Skelly & Couch has contributed to the first phase of the ‘rescue’ and restoration of one of Scotland’s greatest Modernist buildings, designed by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, which has lain in ruins for 25 years.

Skelly & Couch has worked closely with developer Vastint UK and architects Citizens Design Bureau to deliver The Talent House, a new home for both East London Dance and music organisation UD at Sugar House Island, Stratford.

Sustainable centre within a historic landscape

A new centre with a unique, low-tech environmentally controlled and daylit gallery; restaurant, commercial kitchen and retail space. Heated by an air source heat pump and wastewater dealt with on site including a biodiverse swale system. Shortlisted for the Stirling Prize 2019.

Founded in 1977, the park is set in a former quarry on the estate of the 18th-century Bretton Hall. It was the first of its kind in the UK and remains the largest in Europe. The open-air gallery features works by renowned artists such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

To enhance visitor experience and address reductions in public funding, a new visitor center was completed in 2019. Designed by Feilden Fowles, the 2016 Young Architect of the Year, the centre harmonises with the historic landscape while providing space for temporary exhibitions of 20th- and 21st-century artworks.

Skelly & Couch carried out full services design at the high-profile cultural destination, where the building’s internal climate is optimised for natural control as much as possible. Confronted with a site having no gas or drainage connections, a limited electrical supply and restricted services routes and zones around the building, some inventive engineering solutions were required.

Natural ventilation, solar control glazing and a green roof prevent overheating, ensuring a comfortable indoor environment. Inside the gallery, 10,000 unfired clay bricks form an innovative low-energy environmental control system that maintains optimal internal conditions and significantly reduces the reliance on air conditioning.

Complementing this, a sophisticated control system and humidity buffer—incorporating hygroscopic materials—work alongside a standard thermal wheel heat recovery unit to regulate temperature and humidity. A highly efficient scheme was developed using an electric heat pump to deliver both heating and domestic hot water to basins, eliminating the need for conventional hot water flow and return systems and thereby reducing energy consumption by over 50%. Additionally, underfloor heating provides a consistent sense of warmth throughout the space, even during periods of high visitor traffic and cold weather outside.

Designed with sustainability at its core, The Weston preserves the integrity of its setting while enhancing visitor comfort, engagement, and the Park’s cultural offering.

Awards

2019 – RIBA Stirling Prize Finalist

2019 – RIBA National Award

2019 – RIBA Yorkshire Award Winner

2019 – RIBA Yorkshire Building of the Year

2019 – RIBA Yorkshire Client of the Year

2021 – Civic Trust Award Winner

2021 – Civic Trust Awards Regional Finalist (Yorkshire & Humberside).

2022 – EU Mies van der Rohe Award Nomination. It was one of 18 projects longlisted in the UK, among 449 works in 41 countries featured. 

Winner of Regional Theatre of the Year at The Stage 2021 Awards, Grade II-listed Theatr Clwyd is one of Wales’ major cultural assets and is undergoing a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ £35m redevelopment.

The Grade I-listed Theatre Royal Drury Lane, owned and managed by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres and built originally in 1812, is set to regain its status as the prime venue for musical theatre in London. 

The competition to refurbish and extend the Vajrasana Buddhist Retreat Centre transformed the original retreat – a makeshift collection of farm sheds in the heart of the Suffolk countryside – into a modern haven of spirituality.

A practical and contemporary-style pavilion for the visitors of Grade I-listed Waddesdon Manor.

Skelly & Couch is presently involved in the refurbishment and building extension of the Warburg Institute which addresses the building’s infrastructure issues but also instigates the development of a new lecture theatre in a 1950s library.

The Yaa Centre has provided a new home for the Carnival Village Trust, as well as the Association of British Calypsonians, Ebony Steel Band Trust and Yaa Asantewaa Arts. It includes a flexible exhibition /performance space, education and training workshops, a 60-seat presentation theatre, two dedicated rehearsal spaces for the development of steel pan music, a dance studio, business advisory services and a radio station.