<span>The</span><span>Toffee</span><span>Factory
Newcastle</span>

The Toffee Factory Newcastle

The Toffee Factory, Newcastle

The Toffee Factory, a refurbished Victorian sweet factory, was converted into a block of 27 serviced offices for the creative community in Ouseburn, Newcastle. It opened in December 2011 and achieved BREEAM 'Very Good'.

All the offices have ample daylight, with the lower floor retaining the original building's high ceilings. Heating is provided by a highly efficient wood pellet biomass boiler and cooling is by natural ventilation.

A high degree of flexibility has been introduced by concealing mechanical and electrical services below the floors rather than in the walls. This enables tenants to easily reconfigure the office spaces by moving partition walls which complement the fixed exposed brickwork feature walls. The project has acheived a BREEAM 'Very Good' Rating up to Design Stage for BREEAM Offices 2008 scheme. 

Architect

XSITE ARCHITECTURE

Value

£4.75M

Completion

2011

Client

1ng

The serviced office space maximises available daylight, the ceiling vents connect to the natural ventilation chimneys
This shallow plan office lends itself to natural ventilation as no dead spots can form away from the windows
The retaining wall to the south rules out any natural light, an important factor in deciding to build the additional floor on the roof of this block
Sitting on a sedum roof, passivent natural ventilation louvers ventilate and cool the offices below
Building services like heating are concealed in the floors to allow reconfiguration of the office spaces
Heat to the building is supplied by a 200 kW biomass boiler fuelled by wood pellets
Even on a grey Tyneside day, natural light makes an impact on how the space feels