Project: October Books, Southampton

Client: Society of St James

Architect: Studio BAD Architects

Duration: 28 weeks

Project Description

The project comprised of the change of use, refurbishment and conversion of the former NatWest bank at 189 Portswood High Street to form a community service within a bookstore and new 9 studio flats above.

• New commercial use on the ground floor with significant updates.
• First floor converted into studio shelters for the Society of St James.
• Improved EPC rated building.
• New roof and windows for heat loss.
• Significant party wall details and acoustical improvement.

The main challenge was delivering to the tight programme whereby the nature of refurbishment meant that there was a lot of unexpected discoverable, whilst keeping to the original tight funding budget – which we managed to still stick to by value engineering and changing specifications where we were able to. There was a great community link as the move was undertaken by a chain link of customers who helped move the books into the shop.