Architype operates from an old metal workshop in Hackney. The building features an award winning disabled access lift shaft designed by architect firm Burd Haward Architects.

The brief set the challenge of creating a structure that allowed light to penetrate the core of the building, and to use a lift mechanism which would maintain the open plan studio feel. And all within a shoestring budget.

The solution hit-upon by the architects was to use two layers of polycarbonate cladding which, as they vary in grain, provide a sense of enclosure from within and feeling of lightness from without. The mechanism itself is an industrial scissor lift which allows for the open nature of the design.

The project was awarded 3rd in the Architects Journal Small Projects Award 2009

Contact Architype

115 Rendlesham Road
The Workshop
Hackney, E5 8PA

+44 (0)7775 910 310
sam[at]archi-type.co.uk