Four Shortlists for SPACE Creative Reuse Projects
August 21, 2026
Two recent SPACE Architects projects have secured four shortlist places across three award programmes this year, recognising the value of creative reuse within their communities.
STEAM Studios has been shortlisted for the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards in the Adaptive Reuse into Other Category and for the Education Estates Awards in Building Resilience: Buildings That Have Stood the Test of Time. In Darlington, the Grade II* listed Goods Shed at Hopetown Darlington is shortlisted for Adaptive reuse into mixed use at the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards, while Hopetown has also been selected for the AJ Architecture Awards in Cultural Project (£20 million and over).
The four shortlist places come from buildings with very different histories. One began life as a city fire station; the other grew from the infrastructure of the world’s early railway network. Both projects successfully demonstrate how existing buildings can be carefully repaired and adapted to support new uses while retaining their original character.
At Ron Dearing UTC, STEAM Studios occupies Hull’s former Central Fire Station, built in the 1920s within the Georgian New Town Conservation Area. After the fire brigade left, the building stood empty, leaving behind the large appliance hall, glazed brickwork and steel structure of its former civic use.
The project began by stripping back later additions to reveal the scale and structure of the original appliance hall. New teaching pods were introduced within the existing volume, keeping the historic proportions of the space legible while accommodating a new educational programme. Original openings informed the glazed elevations, a blocked arch was reopened to form the entrance, and a new stair and lift improved circulation and accessibility throughout. The result is a contemporary learning environment that celebrates the building’s existing character rather than concealing it.
“Ultimately, the completed building has exceeded our expectations, providing spaces that will enhance learners’ experiences and provide the required spaces to enable the UTC to expand. Equally important is that SPACE Architects have also brought a heritage asset back to life.”
Sarah Pashley
Principal at Ron Dearing UTC
Its two shortlist places recognise different aspects of the same project. The AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards focus on the architectural response to its change of use, while the Education Estates Awards recognise STEAM Studios for the resilience and longevity of a building that has stood the test of time.
That description feels especially apt for a former fire station approaching its centenary. The building has survived a changing city and a period without occupation. Its latest adaptation asks it to do something entirely different. Spaces once organised around emergency response now accommodate teaching, making and creative work, while the structure that defined the original fire station remains visible throughout.
At Hopetown Darlington, the relationship with existing fabric extends across the 7.5-acre site. SPACE was appointed as lead designer and masterplanner for the regeneration of Darlington’s former railway heritage quarter, where a collection of historic buildings has been brought together to form a new cultural destination.
The Goods Shed is the first building visitors encounter, proudly elevated relative to the surrounding streetscape and marking the arrival point at Hopetown Darlington. Built in 1833 and Grade II* listed, it once handled the movement of goods on the emerging railway network. After standing derelict for a generation, it now acts as a striking prelude to the experience beyond.
“The Goods Shed is my favourite building on site. What has been achieved here is remarkable. The original heritage features have been lovingly restored, and the building has been given a new purpose for the next hundred years.”
Mike Crawshaw
Head of Heritage and Culture, Darlington Borough Council
The wider Hopetown project balances conversion with new interventions. Former railway buildings creatively accommodate installations, workshops, exhibitions and open archives, with new public spaces drawing the site together. The result is not a single restored building viewed in isolation, but a coherent piece of Darlington’s historic fabric, reconnected and redefined.
The Goods Shed is shortlisted in the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards for Adaptive reuse into mixed use. Hopetown Darlington has also been shortlisted as a whole in the AJ Architecture Awards for Cultural Project (£20 million and over), recognising the project across both AJ awards programmes.
At the Goods Shed, the attention falls on the detail of an individual listed building and the introduction of several modern uses within it. The Architecture Awards shortlist considers Hopetown at the scale of the whole cultural project: a group of buildings, routes and spaces shaped over generations and brought back into public use as one.
While STEAM Studios and Hopetown Darlington differ in typology, both begin with the same premise: the existing fabric is the starting point for design.
Working from what already exists changes the nature of the design considerations. Existing walls establish limits. Structures carry evidence of earlier decisions. Materials arrive with wear, alteration and sometimes damage already written into them. Adaptive reuse asks architecture to respond to those conditions with care, finding new life within what already exists and allowing the character accumulated over time to become part of what comes next.
Returning buildings like these to active use carries a certain resonance, particularly when their next chapter is so closely tied to future generations. At STEAM Studios, a former fire station has become a place of learning and creative exploration; at Hopetown Darlington, historic railway buildings connect new audiences with the town’s industrial past. With new purposes, these familiar pieces of the built environment remain active and relevant, carrying memory forward for all those who engage with them today.
With the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards taking place in September, the Education Estates Awards in October and the AJ Architecture Awards following in November, it is a pleasure to see both projects sitting among a strong field of work concerned with the same question: how much more might the buildings we already have be capable of?