Sample of Industrial Work

Sydehams, Wickham

In 2020 Axis was commissioned by Sydehams Factory who had recently purchased the property adjacent to their site to design a new building to provide additional production space for the existing business. The client wished to build a new factory building to house the machinery for assembling prefabricated timber building systems. A design for a new 1600 m2 building was submitted to the South Down Local Authority.

Introduction

Founded in 1874, Sydenhams is a large company with a long tradition of supplying Timber & Building Materials throughout the Central South-West region of England. The business continues to grow and can supply building & DIY needs through its network of 32 branches. A timber yard was established adjacent the Mislingford Goods Station on the Meon Valley Railway, in the early 20th Century.

The branch at Mislingford, Wickham is the ‘Wickham Timber Centre’ and specialises in supplying a large variety of timber-based products. With timber milling facilities on site, Sydenhams Wickham can design and manufacture Trussed Rafters, ‘Easi-Joists’ and I Beams. In addition, they have stock a huge range of specialist Hardwoods and Softwoods including carcassing, various joinery grades, MDF Mouldings & Sheet Materials of which most can be machined on site to customer’s exact requirements.

Planning Issues

3% of the factory area was designed to be supporting offices, a meeting room and welfare facilities. The new building was a conventional steel framed industrial type building clad in a built-up steel sheet cladding system.

The new building was not look dissimilar in form and profile to the existing building adjacent on the existing Sydenhams site. This existing building was the newest addition to the Sydenhams site replacing an original building destroyed by fire several decades ago.

Proposed Plan

The project progressed and completed in July 2023. Axis delivered a first class, safe, inclusive, well-maintained and well-presented layout meet the requirements of the growing business of Sydenham Factory, sustaining the local economy.