Our rationalisation of two inter-connected buildings on the City fringe – a 1930s former members’ club by Giles Gilbert Scott – has preserved over 90% of their embodied carbon. Reconfigured to focus on an internal courtyard, with a central core and new entrance anticipating increased footfall due to Crossrail, the buildings can work separately or as a single headquarters. The internal space has been elevated to encourage homeworkers back into the office, its refinement shifting from civic grandeur on the outside through to original detailing and then a light-touch, stripped- back finish within.