Michon Design Office

Allan Joyce Architects helped us with our very first office renovation project back in 1988. This building served our business very well for 20 years – far longer than we expected it would, but finally we outgrew the space. So we thought we’d do it all again. AJA maximised the potential of the building, adding additional floor space with a mezzanine that cleverly helped us enhance the open aspect of the original building and its original features. Seven years on it’s still a great place to work, it’s admired and envied by many visitors, but more importantly; it’s helped our business on so many levels, including better staff morale, internal communication, and being a ‘shop window’ that’s helped elevate our profile and creative design services.

Michon Design

Refurbishment and Adaptive Reuse of a Victorian School Hall

AJA was appointed to transform a vacant Victorian school hall into a contemporary creative workspace, delivering architectural design and project management services to bring new life to an important historic building.

Our Role

Working closely with Michon Creative, AJA developed proposals to sensitively refurbish and adapt the former school hall into a flexible office and studio environment. The project celebrated the building's historic character while creating a modern workplace tailored to the needs of a growing creative business.

The Design Proposal

Originally built in 1870, the former school hall had been a landmark within the local community for over a century before becoming vacant following the construction of a new church hall, also designed by AJA.

The refurbishment retained and celebrated the building's original architectural features, combining them with contemporary interventions that clearly distinguish old from new. Hand sketches and 3D visualisations were used throughout the design process to communicate the proposals and refine the client brief.

A new oak-clad entrance bay replaces the previous external staircase, creating a welcoming arrival while repairing the historic façade. Inside, the double-height volume of the original hall was retained, with an open-plan office and studio at ground floor level and meeting rooms and informal collaboration spaces positioned on a new mezzanine overlooking the main workspace.

Project Management

In addition to architectural design, AJA acted as Project Manager, coordinating specialist subcontractors and overseeing programme, procurement and budget throughout the project to ensure its successful delivery.

The Result

The completed refurbishment has transformed a redundant historic building into a distinctive, flexible workplace that reflects the identity of its creative occupier while preserving the character of the original Victorian school hall.