Studio-work 3, Fort William Foundry
Architectural intent:
The aim of this design is to reconnect Fort William’s High Street with its industrial heritage by providing a foundry and sculpture workshop to cast recycled aluminium. The aluminium smelter and hydro electric scheme is the largest employer in Lochaber.
This design places the furnace as the core of the development, referencing a traditional hearth for the building. A secondary brick structure towers three storeys above the furnace inside the building, this structure acts as a thermal mass, absorbing waste heat from the furnace and releasing it with a lag into the rest of the building from the inside.
This energy is supplemented by a perforated aluminium cladding, with the southern facade acting as an air collector system. These perforations form abstract images of the water on the nearby Loch, at night the perforations are backlit providing a visual spectacle from the Parade and High Street. This cladding, and the offset on the High Street is to lighten the appearance of the structure and reduce the risk of it’s appearance being overbearing in it’s sensitive location. This contrasts with the ground floor plinth being clad in brick, suggesting a continuation of the churchyard wall.
The Architectural forms attempt to re-establish the austere cliff like edges of the Fort which was central to the town’s origins and is now cut off by road traffic. It’s situation appears as a bastion guarding the approach to the High Street.
