for Dockside Developments
Dockside Outlet Centre
Our competition winning proposals for the adaptive re-use of this, the most important of several derelict listed buildings in the former naval dockyard at Chatham involved its conversion to a factory outlet shopping centre. The Grade II* Boiler Shop, a magnificent Victorian iron-framed structure that had been deteriorating since closure of the vast naval dockyards in 1984, was given a new life as the Dockside Outlet Centre.
The existing structure was also extended at each end to accommodate the food court and restaurant uses. The western extension takes the form of a curved barrel vault roof. The eastern extension is an imposing membrane structure with echoes of the adjoining marina.
Within the original cast iron building frame an independent structure has been created that accommodates some 85 retail units on two storeys, a food court, and a restaurant in a major programme of work. Externally the Boiler Shop’s iron frame was re-clad with a sinusoidal mill-finished aluminium sheet that echoes the original cladding. The clerestory, ridge and gable glazing were restored to maintain the original rhythm of the glazing bars.
