Historic Context
We undertake work with protected buildings, including repair, adaptation and extension. We have several years of experience working in sensitive planning environments, including conservation areas, Grade I and Grade II* listed buildings in London, Liverpool, Cambridge and Oxford, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Long Term Performance
We work with historic buildings to improve their long-term operation, and strengthen the qualities that give them character and presence. We focus on sustaining the cultural significance of historic environments, while improving use, energy performance and access.
Repair and Adaptation
We work closely with owners and institutions at different scales of intervention, from repair and thermal upgrade to restructuring and extension. Our interventions build on the qualities of what is already there to create integrated spaces with the capacity to adapt over time.
Burlington Arcade Flagship Store
Burlington Arcade was built in 1819 by the Regency architect Samuel Ware. The 180m long gallery connects Piccadilly with Burlington Gardens and Cork Street, and is lined with boutique stores trading in perfume, wine, clothing and jewellery. Its architecture is composed of masonry arches, ornamental plasterwork, and joinery bays with delicate curved glass windows framing the shop displays.
Will Pirkis Architects were appointed by a long-term tenant to adapt five small units and create an expansive new interior, with repairs to the Grade II listed building. The interior is restructured as an enfilade of rooms along the Arcade, maintaining the sense of separate units, while a piano nobile overlooking the gallery contains quieter spaces for display and fitting. Accreted ad hoc fit-outs were removed where they were detrimental to the architectural effect of the Arcade, with new staircases adopting compact, sculptural Regency forms.
Canterbury Cathedral Organ Loft
From 2016 to 2020 Will led the project with Caruso St John to design a new organ loft for Canterbury Cathedral. The loft is located in the centre of the Cathedral in the north Quire aisle, and houses the organ, organist and assistants. It replaces the previous location of the console on the Pulpitum Screen between the Nave and Quire. The loft was part of wider works to address centuries-old issues with the sound of the organ, and the relationship of the organist to the choir master. The project was carried out in consultation with Purcell, Canterbury’s Fabric Advisory Committee and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England.
As an object, the loft takes part in the verticality, asymmetrical organisation and additive composition of Gothic architecture. It sits like a small building in the larger Cathedral, alongside other structures such as pulpits, porches and tombs. The delicate frame is constructed from blackened steel, recalling the ironwork gates and railings in the cathedral. Black walnut panels enclose the stair and platform, the figured grain appearing somewhere between the 14th century tracery screens, and the flatness of the 12th century stone surfaces around it.
Darwin College Cambridge
Darwin College occupies several buildings around a garden, next to the River Cam in Cambridge. Two nineteenth century buildings, and two buildings built in 1969 to designs by Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis, are Grade II listed. The masterplan for the College provides new social spaces and accessible facilities, with servicing and fabric upgrades to improve energy efficiency. The proposal reorganises the College, to better relate the social spaces to catering facilities, to each other and to the garden. Will Pirkis led the construction of phase one of the masterplan with Caruso St John, to install a new lift and accessible facilities at the entrance to the College, and the design of phase two involving social spaces and a new garden room.
Organ loft for Canterbury Cathedral, with Caruso St John. Image Hélène Binet
Adaptation and expansion of five units at Burlington Arcade, London, and works to the listed building
Organ loft for Canterbury Cathedral, with Caruso St John. Image Hélène Binet
New social spaces, accessible facilities and energy performance improvements at Darwin College, Cambridge, with Caruso St John