THE WHITE BUILDING, HACKNEY WICK

We have been working closely with the team at the CRATE Brewery to expand and optimise their operation in the White Building in Hackney Wick.

 After working with CRATE to occupy various industrial buildings around Queens  Yard, in 2017 CRATE had the opportunity to expand within unit 7 Queen Yard, also known as the White Building – originally opened in 2012 by the London Legacy Development Corporation.

 In order to optimise the use of the building for its ever-growing demand as an East London destination for food, drink, arts and culture, we worked closely with the local authority to plan-in an additional 120m2 mezzanine floor plate creating low-cost workspace for local creative practitioners.

 We also created room for the Michelin Green star approved ‘SILO’ zero-waste restaurant. We created  new kitchen facilities to serve the new restaurant as well as allowing for prep space and facilities for the ever-expanding pizzeria.

The White Building, is a surviving factory building dating back to the late 19th century, once used for the production of confectionery,  under Clarnico Works. Clarnico built and owned a number of factory buildings in the area surround the Hackney Wick Station. They were a substantial local employer, forming the social economy backbone of the local community, the factory even had its own touring brass band.  

Before its re-birth in 2012 as a local centre for digital arts under SPACE Studios, the building had been vacant, after having been occupied by industrial printing company since the 1980’s.

Much like the historical occupants of the building, CRATE are locally grown business, that support the area both socially and economically, providing a place to meet and eat as well as employing as many as 100 staff locally within the brewery operation as a whole. 

Since 2012, CRATE have operated a small pizzeria and micro brewery inside of The White Building, however the business grew quickly, expanding and growing new larger brewing facilities in the neighbouring units around the yard. The pizzeria quickly became a destination to eat pizza, drink beer and see art on the canal.

 For many years CRATE have struggled to accommodate the growing  demand of the number of customers , lacking sufficient toilet facilities and space for back of house operations.

When CRATE were offered the possibility to expand into the rest of the White Building, it was an great  opportunity to create much needed storage and customer facility as well as to partner and collaborate with another like-minded artisanal restaurant that would provide a different offering.

 We worked in collaboration with SILO founder Douglas McMaster, structural engineers (Thomasson) and the brewery staff team, to consider how best to create a great front of house experience that would engage customers with the sustainable and performative practices of SILO, at the same time creating a highly efficient and space intensive kitchen layout that would be used by both restaurants.

 We created a new steel frame structure overlaid carefully onto the building’s existing 19th century ground floor columned sub structure -  that would support a new floor of low-cost workspace, whilst providing an internal back of house prep kitchen and extensive unisex toilet facilities.

The result is an efficient yet exciting arrangement of studios, facilities, tasting rooms, dining rooms and fire pits. Interior Design and specification by Nina and Co