Curtain House is a grade II listed former Victorian furniture factory and warehouse in London’s Shoreditch. HUT’s renovation and extension proposals secure a prominent planning permission in this densely built up part of the city. In a former life, this building was light and airy with large open-plan floorplates. Reinstating a sense of grandeur and spaciousness to this historic location is integral to the design approach. The existing compartmentalised and dark offices are opened up and connected to a new rear block across an impressive glazed atrium. The extension is a conceptual tribute to South Shoreditch’s legacy as a furniture production centre in the 19th century and draws specifically from the workshops at Curtain House which specialised in wooden furniture wrapped in metal casing. Proposed materiality involves exposed cross-laminated timbers clad externally in a Corten steel shell. The heritage, rhythm and hierarchy of the original warehouse are revived through innovative and sustainable methods of construction, breathing new life and longevity into this landmark site.
Type
Location
GIA
Value
Status
Sustainability
Workplace
Hackney
58,000sqft
£15m
Planning
EPC B
BREEAM Very Good
Client
Project Manager
Quantity Surveyor
Planning Consultant
Heritage Consultant
Conservation Architect
Fire Engineer
Rights to Light
Visualiser
Highbridge
Cogent
Stature
Savills
Heritage Practice
Caroe Architecture
JGA
Lumina
Daniel Fisher
