The woven oak lathes and clay bricks used to create the walls of the Lantern Craft Workshops in Ringwood, Hampshire are designed to reflect the weaving and pottery being practiced inside.
The £800,000 Passivhaus scheme was built by Dorset-based Chartered Building Company Greendale Construction for the Lantern Community, a charity founded in 1997 to improve the quality of life for adults with learning difficulties.
It comprises two connected one-storey workshop buildings, built to replace existing facilities elsewhere on the site, where users are encouraged to develop new craft skills and sell the resulting products in the community’s shop. One houses a pottery studio, flexible workspace and an adult education workshop, the other a weavery and seasonal crafts workshop.
The design, developed by Casa Architects, substantially exceeds energy conservation requirements under Part L in the Building Regs and follows rigorous Passivhaus principles with very high levels of insulation and air tightness to minimise energy consumption. In addition, solar photovoltaics and solar thermal arrays are installed on the south-facing mono-pitch roof of the weavery building.
Natural materials are used throughout, including cedar panels on some walls and cedar shingles with copper edges on the roofs.
Inside, complementary functions are located around a main studio space. Both buildings include a central tearoom that acts as a social hub. The north facing mono-pitched roof on the pottery building is designed to allow diffuse light to enter though rooflights into studio spaces below.
Natural daylight and ventilation is also provided by low-level and high-level windows, the latter opening automatically to provide a comfortable internal environment year-round. Larger areas of glazing are covered by projecting canopies that provide solar shading and external workspaces.
The windows and doors to both buildings are set out to create a visual connection with the surrounding landscape, which is being developed under a separate contract.
Emma Borbely-Bartis, the Lantern Community’s day services manager, said: “We wanted these new spaces to reflect our commitment to the arts and the crafts and to have an opportunity to show to the world the importance of these in both a social context and a therapeutic context. Every individual needs the opportunity to engage in meaningful work and to see the results of their efforts formed into a beautiful product that is wanted and needed by someone else.”
