Plymouth College of Art is committed to promoting diminishing crafts to students and the public. Critically, the College seeks to bring together traditional making processes with digital design.

Our scheme focusses on reconfiguring the old workshops to work in tandem with a series of new high-ceilinged studios. Large windows face onto the street, allowing glimpses of glass-blowing, pot-throwing and other craft processes going on inside.

Alongside the craft workshops is a new open access centre called FabLab Plymouth which is part of an international network of digital design and prototyping studios. The centre offers access to these facilities for all students at the University, as well as local designers, makers and the public.

The black metal cladding on the lower half of the building reflects the blackening, semi-industrial processes taking place in the ground floor workshops. Glass and concrete to upper floors denote these ‘cleaner’ digital design spaces.

We started working with Plymouth College of Art in 2011, when we produced a masterplan to redevelop their campus and studios. More recently we have completed the Plymouth School of Creative Arts, a secondary school sponsored by the college.