The project was all about reimagining the former EMI record pressing plant at Hayes. Reinvent the site and its buildings into a destination, a place to live, a place to work and a place to ‘play’. It was also the last chance to save the complex of Art Deco buildings whilst transforming a swath of industrial land to the west of London.

The history of the site was crucial to the story, the Art Deco concrete buildings were completed in 1928 and housed the head offices of the Gramophone Co. Ltd. and their record label His Master’s Voice. Mergers led to the creation of EMI on the site, but by the mid 1990’s the site was largely mothballed.

Rather than demolish the existing buildings and replace them with a consented scheme for distribution sheds, the design team looked to

retain and refurbish the Wallis Gilbert buildings as loft spaces and to bring new opportunities to the site associated with the music industry to create a vibrant and sustainable mixed-use development of retail, office, leisure and residential.

The proposal retains and refurbishes the six Art Deco concrete buildings and pump house building and sets them in a new urban landscape with new residential ‘villages’ at the east and west ends of the site. The design proved that the retention of these buildings was historically necessary but also economically viable.

The biggest challenge however was convince the the Council that mixed-use was the only way to regenerate the site.