South West Veins

Guardhouse is situated at the entrance of the Royal William Yard in Plymouth. Constructed between 1825-31, Royal William Yard is considered one of Britain’s most important groups of historic military building groups and is Grade I listed. It now has a thriving mixed-use community including residential, cultural, hospitality, retail and includes smaller commercial businesses.

The monumental granite colonnade of the Guardhouse remains unchanged. Internally, comprising only three rooms and at 40m2 the design needed to configure the space to form a reception with waiting space, a treatment and a consultation room. The treatment room required the discreet housing of more complex clinical functions including servicing and controlled lighting, and has been inserted as a pod into the back of the space.

The positioning of the pod retains the existing proportions and features within the room. The pod is also reversible, reducing its impact on the existing historic building fabric. The intention was to create light and healthy spaces using a simple palette of natural materials such as lime paints, FSC timber, birch ply and linoleum, which limit volatile organic compound omissions and their environmental impact.

The constrained footprint has led to the spaces being structured by finely detailed joinery elements to allow appreciation of the qualities of the historic features and the daylight, whilst maximising the use of the space. This has been achieved by collaborating closely with the client to understand the functional relationships of their operation and aspirations for their client offer in depth. This gave clarity to the brief and combined with a profound understanding of the heritage values has allowed another new use to flourish and sustain the building.