A new flagship building for Adnams, with a new square for weekly farmers’ markets. Reclaimed timber sections from the Southwold beach groynes and Suffolk pebbles are used in the market square surface. Two old brewery vats have been incorporated into the café facade and reused as snug retreats for sipping wine…

Project Winner
Design for Homes
Housing Design awards 2008


Clustered around a public square, the shop and café respond to the client’s requirement for a modern, flexible, and informal retail environment with a strong connection to the adjoining outdoor spaces.

One enters the shop at either end through fully glazed gable ends. Inside, the shop is like a large barn, providing a large, bright, open space. Artificial lighting is by means of an innovative pendant light system making use of vertical track and taking advantage of the height of the space. Moving away from typical horizontal track display lighting systems, the plug and play, theatre like, light system works to provide complete display flexibility.

To create the informality desired, the wine and kitchenware shop extends into the adjoining café, blurring the edge between retail and café. The café itself is a transparent building wedged between the square and a small garden and punctured by two, copper lined, beer fermentation vessels reused from the Adnams Brewery, in which you can sit.

The scheme is highly sustainable. Natural ventilation and extensive use of natural daylight are achieved through glazed facades and rooflights, both of which are operable to control ventilation requirements, with external louvres, blinds and retractable awnings where necessary for sun and heat control. The building is highly insulated, will use an underfloor heating system, double glazing throughout and energy efficient, long life lighting.

In addition, the scheme includes drought-resistant planting to the square and a narrow garden space behind the café, and a green roof over the café. The square’s paving incorporates greenheart timber sections reclaimed from Southwold’s beach groynes, randomly set in a fairfaced concrete surface.