The Goldsmiths Centre

An existing Grade II Listed Victorian London Board School was restored to accommodate training space for gold and silversmiths, offices, meeting space and a café. A new four-storey building was constructed on the same site to house workshops, subsidised starter studios and rooms for events, exhibitions, conference and meeting hire. A glass entrance atrium joins the two buildings and is used for receptions.

Due to the heat and noise generated by activity in the workshops, the building needed to be air-conditioned and acoustically sealed from the neighbouring residential properties. An air source heat pump system was installed which circulated water at a constant temperature to individual heat pumps in the rooms. The system allowed heat recovery by transferring heat from areas needing cooling to those requiring heat. The building achieved a BREEAM Excellent Rating.

(Michael Popper at Michael Popper Associates)