Retail Projects
Hawthorn House, Farnham - New showroom with ancillary offices.
The site was a vacant site prior to development used for the display and sales of cars.
The design objective in this instance was generated by the need for a “transitional” building to bridge the gap between low linear retail / showroom buildings and the larger height and volume of the 1930’s Satelliet building also a retail showroom occupied by Emporio.
The site forms a small part of the existing business estate (Romans Business Park) in the freehold of Farnham Estates Limited. The client’s brief related to the development of the site as a retail showroom with ancillary office space of some 560m2.
The design concept was conceived as a steel clad double-height cube providing showroom and display areas at ground, mezzanine and first floor levels, exploiting the dramatic slope and change in levels to accommodate offices at lower ground floor level.
This transitional building was also designed to disrupt the existing street scene by introducing contrasting shapes, textures and colours to enliven, enrich and enhance an otherwise dull and monotonous street frontage.
The new retail building is known as “Hawthorn House” to reflect the fact that this site once formed part of the TT Garage owned by the 1958 Formula One World Champion Mike Hawthorn. The building has now been leased to Laura Ashley.
