National Trust, Calke Abbey: Estate Offices

A New Office in A Heritage Setting

Following the successful delivery of new public welfare facilities within the Listed walled gardens at Calke Abbey, Allan Joyce Architects were asked to help provide new office accommodation for the Calke Abbey Estate team. The plan was to convert an existing Grade II Listed Cart Hovel, adjacent the stableyard within the listed parkland. The existing open barn had been left in its original form for many years and had been used to store much of the estate’s mechanical equipment.

Sensitive Restoration 

During the initial design stages considerable consultation was undertaken with The National Trust’s Architectural Panel and with Conservation Officer from the planning department. We produced detailed design options for the external treatment for discussion with the panel to find an acceptable solution.

The new accommodation was designed as a building within a building, positioned behind the existing timber columns as an inner shell, to allow the original structure to be read as the dominant feature. The building required sensitive restoration, particularly the repair of the timber columns, which were in a state of decay. Instead of replacement these were carefully repaired by the National Trust’s own craftsmen.

The external larch timber cladding is sourced from Calke Abbey’s own stock and random board sizes cut in their own timber mills. The end result will silver down to a natural colour and sit well with the weathered finishes of the existing building.

The end result was to create high specification modern offices whilst using best practice conservation techniques on the original building.

Creating A Modern Layout

Internally, the existing King post trusses were an interesting visual element, and an open plan layout was proposed to maintain this feature throughout the main office space. A careful balance was struck between improving the thermal qualities of the external walls and retaining the original character of the cart shed. Interior design options were put forward to the clients in the form of mood boards to develop how they wanted the internal spaces to be decorated and furnished.