"The Loom is set on Blackhorse Lane, an industrial estate in the borough of Walthamstow on the threshold of a reservoir. Situated in the interstitial space between two warehouses, it is a retrofit project that unapologetically punctures these spaces — creating moments of architectural tension between new and existing, and bringing the public into ever closer interaction with the industrial workers within.

Against the pressures of gentrification, the project proposes generous civic spaces and overlapping communal programmes: courtyards, galleries, makers' studios, community kitchens, dining halls, a performance stage and a raised civic walkway. Together, they form an urban living room for the adjacent proposed live/work development, while opening views through the warehouses towards the reservoir.

The project weaves together past and present, public and private — allowing these polarities to interpenetrate and celebrate this in its design language. The structure of the old, denoted in red, is reinterpreted in the new: be it paving, mullion, or column rhythm — confronting and honouring the existing in equal measure."