A contemporary light grey brick and aluminium barn design for Didsbury, Manchester. The challenge of the site was to provide an open and airy modern family home whilst maintaining privacy on a site surrounded by other overlooking properties.

This was a great project to work on but one that came with a set of very specific challenges. Not only was there the site’s past, which everybody was determined had to be preserved, but there was also the fact that we had to create two family homes in what is actually quite a small space. We came up with a design that filled all Nik and Jon’s wishes, a brilliantly contemporary pair of properties that also pays tribute to the story of the site and, through the use of materials, to the bigger story of Sheffield’s industrial heritage.

The 80-metre dam, which once provided power for the corn mill, has also been cleaned and restored, providing a haven for kingfishers and other wildlife.