David Mellor Cutlery Factory

Profile

A small workshop built in the Peak National Park for a manufacturer of high quality cutlery.

Planning permission for the building was granted because the foundations of an old gasholder were reused, leaving the landscape undisturbed. The small scale of cutlery production could be accommodated in the circular form. 

An external wall of local stone, traditionally detailed but with pre-cast concrete quoins and pad-stones, forms a drum supporting a shallow pitched radial roof structure of light weight steel trusses supporting in turn a central lantern.  Each truss is propped off the concrete pad-stones leaving a glazed slot around the building, so that the roof cone appears to float freely above the drum.  The whole assembly is structurally rigid so it exerts no lateral force on the supporting wall.  The roof covering is of traditionally detailed lead on a stepped deck of prefabricated, insulated plywood boxes, each tapered to fit the radial pattern.

Inside the column-free interior there are two enclosures for wc's and noisy plant, otherwise the space is open and loosely organised.

The site has now developed as a campus with a shop, exhibition gallery and café and residential accommodation.