Creative co-working in de Beauvoir – ADC

Hackney-based practice Trellik Design Studio has turned a small site in de Beauvoir town, originally a Victorian nuts a bolts factory and later a photography agent’s office, into a multipurpose space serves as the practice’s own premises as well as providing a café, library, makers workshop and space for co-working, exhibitions and pop-up shops.

The project began when founder and director of Trellik, Jean Dumas bought the building in 2019 with the aim to retrofit the space which spans three floors, including a mezzanine at ground level. Celebrating the Victorian vernacular inherited, original timber rafters have been restored and further exposed, with up-lighting drawing attention to these uncovered details. More light has been added through new skylights that bring natural daylight into the once dark, deep plan, aided by a ‘Mirror Halo Light’ designed by lighting specialist Hortense Duthilleux and made by 3D Eye, which hangs on the corner of a mezzanine level. A new roof to the building’s rear also improves the quality of light, and through new insulation, thermal performance of building, all while not disturbing the character of the internal areas.

At ground level, a café opens onto the street and provides views through the building into the makers workshop behind and below, and above to a library breakout space that exists on the mezzanine. Above this are two additional levels, which play host to studio and desk space. Original stairs up through the building have been conserved and painted cobalt blue, a colour replicated on stairs between the first and second floors that in turn, defines the building’s vertical circulation. To the rear of the building, meanwhile, can be found a shared kitchen and gender-neutral toilets.

Floors have been designed to be flexible and adaptable for a variety of situations, catering to the creative occupants’ potential requirements for the space. Photography-led contemporary arts studio, ‘One and a Half’, who have occupied the site since 2011 and remain there, will use the space as an office and continue to host a range of exhibitions on the ground floor, with this area also used by non-profits as a pop-up shop. Trellik Design Studio and a public relations agency SALT (who represent Trellik) also occupy the co-working space, with a natural fabric dye studio occupying the makers workshop below.

The project has also been used as a vehicle by Dumas to test PET felt panels. Fabricated from waste plastic by ReFelt, the acoustic panels have been applied to the ceilings and walls to dampen sound in the open plan work spaces, also serving as means to pin up work on walls. Other repurposed and recycled elements punctuate the spaces throughout: a recycled kitchen worktop comes from Foresso, glass lamp pendants have been made from crushed wine bottles by Potter’s Thumb, and previously existing photographers’ light boxes have been salvaged and modified, being used to illuminate workspaces from their position on the ceilings.

“We have intentionally kept the space intimate to reflect the typology that offers a dynamic, home away from home workplace,” said Dumas in a statement. ”Post-pandemic working culture means that no one day is the same here in One and A Half Studios. This mirrors the energetic character representing various combinations of creatives in and out of the space. We want the place to flourish, with occupants using the spaces to host and launch events, and celebrate big or small achievements.”