22 PROJECT REPORT: COMMERCIAL & WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENTS
STEEL FRAME
Where the windows could not be repaired, bespoke steel-framed replacements were installed with matching scales and proportions to the originals
in May 2019 when an application to extend the boundary was extended. In 2017 Southwark Council’s Old Kent Road Area Action Plan had identified the former bottling plant as being of architectural and historic interest, and a building that should be retained for future commercial use. The area surrounding Old Kent Road was undergoing, and continues to undergo, substantial change and regeneration, and it wasn’t long before developer Fabrix identified the building’s potential. They bought it with the intention to refurbish into office and creative space, and renamed the Bottle Factory it now sits in what is an up and coming district.
“Our vision for Old Kent Road is to build on its unique creative character, a place where industry can thrive alongside new homes and quality open spaces,” explains Southwark Councillor and Cabinet Member for Growth, Development and Planning, Johnson Situ. “The loss of this previously undesignated heritage asset would have been detrimental to the whole Old Kent Road area, which has lost the vast majority of its industrial heritage over time.”
Having gained approval to change the building’s use to flexible ‘B1’ office and ‘B2’
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industrial accommodation, Fabrix asked Studio RHE, who they’d worked with previously, to complete a site appraisal and feasibility study in June 2019. The team, headed by director Richard Hywel-Evans, comprised Ella Riley (architectural designer), Camilla Wright (architect) and Alex Davis (associate). They were then formally appointed to take the project to Stage 3, and then from Stage 4 to 6.
Peeling back the layers
The key aspect the practice were asked to focus on was restoring the building’s heritage features, but in so doing, removing as many of the additions that had been made over the years as possible. “The client’s overarching brief was to strip back to the building’s original state and bring it up to a ‘Cat A’ fit out,” explains Richard Hywel-Evans. He adds that the architects were asked to “develop and expand on the brief, to add more specific detail.” Over time, some of the factory’s original architectural features had been replaced, removed and hidden. “The historic identity of the building had been diluted as a result of poor maintenance, insensitive design and disregard for building conservation,” Camilla Wright says. Original steel-framed
ADF OCTOBER 2021
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