Architects:Henley Halebrown

Area :1200 m²

Photographs :Nick Kane

Structural Engineer :Arup

Services Engineering :Arup

Project Management :RealPM

Contractor :Byrne Group

Architect : Henley Halebrown

Project Architect : Elina Dueker

Team : Gavin Hale-Brown, Simon Henley, Harry Insall-Reid, Michael Mee, Jennifer Pirie, Ami Skimming

Exhibition Design : Samantha Heywood, Amanda Shephard

Exhibition Design Management : Alex Dunkley, Gardiner & Theobald

Contract Administration : Henley Halebrown

Client : The Poppy Factory with Stanhope as Client strategic advisor

Access Consultants : David Bonnett Associates

Building Control : Socotec

Planning Consultants : Gerald Eve

Cost Consultants : Alinea

City : London

Country : United Kingdom

The Poppy Factory is located in Richmond alongside the River Thames in South West London. It is a charity founded between the World Wars focused on identifying employment for veterans and raising funds for families affected by war. Its premises in Richmond have evolved over the years and occupy a group of buildings including a 1930s Art Deco 3-storey factory where poppies are still made as a symbol of Flanders Fields to mark the end of WWI hostilities on Remembrance Day.

The adaptive reuse project by Henley Halebrown has focused on expanding and reconfiguring existing visitor facilities and improving access as well as the overall working environment for employees, many of whom are veterans. Henley Halebrown’s design approach takes its cue from a poem by Robert Graves, “Recalling War”: ...‘The blinded man sees with his ears and hands, As much or more than once with both his eyes’... These words from the poem celebrate a known phenomenon: the loss of one sense results in acuity in another. Henley Halebrown is interested in how this phenomenon can be explored in their design for the Poppy Factory through the visceral possibilities of sensation, be that sight, hearing, smell, or touch. For example, inside the project materials have been selected so that they absorb glare and are pleasant to touch, and outside planting has been carefully chosen to encourage bird song and make for a fragrant garden.