Clayton House

Creative adaptation and re-use.

Clayton House lies in the affluent suburb of Jesmond just outside of Newcastle City Centre. Formerly a fine, 4-square Victorian Villa, the building had undergone a number of unsympathetic changes over the years and laid vacant for nearly a decade before it was bought by our client for conversion to offices to meet the needs of a fastgrowing, international pharmaceutical company. Our approach was to strip away the most recent additions and return the integrity and character of the original building and then to create a series of new, low-lying pavilions which provide much-needed open plan workspace, are sympathetic to the scale and materials of the original building and clearly articulate as new elements within the overall composition.

Individual offices, meeting and support spaces are located in the original building where the rooms are mostly cellular while the two front wings and garden pavilion provide larger, open plan spaces suitable for desk and team working environments. Carefully designed landscaping to the front and rear of the property improve the setting of the building to the front (whilst providing additional car parking) and give a largely residential character to the rear. This highly sustainable project breathes new life into a decaying, historic asset whilst providing a contemporary working environment to meet the needs of a fast-growing business.