Case study From car-park to work and learning space: case study of sustainable, productive re-use
© Ziona Strelitz, ZZA January 2023
With adaptive re-use so pivotal to the net zero carbon agenda, it’s important to establish an evidence base of performance in use, and extend awareness of exemplars that work effectively in making the most of existing built assets.
It’s hard to think of an adaptation that serves sustainability more than converting a car park to a working environment, which Make Architects did in 2015. An extreme example of adaptive re-use, Make’s studio occupies a large open plan Lower Ground space – formerly the car park beneath an office building. By selecting and adapting this space, Make could house their whole team of 130 people on a single floor in central London. This case study is about the effectiveness of the studio space in practice.
In 2018, Make made a commitment to learn how their designs work for users, by commissioning independent Post Occupancy Evaluations (POE). Alongside strategic briefing, researching buildings and spaces in use is ZZA’s core expertise, with a portfolio of evaluations that cover a wide range of typologies and scales – from fit-outs to campuses, involving new buildings and adaptations. ZZA’s first POE of a Make design was of their big commercial building at 5 Broadgate. This was followed in 2019 at Make’s award-winning Teaching and Learning Building at the University of Nottingham.
Then, some seven years after Make had occupied their current workplace, and following the disruptions and changes arising from Covid-19, they commissioned ZZA to test their studio’s performance in use.
ZZA’s POEs invariably generate instructive learning points – that is the main purpose of conducting evaluations. There were strong reasons to expect learning from this POE too: the intervening time since Make had first occupied the studio; that a former car park and space below grade both involve distinctive spatial conditions; and the cultural changes in work that had been catalysed by Covid-19. Against this background, the POE served as a litmus test of what can be achieved through visionary adaptive re-use.
Based on structured interviews and a ‘POE clinic’ with a cross-section of Make’s people, ZZA ‘tested’ the studio’s use through systematic questions on key building systems, patterns of use, user perceptions and experiential outcomes. The evaluation covered the studio as a physical place, Makers’ work and professional development, the studio in people’s day, and KPIs on the studio in meeting strategic goals.
The former lower ground NCP car park.
Make's new studio in the same space.
For each of the 102 evaluative questions, interviewees were asked to select the rating code that best reflected their evaluation. They rated most aspects positively, and on the high bar of user satisfaction that ZZA deploys, the POE’s Major Successes include pivotal aspects of the studio’s adaptive design:
Demonstrates vision in adaptive re-use of a building: Positive 96%.
Showcases a building adapted for workplace use: Positive 88%.
Looks and feels professional: Positive 80%.
Facilitates communication across Make’s teams: Positive 80%.
Facilitates a sense of community: Positive 89%.
Pleased with the studio environment overall: Positive 81%.
Though it was not an explicit purpose in the studio’s design, most users were also positive about the studio as a learning environment, with successes on both the following workplace attributes:
Studio showcases an adapted building as a learning environment.
Interior showcases contemporary ways to work and learn.
The positive stance was further shown by everyone citing at least one favourite thing about the physical studio, while a third had no ‘Unfavourite’ thing.
Users substantiated the latter by referencing the range of interior settings incorporated in the studio design.
A prominent feature of the studio is not eclipsing the former use of the space. Far from hiding features relating to the car park, the design incorporates and celebrates them, from the moment one arrives and enters on the processional ramp.
The POE evidences the positive value of signalling these former ‘layers’ in conferring personality, and in creating a sense of place. Indeed, Make’s approach in harnessing legacy aspects features prominently in users’ favourite things about the physical studio. And users particularly value the space’s physical openness, appreciating the social benefits that this affords – legibility, human connection and participation.
Alongside its engaging narrative, a Lower Ground former car park also poses challenges, and the POE identified the contingent limitations for thermal experience, daylight and external vistas. Crucially, however, these are addressable, and could be easily managed in the owner-occupied circumstances that are common for higher education institutions.
The POE’s Major Successes in respect to layout, workplace furniture, facilities, amenities and plants in the studio evidence the potent influence of these in shaping user experience, as well as reinforcing the conclusion that the studio’s Lower Ground situation is not overriding. Adding to this is the POE finding that Facilities Management (FM) influences the net quality for users; the suite of Major Successes across all aspects of FM evaluated shows that attentive stewardship contributes to making the most of the existing.
The POE results on technology encompass further Major Successes, but also new challenges associated with the widespread adoption of remote connection following Covid-19. The new pattern of virtual and hybrid meetings generates new performance challenges – for technology, acoustics and space. This typifies the relevance of POE, not just to test the effectiveness of newly delivered projects, but as a test of time to help ensure that existing spaces optimise ongoing benefits in use, as technology, culture, and other macro and external changes evolve the culture and modes of learning, work and play.
