We revitalised Comielaw Steading, altering and extending this 19th Century B-listed farm building, to form 12 workshops, studios, and light industrial units.

The project offers a sustainable future for this endangered building type as steadings like these are rarely viable for modern farming methods. More typically they are used as storage or converted into homes. Here, instead, the existing buildings have been patched and improved, insulated, waterproofed and re-wired and installed with a biomass heating system, providing ten micro-businesses with the shared space, technology, and infrastructure to collaborate and support each other.

Where possible, artisan skills and traditional techniques, such as coal tar paint, were used. Construction was phased and let in sections to small local contractors, further supporting the local community and economy.