Jen Boddington Achieves Passive House Designer Certification
Oct 2023
Thread’s Associate Architect, Jen Boddington, is now certified to refurbish an existing building to achieve EnerPHit standards - a method of specifying a retrofit project that delivers a building which is a comfortable & healthy environment for users to inhabit, without on going high energy demand for heating or cooling. The standard uses a fabric first approach and requires a high quality of construction to achieve certification. The key principles to achieve Passive House or EnerPHit:- Good Insulation; High levels of Airtightness; High performance Windows & Doors with shading designed to prevent overheating & Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery. For the retrofit project to achieve certification, a combination of these upgrades will achieve an annual heating demand of less than 25kWh/m2 per year.
Thread wins Russell Lillford Award for Tone Works Research
Oct 2023
At the recent William Stansell Historic Building awards, Patrick Stow of Somerset Building Preservation Trust awarded Thread the Russell Lillford Award (named after the SBPT’s late chairman) in recognition of the extensive and meticulously detailed research prior to and during the on-going restoration work on the Tone Works, Wellington
It was presented to Dr Joanne O’Hara, Somerset Council’s programme manager for Heritage At Risk, and representatives of Architectural Threads and Corbel Construction.
Click here for Somerset Life article Inside Tone Works in Wellington for an extensive gallery of the site.
Tylorstown Welfare Hall secures £286,000 from the NLHF
August 2023
Thread leads the vision for Tylorstown Welfare Hall (Grade II listed, originally built in 1933) which sits in the heart of the Rhondda Valleys and is one of the last remaining miners’ institutes. The project has just secured £286,388 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This year the hall turns 90 years old and today it still offers much needed community services as it has done for nearly a century. The hall provides many vital services to the local and surrounding communities and is a lifeline to many.
Tone Works book available to buy from Bookshop by the Blackdowns!
July 2023
The Tone Works book accompanies Thread’s Tone Works building project. The book came out of a desire to tell the story of this moment in time. Through images and research. Thread try to leave a legacy with each project completed. This book bears witness to all that has gone and that which remains, with an eye to how this might serve the future of this beautiful space.
The book is now available to buy in store at the ever brilliant Bookshop by the Blackdowns - click here to find them online.
Thread & Oseng-Rees Reflection Ltd team up in Redruth
June 2023
Thread are delighted to be working with Oseng-Rees Reflection and their revolutionary recycled glass material for the shingle material at The Buttermarket in Redruth for the key facade. Inspired by the shingle profiles on the local buildings in the area and with sustainability at the heart, the team are exploring materiality and tested elements of the design through a number of stages
By using this unique and innovative material, we can demonstrate what an excellent choice this is for anyone seeking to enjoy the beauty of this material and contribute to a more sustainable future.
The project is currently on site and is due for completion in Summer 2024.
Thread appointed conservation architects for Tate St Ives
June 2023
Thread will be working with Adam Khan Architects, Price & Myers and Ritchie+Daffin to work on Barbara Hepworth’s beloved workshop. The Palais has stood untouched from the point of Hepworth’s death in 1975 with her tools and artefacts preserved. The building was awarded a Grade II listing in 2020 and was recently gifted to the Tate. This collaboration, an exceptional design team, chosen to renovate the Palais will uncover its rich history, realise its immense potential as a community-shaped heritage site, and continue its story by securing the building for the long term. The reinvention of the Palais will ensure that it is once again a significant resource for community & collective creative activities, balancing its heritage significant with an active, year round programme of making, performing and assembly.
Unravelling Toneworks: Historic England funding secures repairs
December 2022
Somerset West and Taunton Council has secured further grant funding for the next phase of repairs at Tone Works in Wellington.
The grant of £185,596 from Historic England will go towards Phase 3 of works at the nationally significant site which is home to a complex of Grade II and Grade II* listed buildings and was purchased by the council in 2020.
The latest funding follows a £348,420 grant received in January 2021 from the first round of the Heritage Stimulus Fund.
A second grant of £400,000 from the Heritage Stimulus Fund in October 2021 was used to employ specialist conservation contractors, engineers, ecologists and joiners to undertake structural repairs, including vital roof repairs and the stabilisation of the wall bounding the river.
The next phase of work will see one of the most complex and hazardous parts of the site made structurally stable opening up safe access routes to a number of different parts of the site.
Saving Number 9
The future of one of Chard’s most important historic buildings has been secured following its purchase by Somerset Council, working with Historic England and the Somerset Building Preservation Trust. The Old Courthouse in Fore Street is a Grade I listed building that dates back to the late 16th century. This process is being documented online by the Trust - look carefully and you might see us!
Glastonbury Abbey launches ground-breaking AR app
March 2023
Glastonbury Abbey launched a new augmented reality (AR) app called “Glastonbury Stories” which delves into the world of the medieval monastery, its archaeology, myths and legends.
In a collaboration with the University of Reading, Arcade and Thread the app takes users on a quest around the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey. Using their mobile devices to uncover portals to the past, intrepid pilgrims will hear conversations from the abbey’s medieval inhabitants, discover lost artefacts rendered in 3D, and at certain locations even glimpse some of the grand buildings that formerly existed onsite.
The app, one of the first of its kind to be used at a UK heritage site. In 2015, Professor Roberta Gilchrist and Cheryl Green released new research on the previously unpublished findings of the abbey’s 20th century archaeological digs, inspiring public resources in the form of guidebooks, digital reconstructions, and more.
For further information and to download the app please go to https://glastab.be/stories
For a short piece by Roberta Gilchrist click here.