Winner - 'Best New Conservation, Alteration or Extension of an existing Building' Cambridge Design and Construction Awards 2018.

114 Mill Road epitomizes shop premises formed from Victorian terrace house conversions up and down the country and successfully overcomes the difficulties commonly presented by tight urban sites and their need to be updated. The project took an approach to the built layout that reconfigured its servicing, uses and internal accommodation to bring about the comprehensive site remodelling to add a small studio flat and two new maisonettes, enabling the update and retention of the local butchers shop and existing first floor living.

To ensure the continued economic viability of Mill Road Butchers as a local independent, family-owned business, the existing shop was refurbished, given a new layout and finishes, to create a more open customer-friendly environment, while meeting modern hygiene regulations within the meat and poultry industry.

Studio24 architects' proposed new shop layout and shopfront created a clean, visible and spacious interior that enabled the shop's functions to be consolidated and improved. The design improves visibility of the butchery process to the customer, with a clear emphasis on quality and honesty. Below, an existing basement was enlarged to provide valuable retail storage allowing new food preparation rooms to be fully integrated.

The residential accommodation has been expanded and improved. The new layout, conceived as a series of residential bays enables each residential dwelling (including the two first floor flats above the shop) to each have their own access from the street. This brings several advantages by allowing for improved daylight penetration, creating a sympathetic building scale, while also creating important threshold spaces between the public realm of the pavement and the private realm of each dwelling.

Internally the small spaces work hard, removing unnecessary circulation, doors and unusable space by using architectural devices to enrich the main living spaces. Vaulted ceiling areas and the use of built-in storage areas to form spatial dividers and subtle lighting, offer relief and support day-to-day use.

The design approach ensures buildings of this type remain a key part of the City’s fabric to support a diversified local community. The building blends old and new to reinvigorate the street scene, while creating a sustainable location to live and shop.