The rear studio building has its full exterior now. Velfac windows and doors are installed, and the Eternit profiled cladding is fixed across the upper half of the facade — both in the same deep red that we proposed early in the design process as the building's defining colour.

The red was a deliberate choice. Cockpit's rear yard is a working environment, functional and slightly rough around the edges, and the new studio building needed to hold its own with a strong, specific identity. It reads well against the exposed glulam structure above and sits in clear contrast with the pink Forticrete 'Flint' blockwork at base level, which handles the knocks and scuffs that any working studio accumulates at ground level.

The combination of painted profiled metal above and textured masonry below is doing exactly what we hoped — two materials, one coherent building.