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matchworks

an adaption of an industrial landmark into offices

The Matchworks project converted the Grade II Listed Bryant and May Match Factory in Liverpool into a contemporary office building. Matchworks is a flagship regeneration project for Urban Splash and has transformed the Speke Garston area into one of Liverpool’s leading business districts.

shedkm produced a site-wide masterplan and integrated landscape design, converting the Match Factory in 2001, and redeveloping a former storage warehouse, Matchworks II, in 2007 to provide a combined total of 166,000ft2 of contemporary office space. The lower ground level of the former warehouse provides a variety of workshop, studio and light industrial space, designed to attract a wide range of businesses.

Originally designed in 1918, the Matchworks building was one of the first in the UK to use a pioneering slab concrete construction. shedkm’s adaptation creates clear, flexible floorplates and office space at a variety of sizes, without compromising structural integrity of the original building. Services and bathrooms are contained in a dramatic series of external steel drums which give the project its unique identity.

Recipient of a RIBA award, Matchworks was praised for the ‘clear geometry of the interventions and a self-sufficient quality reminiscent of the hard minimalism of the 1960s artists like Judd, Morris and Andre.’

Client:

Urban Splash

Location:

Liverpool

Size:

  • 21,835m2

Contract value:

£13.5 million

Status:

Complete

Awards:

Won: 2002 RIBA, Civic Trust and LADT Awards

“the works undertaken at matchworks and the new build matchbox illustrate how clusters of commercial units in out-of-town areas need not resemble soulless business parks devoid of character and quality.”

Liverpool: Shaping the City, RIBA publishing.