Image Credit : Ed Kingsford
Project Overview
Opening its doors in September 2018, 74 imagined ‘Hox Haus’ from a derelict Grade II-listed, two-storey, Victorian brick building set in a semi-rural location, just outside Egham. The repurposed Victorian gymnasium has been brought back to life as the Gatehouse for the wider ‘Hox Park’ student campus, serving as a vibrant social and hospitality amenity space.
The heritage of the building and its location were key drivers for the interior and architectural joined up design approach. The overriding concept was to create a space that felt like a country retreat or clubhouse-with-a-twist. The architectural design therefore strives to make the most of views over the historic surrounding countryside, with the two new interventions, a double-height, gatehouse to the building’s east elevation and a covered terrace section on the first storey, offering views over the whole campus. The fine, hard surfaces of the glazing and metal fins create a striking and elegant contrast to the rough-textured and robust solidity of the original structure, adding refinement and reflectivity to the building as a whole.
The interior design then focusses on bringing this outside in via natural references to create a rich, textured and high-quality feel, including marble-effect solid surfacing and brass detailing. All the original brickwork has been retained where possible with minimal restoration. Interior walls were stripped of plaster to reveal their beautiful hidden brick texture. The external works to the existing fabric were also purposely minimal, retaining age and character. Replacement elements, such as windows, were all designed sensitively to replicate the original history of the building. Internally, upholstery fabrics include textiles that nod to British rural tradition, such as checks and tweeds, whilst colours span a whole nature-inspired autumn-to-winter palette, and feature greys, browns, rusts and moss greens, with bursts of berry brights.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Architects and Interior Designers - 74
Structural Engineers - Price and Myers
Contractor/ Project Managers - Royalton Group
Client - Moorfield Group
Project Brief
The brief for ‘Hox Haus’ evolved gradually from the outset. Royalton Group initially invited 74 to produce a site analysis document exploring the building’s further development potential, from which Moorfield Group went on to commission 74 to develop an integrated architectural and interior vision for the building. After initially looking at the interiors of the student accommodation, 74 were then engaged to explore the potential of this unloved building and, by determining the need for an appropriate amenities provision for the student body, were able to rescue it from decay and provide a much needed focal point for this large-scale, semi-rural student accommodation development.
74 realised the clients vision for ‘Hox Haus’ by encompassing a number of important practical, social and unifying functions for its student users, including serving as a welcome point and gatehouse; parcel pick-up area; workspace for single study or group study and a downtime amenity with TV and games lounges, offering video-gaming booths, pool and table football. The building also serves as the campus hospitality hang-out, offering free soft drinks, tea points and vended snacks and has also been flexibly designed for easy reconfiguration as a special event space, with moveable furniture and built-in bar points able to house pop-up catering.
Project Innovation/Need
The quality and style of this development offers a new benchmark in student amenity provision.
It's an exciting, bold space that provides a welcoming home from home for the student body, and the whole scheme has the feel of a project of a substantially larger budget. An innovation of ‘Hox Haus’ was to create an amenity space in its own stand alone building completely separate from the accommodation, which is where this provision is typically housed within this sector. This creates a destination point which draws the students out of their rooms and helps psychologically separate the space as a place to relax, unwind or study.
Material wise, because of the introduction of large, new glazing elements, the building needed to be designed to minimise solar gain. The was achieved in several ways. The new gatehouse faces north and east and so benefits from early morning light, without gaining greatly in heat during the day, whilst the first-floor glazed terrace intervention faces north. The roof is heavily insulated with mechanically-openable roof windows to provide a stack effect in summer months. Slim, vertical, anodised metal fins on the first floor of both extensions behave decoratively, but also provide solar shading, with both interventions including both argon-filled glazing technology and Low E solar coatings to minimise solar gain. Finally, all the interior timber used in the project was sustainably sourced and FSC rated, all flooring products were sourced to have a ‘cradle to cradle’ accreditation.
Design Challenge
The building had lain empty for the last 10-15 years prior to refurbishment. 74’s thorough assessment showed that the building had structurally-sound walls, but was otherwise very dilapidated. The original slate roof was beyond repair, meaning a new slate roof was proposed and installed, using reclaimed slate tiles. All the floors were also beyond repair so a significant amount of remedial work had to be proposed, designed and undertaken to breathe life back into the building. One of the greatest design challenges, aside from the usual budget constraints and sourcing, came from the glazed additions. Both the gatehouse and the terrace had to feel subservient to the existing structure, they needed to have a lightweight feel and a light touch where they met the existing while providing the energy performance needed for a building of this nature. This was achieved by pulling the structure inbound of the existing, allowing the existing building to breathe. The connections to the existing have been expressed as deep shadow gaps, whilst the heavy insulated flat roof structure was disguised by over-sailing the glazing panels and stepping back at high level. A deep shadow gap detail was also created in the ceiling to enable the existing facade to appear as though it was untouched by the new interventions.
Sustainability
From a sustainability perspective our major achievement was bringing an unused listed structure back into daily use. The building had been empty and had suffered more than its fair share of understandable decay and vandalism. By utilising the existing structure and creating new glazed interventions this 120 year old building has a bright future when it has looked for some years as though it may face gradual decay or even demolition.
Aside from the heritage value, reusing a 330m2 building has obvious sustainability benefits in terms of material savings. The only major element to be replaced was the roof finish and for this the contractor sourced local reclaimed tiles.
Another interesting challenge was the requirement to create a “Bat roost’ in the roof space, specifically for the long eared bat, an existing resident of the area. This needed to be designed to meet the conditions of a Natural England license. We therefore engaged closely with an Ecology consultant to create a specifically designed space within the roof space whilst also integrating it within the interior scheme.
Interior Design - Hospitality
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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