A new rear addition to a row of heritage shopfronts on Trentham’s main street is conceived through a sequence of diagrammatic operations. A simple extrusion of the heritage shopfront’s traditional pitched-roof form is set back to create a courtyard between old and new. Its ‘end cap’ is then removed and shifted west, opening the volume to the courtyard and forming an entry threshold that directs pedestrian movement through the site. Further openings are cut into the walls and roof, subtracting from the simple volume to admit light deep into the building.
The building accommodates both the production and retail functions of the working chocolate factory within a single volume. Rather than separating these uses, the architecture keeps the activity of making visible and present within the public spaces.