Britain’s headstart in the Industrial Revolution has led to many of the advantages that we have as a country and an economy – the architecture that our industrious past spawned, and in many cases continues to form, much of the built backbone of the country – from the urban mills, to the many miles of railways, to the great sprawling quarries, big moves were made, and we are left with much of their legacy, good and bad. Our industrial architecture makes skylines recognisable and often instils a sense of history and place in our towns and cities. These structures, built to last from mined and fired carbon-heavy materials, have become important 'cathedrals of industry'.
Our sense is that we're now entering a different design paradigm. After decades of 'manufactured' buildings characterised by the use of glass, steel, concrete and plastic, there is a concerted and resilient effort to move back to using more bio-based materials, designing to regenerative briefs. Producing buildings 'of the earth' in a different way, with their components able to be either recycled or absorbed at the end of their useful lives.
As this approach to building design evolves, we've got to grasp the opportunity to retain the artifacts of our industrial civilization, and to allow people to see them in a new light.
All over the UK, the transition to greener living will make swathes of our built environment ripe for repurposing:
Many of the mills of northern England have already been repurposed into aspirational homes and workspaces.
Power stations stopped burning coal years ago; their vaulted space makes them interesting as art galleries and new city complexes.
Gasworks often occupied very central locations, when it was considered sensible to keep gas, under pressure, in large quantities near housing (!). There are numerous examples now of how these sites can be cleaned up and repurposed for new homes and urban centres – including Common’s very own Wandsworth Gasworks scheme, which repurposes part of the gasholder that dominated this part of London for decades.
Car parks are interesting – what does the future hold for these structures as we seek to reduce car usage generally, and phase out petrol cars? Many of the older multistoreys do not have the loading capacity for new, heavy, electric cars – but demolishing them undoes so much of the good that decarbonising our vehicles is doing. What can we use them for?
Quarries – our country is peppered with these scars on the landscape, often replete with redundant buildings associated with their former uses. Many of them are in areas of outstanding natural beauty. Some of these quarries are enormous, and capable of being repurposed as the new communities that we so need in order to meet the housing needs of our population.
In thinking about what we can we do with our high-carbon legacy, Common advocates for adaptive reuse: the bringing back to life of buildings and places from our 'industrial ghostland' by analysing their strengths and collaborating with local stakeholders to imagine what they could become.
Zodiac, one of our London projects, was built to be office space at a time when Croydon was establishing itself as a business hub. Now, though, the need for new homes is greater, so we're converting the floorplates into exactly that.
Other interesting examples out there include:
- The sensitive repurposing of a Lisbon power station into a waterside cultural complex, Tejo Power Station
- The transformation of an empty car park into Peckham Levels;
- Ebbsfleet: a garden city based around an old chalk quarry;
- As well as homes made out of railway arches, mills and factories;
- And finally, this amazing conversion of coal mining buildings into a "sanctuary for human connection", in Taiwan.
Common loves knotty problems. Our technical backgrounds mean we are able to apply a use-agnostic and engineering-led approach to existing buildings, working out what a redundant building could DO and BE - regardless of what it looks like.
We are also people-focussed. A successful building is a well-used building, and a well-used building is a sustainable building. What does an area need - housing, community space, workspace?
We'd love to hear from others who are looking to make existing, unloved industrial assets work for today, as we share the journey of ours.