image for illustration: Former Sussex Express Building (2010) by Oast House Archive, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
IF_DO has transformed a former newspaper printworks into a community building for social enterprise Hastings Commons.
RIBA Journal writes:
How many developers have remortgaged their own house to rescue a local landmark? In 2019, Jess Steele of social enterprise Hastings Commons did just this to secure a former printworks, home of the Hastings & St Leonards Observer, for the community…
But with piecemeal funding and limited resources, the team has had to use money where it matters and build flexibility into the programme and function…
Although the plan was to retain as many tiles as possible, their deterioration was worse than expected; 194 new tiles had to be fabricated, over half the mortar replaced and new stainless-steel brackets installed…
.. Funding has been sourced from different pots and is still being put together for the residential phase…
Hastings Commons is a different kind of developer. ‘They practice what they preach,’ Agnew assures me… Read more….
