Sycamore Farm Studios, Over
Offices for Prelude Technology Investments Ltd
Local Context
The site is adjacent to a significant 17th C Queen Anne brick house which is a listed building. The buildings which were to be converted into offices for Prelude were once part of the yard of this house, and therefore are considered as listed buildings.New Road, Over has a built up frontage either side of the site, but opens on to open country behind the site. The gardens of Sycamore Farm return round the rear of the studios. The studios are served by a yard which incorporates parking etc, bounded by barns and outbuildings relating to the Farm. Both the Farm and Studios are in the ownership of Dr Robert Hook.
William Miller Architects Ltd were also asked to carry out restoration and conservation work on the Farmhouse and outbuildings which included a conservatory and music room extension.
Description of Project
The buildings to be converted into offices for Prelude had been used as craft workshops and had been updated in 1983 in a fairly unsympathetic manner with all facing brickwork renewed, new floor-slabs and a new roof with concrete tiles and trusses.
We were asked by Prelude to investigate the conversion of the workshops into “high-tech” – “listed building friendly” offices. The workshops luckily had a high eaves height and our conversion proposal extended and lowered the eaves providing cover for additional access corridors and bay windows. The internal cross walls of the “L” plan building were removed to give additional flexibility for the new office space.
Design Aims
Our brief was to provide three cellular offices, an open plan area, filing and storage area, reception area, two meeting rooms and a kitchen. With the removal of the existing cross walls, the reception area and main entrance were sited at the centre of the “L” and the reception was arranged around a central column, with suspended glass shelves attached, supporting lattice beams on the former wall lines. The roof loads (5.5 tonnes) are transmitted to the central column, which transmits all loads to a single 25mm diameter stainless steel bolt at the column base. The reception and cantilever porch are built out from the main roof.
Externally the building was to be made up of simple wall elements under a clay pantile roof. All joinery, doors and windows are full height glazed, with doors and windows having identical sections. The eaves were extended to form the corridor for the meeting room, and bay windows were provided for each of the main offices. The triangular theme was developed with angled end walls to the corridor, angled reception external walls and triangular plan bay windows. Fire escape doors were built into the bay windows, with a right angle glazing junction at the outside of the bay.
The brief was for a fully air conditioned building, to avoid the need to operate the building with open windows, adjacent to New Road. The requirement was for a quiet working environment with absence of traffic noise. Accordingly, a VRV air to air heat pump system was installed in the roofspace to provide heating and cooling as necessary.
With the removal of existing crosswalls, a Unilock fully glazed de-mountable partitioning system was installed, with glass doors. A Unilock glazed screen was also provided to the internal meeting room.
Credits:
Clients: Prelude Technology Investments Ltd
Architects: William Miller Architects Ltd
Quantity Surveyors: Davis Langdon and Everest
Mechanical & Electrical Engineers: Roger Parker Associates
Structural Engineer: L J Gawn Associates
Main Contractor: Edward Thackray Building Ltd
