly complex” metal grill system was used to connect the base of the new floors to the existing building and fully support the ‘fusion frame’ system at the point of transition.
The team was surprised to find that in stripping out the existing brickwork structure, it was out of level by around 300 mm across the length of the building. “Nothing’s square when you’re dealing with these old buildings,” says Cooper.
ADF JANUARY 2021
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