Design Overview
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Flourmill Studios is approached from Gladstone Street via a paved and landscaped courtyard. Topped by a framework of original steel columns and beams, the courtyard will be overlooked by ‘Juliet’ balconies adapted from the mill’s early loading bays. To one side of the entrance, a new café will provide a vibrant meeting place, with seating extending into the courtyard and towards the street.
The entrance foyer will feature heavy original timber columns and beams and incorporate the building’s restored original goods lift. An early grindstone will be set into the foyer floor in front of the letterboxes, while the tenancy board will be suspended from the building’s original timber structure. The building will contain 47 individual studios ranging in size from 25 to over 250 square metres. Some studios will feature warehouse-style timber columns and beams, original timber loading bay doors, historic sliding fire doors and the remnants of the drive shafts and wheels that once powered the mill.
Others will take advantage of soaring double-height spaces with concrete ceilings, steel beams and overhead soda hoppers once needed to produce flour. Slicing vertically through the building, the original pulley room, with its massive wheels and leather belts which connected the mill’s machinery to the motor room, will be glimpsed from central hallways and foyers. Common ‘break-out’ areas will incorporate double-height spaces, balconies and tea stations which will all become informal meeting places for the building’s users.
Flourmill Studios will include a host of environmental initiatives, including a cyclists’ room on the ground floor containing 32 secure bike lockers and 32 personal lockers. Occupants needs will be well catered for, with 4 self-contained bathrooms, including showers, within the building. A shared ‘Go Get’ car will be parked in the entrance courtyard and available to all occupants on an internet booking system.