Stradbroke Workshops

Suffolk

This project was won in an open competition, organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the government agency English Estates. It was designed by Simon Conder in partnership with the architect Jon Broome.

 

The primary objective of the scheme was to create a working community with a human scale and a strong sense of place related to local Suffolk traditions. Both the layout and form of the scheme derive from traditional farm buildings with the workshops grouped around a sheltered courtyard.

 

The workshops are constructed using simple steel portal frames with non-loadbearing external and internal walls. The black corrugated steel sheeting used on the exterior of the scheme provides a protective quality in the windswept landscape while, in contrast, the courtyard walls give a bright, open and social character to the scheme, with an interchangeable assembly of white steel windows, doors and solid insulated panels.