Music

Venue

The Brief

Frome Town Council commissioned MJW Architects to undertake concept feasibility studies and design options for transforming the historic former Cheese and Grain warehouse into a multi-functional community facility. The brief required accommodation for council offices, marketplace, music centre, café, and visitors centre within a single, cohesive scheme.

The building’s poor structural condition, restoration costs, and funding challenges presented significant obstacles. The project required a design approach that could demonstrate viability whilst delivering the architectural quality necessary to secure funding and planning consent.

Design Concept

The overarching design vision restores the redundant building in the spirit of its former railway-era use whilst injecting contemporary vitality appropriate for its new community role. The architectural language references industrial heritage through honest material expression and bold structural gestures, creating spaces that feel both historically rooted and forward-looking.

The reception and café interior employs circular and curved forms that directly reference the shapes of cheese wheels and grain bags historically stored within the building. This playful yet sophisticated approach creates memorable spaces that communicate the building’s heritage story to every visitor, transforming historical narrative into three-dimensional architectural experience.

Architectural Response

A new dynamic signage system and glazed frontage with canopy establishes strong visual presence, ensuring the building can be seen and welcomes visitors from distance. This contemporary intervention contrasts deliberately with the retained warehouse fabric, marking the building’s transformation from utilitarian storage to vibrant public facility.

The circular reception area becomes the spatial and conceptual heart of the scheme, its geometry representing cheese whilst creating an intuitive wayfinding hub for the diverse programmatic functions. This central space organises circulation whilst establishing the project’s distinctive architectural character.

Overcoming Challenges

The primary challenge involved persuading the council to embrace a dynamic, contemporary design approach within a historic building. Through presentation of carefully developed 3D concept design sketches, the practice demonstrated how modern interventions could enhance rather than compromise heritage value, showing that contemporary design excellence respects history through quality rather than pastiche.

The design strategy addressed structural condition concerns by proposing selective interventions that stabilise the building whilst introducing the new functional elements required. This approach demonstrated financial viability by focusing resources where they deliver maximum architectural and community benefit.

Key Features

The conversion delivers flexible, multi-use spaces adaptable to diverse community needs. The glazed frontage and canopy create weather-protected external gathering space whilst flooding interior areas with natural light. Circular interior geometries provide distinctive wayfinding and spatial identity throughout the building. Industrial design language references railway heritage whilst supporting contemporary creative and civic activities. Strategic material choices balance conservation requirements with contemporary performance standards.