
'A supportive partner to the Octagon and energy projector.'
This building provides a common room for the Ironworks retreat and functions as a partner to the Octagon. It contains the necessary services and supportive spaces, thereby freeing the Octagon from programmatic complications. The large, low-slung roof supports the biodiversity of the building’s footprint and channels rainwater down through swales (open ditches) and into scrapes (shallow ponds), to be collected and treated for drinking, washing and flushing. The render applied to the hempcrete walls is formed from the lime and old blast furnace slag aggregates which make up the Ironworks. A ramp bisects this otherwise utilitarian structure to project Qi, or energy, over the bank behind the building and into the town beyond.
This building provides a common room for the Ironworks retreat and functions as a partner to the Octagon. It contains the necessary services and supportive spaces, thereby freeing the Octagon from programmatic complications. The large, low-slung roof supports the biodiversity of the building’s footprint and channels rainwater down through swales (open ditches) and into scrapes (shallow ponds), to be collected and treated for drinking, washing and flushing. The render applied to the hempcrete walls is formed from the lime and old blast furnace slag aggregates which make up the Ironworks. A ramp bisects this otherwise utilitarian structure to project Qi, or energy, over the bank behind the building and into the town beyond.





New build / Well-being
Cumbria
2021
Cumbria
2021
Collaborators: Structure Workshop, Max Fordham LLP, Sustainably Built, Barnes Walker, M&P Gadsden