The practice was appointed by Urban Splash to carry out the repair and conversion of a collection of Grade ll* listed mill buildings known as Waulk Mill, to provide quality office space.

The design solution was based on revealing and expressing the layers of history of the existing building by removing all those interventions that weakened it’s character and clearly revealing the underlying structure and fabric, including historical modifications that have been made to it.

In this context, new interventions were treated as a further layer, clearly expressed as such through visual separation from the historic fabric. This approach, together with the careful integration of new facilities and services, resulted in a clarity of expression that served to enhance the quality of the existing historic building.

The project was completed in November 2002, on time and budget and has since won awards at local, regional and national level including a prestigious RIBA Award for Architecture.