If you’re a regular traveller on the M6, you’ll know Fort Dunlop, the Grade A listed old Dunlop Tyre factory between Junctions 5 and 6 in Birmingham.  Nothing happened with this derelict old building for as long as we can remember driving past it.  Word has it that nobody had a clue what it could be used for.

But our clients Urban Splash came along and changed all that.   It’s well on the way to being a really cool hotel, office and retail complex offering a great new working environment for forward-thinking business of all sizes.

We’re going to be helping them with some creative ideas, including putting some life-sized cows on the roof (which is why Rob and I had to freeze our backsides off doing a recce up there with the Chief Engineer yesterday.)

As a slight aside, it was only when we were waiting in reception for our meeting, that I realised Rob’s legs are too long for his body…

The lead architects on the project are ShedKM.  Their vision was to retain the integrity of the original Fort Dunlop external architecture by "putting a new building inside the original building".  This enabled them to keep the original brickwork, windows and external fascia pretty much the same whilst putting new glazing and walls a foot or two inside the Fort Dunlop structure.

Here’s a spare bit of office space if you’re interested - available now for very reasonable prices.

We’re not sure where ShedKM responsibility ends, but there are lots of nice design touches inside, including a brilliant floor to ceiling atrium space.

You can even spend all day looking at the top of the security guards head, if you so choose.

Posted by LOVE.

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