Warehouse Section

Adaptive reuse of a heavy industrial frame

Field: Adaptive Reuse
Setting: Post-industrial waterfront
Scale: Study of an existing frame with new inserts
Status: Design research

Industrial building envelope with exposed steel structure and large glazing

Reference imagery: licensed photography of the built environment, not studio work

Statement

An examination of how much can be removed rather than added. The existing frame is treated as found geology: nothing is clad, nothing is straightened. New elements are inserted as free-standing timber rooms that never touch the perimeter wall.

01. Subtraction

Two bays of floor plate are removed to make a full-height void, which turns a deep, badly-lit plan into two shallow ones. The removal is the primary design act; everything after it is servicing that decision.

Steel truss roof structure above a converted industrial hall — Warehouse Section, subtraction

02. Insertion

New accommodation is built as a set of demountable timber boxes on their own frames. Each has a measurable lifespan and can be dismantled without touching the host structure, and that reversibility is what makes the reuse defensible over a long horizon.

Glazed industrial window wall with fine steel mullions — Warehouse Section, insertion

03. Envelope

The existing envelope is repaired, not replaced. Thermal performance is delivered internally at the inserted rooms, so heating is applied to occupied volumes rather than to the whole shed. The circulation between them stays cool, and is designed to be experienced as an interior street.