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London based firm, Haworth Tompkins renovated a dilapidated old building situated on the  internationally renowned music campus, Dovecote Studio at Snape Maltings. Nestled within the shell of an abandoned building, the firm responded to the existing conditions with a touch of sensitivity, perfectly uniting the old structure with the new aesthetic.

The exisiting ruins once formed a two-storey brick dovecote, and although decayed, the enigmatic quality of this ruin became well known to concert-goers and visiting musicians. “Its crumbling brickwork and rusting window grilles embodied the site’sromantic dereliction, and the balance between decaying buildings and marsh landscape which first drew Benjamin Britten to Snape.”

The new studio builds upon the original industrial feel on the campus and almost seems to gracefully grow from the old. The new part of the structure is cladded in Corten weathering steel and is understood as a separate entity, yet compliments the existing shell with its rust-red shade almost matching the red bricks.

“The result is a building that from a distance evokes the ghost of the original structure, but, seen from close to, reveals itself as entirely new.”

The ruin had to be stabilized prior to inserting the new structure. Suffolk Welding crafted the steel into a single weather tight form. The sides and roof planes are made of full size 1200 x 2400mm sheets with regular staggered welded joints, into which door and window openings were cut in locations dictated by internal layout. Each panel was prefabricated by local steelworkers, then delivered to site to be assembled in a compound next to the brick ruin.