Project Title: Adnams Store & Café
Location: Southwold
Wood Species: Timber framed glass screen: oak (Germany); reused existing brewery vats: oak/pine (Southwold); reused beach groyne timber sections: greenheart (Southwold beach); internal ply panelling: maple; rainscreen cladding: larch
Project Description
The Project
The new Adnams flagship store and café is located on a brownfield site in the middle of the historic town centre of Southwold. The project includes a new public square for a weekly farmers’ market.
Ash Sakula won the commission following a design competition in 2002, when the site became available for redevelopment after Adnams moved their distribution centre to its new location just outside Southwold. A larger masterplan was drawn up, of which this project is the first phase of delivery. The next phase will include 34 new homes and new pedestrian links to Tibby’s Green and the adjacent grade I listed St. Edmund’s church. Ten affordable homes will be pepper-potted throughout the scheme.
The store itself is a single-storey building in two main volumes. The front part has a barn-like pitched roof and opens up large gables towards Victoria Street and towards the new town square. The gables are skewed responding to the orientation of the High Street.
The full-height curtain wall screen is framed in structural oak which is made of laminated sections, which minimises the amount of timber needed, as well as enhancing the rigidity of the curtain wall sections. All glazing is high-performance double glazed curtain walling – unusual for a retail unit. The south façade is shaded by an array of fixed oak louvres which filter the daylight throughout the store in a dramatic way. The inside of the store is paneled in maple plywood. Bespoke pendant directional light fittings throw indirect light onto the pitched ceiling, and directly down onto the merchandise. Maple has been chosen due its light colour which reflects the indirect light well and distributes it evenly throughout the space. The construction of the long walls of the barn is timber between cantilever steel posts. This enabled the roof to be built entirely out of timber rafters, with no tie structure or steel involved. The rafter structure is exposed along the large roof light, filtering daylight. The walls and the pitched roof are insulated using sheepswool between studs.
The rear part of the building is kept low to allow views from the square towards St. Edmund’s church. It includes more retail space and a café, which will spill out across the square in the warm season. The café has a green roof, which helps keeping the building cool in summer. It is glazed front and back, allowing views through the building onto a slim Chinese garden. Two old Adnams brewery vats have been incorporated into the cafe façade and reused as snug retreats.
The entire building is naturally ventilated through opening windows in the façade and a large central rooflight. This way, mechanical comfort cooling could be avoided.
Reclaimed timber sections from the Southwold beach groynes are embedded in the market square surface between irregular concrete surfaces with exposed Suffolk pebble aggregate.
Project Winner of Design for Homes Housing Design Awards 2008 (phase 2).
BUILDING OWNER: ADNAMS PLC
ARCHITECT: ASH SAKULA ARCHITECTS
BUILDER/MAIN CONTRACTOR: BLACKBURNS CONSTRUCTION
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS: PRICE & MYERS
JOINERY: BLACKBURNS CONSTRUCTION
OTHER ASSOCIATED COMPANY: BECKER & SOHN
