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United Tannery & Boot Factory
United Tannery & Boot Factory
Fitzroy, Australia
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Other Projects by Wolveridge Architects
United Tannery & Boot Factory
Fitzroy, Australia
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2006
SIZE
1000 sqft - 3000 sqft
The project is a refurbishment of a circa 1900 Victorian era boot making factory and home to a firm of young architects. As a refurbishment, the design response was concerned with how the fabric of the original structure could inform the solution. As an open plan warehouse, we explored whether a connection could exist between the way the building was used originally and the way it needs to meet our requirements. The clear span nature of the structure at first floor provided an uninterrupted 11x12m floor plate. In early times this was an open layout area for work benches. The requirements of contemporary planning for commercial office space are similar. As architects, we work in an open studio. The nature of our activities must be tuned to function, adaptation to change and flexibility. We must be able to shrink or expand easily and quickly. This provided an integrated response in connection to contemporary thinking and regulated how each floor may be resolved.
Over both floors, the open plan spaces were dissected by the insertion of timber clad volumes. These volumes, freestanding cubic forms within the space were clad in recycled hardwood flooring. We arranged the boxes to act like walls, separating the functional spaces of the office, whilst becoming more than a wall, a container for services (wc/kitchen/storage/conference) within themselves. The manner in which these forms touch the existing building is significant to this idea and is suggestive of contemporary design practice as opposed to a traditional method of carving the entire space into a series of smaller rooms.
The use of the space is broad, not just an office, but a showroom and display area for our own furniture and an example of how materials can be juxtaposed. The office was a place to test ideas. Places where clients can touch, feel, experience and evaluate. This could also be a place for artists to show work, a gallery, a cultural venue. We consider that the ideas of multi-function, flexibility, adaptation and open space planning to be fundamental to contemporary design practice.
Some very clear ideals were adopted for the design of the new work. Firstly, we looked to the context of the original building fabric, removed traces of it that were not indigenous to it and set about creating a series of inserted volumes as discussed earlier that would dissect the space to meet the requirements of its new users. The new work must stand alone. From here we find that a dialogue between the original and new work is facilitated, both in the use of materials and arrangement of the spaces to suit the functional requirements of a commercial office. We felt it appropriate that any new work may be considered ‘temporary’, in that we are the current users of this building and that, in the future, others may have a different purpose for it. These volumes which float above the floor suggest this temporary placement.
What of the container idea? This approach informed some kind of connection back to the original use of the building as a tannery and boot making factory. The first floor service box is partly clad in an open sided material, providing a spatial barrier not unlike a crate that may have been found in the original building. An open sided box used to store things. These kinds of gestures provide a connection between the old and new within this environment and provide a sense of place.
When I first found the building it was in a terrible state. It was clear that the structure was intact, however, it was full of holes and leftovers from an earlier era. It occurred to us that we should not try and patch up the building so it is new, just to seal it properly from the external conditions. In passing through the completed spaces, we have reminders, such as in our meeting room, where a floor slab and remnants of wall framing that the space was once used as a toilet and bathroom.
The two services volumes, both at ground and first floor are clad in recycled hardwood flooring, a new use for an old material. The flooring itself is from similar era light industrial buildings, however in this case is incorporated in a contemporary context – as a wall cladding. As architects we are concerned and interested in exploring how a building’s skin can be expressed. The richness of the texture provides warmth to the space that is calming and comforting to the user and visitor. The fact that it floats above the floor with recessed kickboards painted black and wherever it connects an existing surface suggests the temporary nature of the insertion. Where timber cladding follows a corner, the joints have been mitred and each board has been installed continuously around each corner, suggestive of a more encompassing form than a mere surface. Whilst the exterior materials are rugged surfaces, we found an opportunity to use more pristine neutral surfaces within to further enhance the concept of the container and its function within the context off the overall response. We find that our clients enjoy the juxtaposition of the pristine and rugged.
Over both floors, the open plan spaces were dissected by the insertion of timber clad volumes. These volumes, freestanding cubic forms within the space were clad in recycled hardwood flooring. We arranged the boxes to act like walls, separating the functional spaces of the office, whilst becoming more than a wall, a container for services (wc/kitchen/storage/conference) within themselves. The manner in which these forms touch the existing building is significant to this idea and is suggestive of contemporary design practice as opposed to a traditional method of carving the entire space into a series of smaller rooms.
The use of the space is broad, not just an office, but a showroom and display area for our own furniture and an example of how materials can be juxtaposed. The office was a place to test ideas. Places where clients can touch, feel, experience and evaluate. This could also be a place for artists to show work, a gallery, a cultural venue. We consider that the ideas of multi-function, flexibility, adaptation and open space planning to be fundamental to contemporary design practice.
Some very clear ideals were adopted for the design of the new work. Firstly, we looked to the context of the original building fabric, removed traces of it that were not indigenous to it and set about creating a series of inserted volumes as discussed earlier that would dissect the space to meet the requirements of its new users. The new work must stand alone. From here we find that a dialogue between the original and new work is facilitated, both in the use of materials and arrangement of the spaces to suit the functional requirements of a commercial office. We felt it appropriate that any new work may be considered ‘temporary’, in that we are the current users of this building and that, in the future, others may have a different purpose for it. These volumes which float above the floor suggest this temporary placement.
What of the container idea? This approach informed some kind of connection back to the original use of the building as a tannery and boot making factory. The first floor service box is partly clad in an open sided material, providing a spatial barrier not unlike a crate that may have been found in the original building. An open sided box used to store things. These kinds of gestures provide a connection between the old and new within this environment and provide a sense of place.
When I first found the building it was in a terrible state. It was clear that the structure was intact, however, it was full of holes and leftovers from an earlier era. It occurred to us that we should not try and patch up the building so it is new, just to seal it properly from the external conditions. In passing through the completed spaces, we have reminders, such as in our meeting room, where a floor slab and remnants of wall framing that the space was once used as a toilet and bathroom.
The two services volumes, both at ground and first floor are clad in recycled hardwood flooring, a new use for an old material. The flooring itself is from similar era light industrial buildings, however in this case is incorporated in a contemporary context – as a wall cladding. As architects we are concerned and interested in exploring how a building’s skin can be expressed. The richness of the texture provides warmth to the space that is calming and comforting to the user and visitor. The fact that it floats above the floor with recessed kickboards painted black and wherever it connects an existing surface suggests the temporary nature of the insertion. Where timber cladding follows a corner, the joints have been mitred and each board has been installed continuously around each corner, suggestive of a more encompassing form than a mere surface. Whilst the exterior materials are rugged surfaces, we found an opportunity to use more pristine neutral surfaces within to further enhance the concept of the container and its function within the context off the overall response. We find that our clients enjoy the juxtaposition of the pristine and rugged.
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