The Dovecote Studio is a part of the music campus at Snape Maltings, founded by Benjamin Britten.
The Dovecote Studio inhabits the ruins and expresses the previous internal volume of the Victorian structure.
The Corten structure has a pitched rood and occupies the same space as the original building’s interior.
The result is a building that from a distance evokes the ghost of the original structure, but, seen from close to, reveals itself as entirely new.
The building is fully a single piece in order to achieve weather tightness, and then fitted with a simple plywood inner lining.
The Corten steel ‘lining’, a monocoque welded structure, was built next to the ruin and craned in when completed.
The sides and roof planes are made of full size 1200x2400mm sheets with regular staggered welded joints, into which door and window openings were cut in locations dictated by internal layout.
Each panel was prefabricated and then delivered to site to be assembled. Minimum brick-walls repair were carried out to stabilize the existing ruins prior to the new structure being inserted.
Decaying existing windows were left alone and vegetation growing over the dovecote was protected to allow it to continue a natural process of aging and decay.

[project selected by Luca Forzi]