The defining move is the roof. North-facing rooflights in a saw-tooth profile give the upper studios steady, glare-free daylight, the precise condition fine watchmaking needs, while echoing the pitched gables of the area's industrial past. The existing roof had failed, so removing it and building one new floor on the sound structure below was the carbon-sensible choice: we keep the masonry walls and gables, and the embodied carbon held in them, with the new metal-clad level set behind the restored warehouse gables.

The plan stacks the work by what each stage needs: heavier printing and gilding on the ground floor, and watch assembly, research and offices on level 1 under the best north light. The print and assembly studios are kept dust-free and high-extract, with a deep 600mm services zone. A 52m² planted lightwell draws daylight into the ground-floor studios and gives staff outdoor space the old units never had. Services are all-electric, a heat pump moving energy between the heating and cooling circuits, with heat-recovery ventilation and roof-mounted PV. It keeps a working manufacturer in a city centre where most workshops have already become flats.