Two timber buildings now stand on either side of York Minster, the Gothic cathedral. Inside them, craftspeople learn and practise the skills needed for york minster restoration, including repairing the stone. The London studio Tonkin Liu designed both buildings.
The project is called the Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills. It has two parts: a rectangular Heritage Quad and a triangular Technology Hub. Both give working stonemasons views of the Grade I-listed cathedral, and both support york minster restoration work.
Heritage restoration rarely means starting over, and Vienna offers a close parallel in how it protected an 1826 building while updating its use. Vienna’s 1826 synagogue renovation balancing history and function shows how careful conservation can coexist with modern needs.
Mike Tonkin, co-founder of Tonkin Liu, describes the buildings as a turning point. “These are the first two buildings to be built with historical precedent in a hundred years,” he told Dezeen. “It was important that they responded to the setting and heralded a new chapter for heritage craft.”
Why york minster restoration needs new workshops
The urgency is practical. Tonkin says climate change is speeding the decay of the Minster’s stone. He argues the new workshops will shorten the conservation programme for york minster restoration by four decades, across the next century.
The Heritage Quad sits near York’s medieval city walls. Rather than starting from scratch, the studio kept, reused and extended a group of existing buildings. It worked with Historic England and local planning authorities to shape the scheme for york minster restoration.
Glulam, or glued-laminated timber, is made by bonding layers of wood into large structural beams. The Quad uses glulam throughout, with a plywood roof that partly covers a central courtyard. The complex holds workshops, teaching rooms and accommodation for apprentices.
The roof does more than shelter the courtyard. It collects rainwater into tanks. It curves over the yard to frame the Minster for masons at work, then lifts at the northern end so passersby can see into the workshops.
On the opposite side of the cathedral stands the Technology Hub. It combines steel and glulam, and it houses digital tools for cutting stone, which are central to york minster restoration. The building is triangular in plan.
Rows of arched windows rise through its roof, which is covered in photovoltaic panels that generate electricity.
Two forces shaped the structure. Planning rules limited how high the buildings could rise. The cutting machines and gantry cranes set a minimum height inside. Tonkin says the team had to work between those limits.
Light was the other driver. The studio needed to keep views of the Minster and daylight reaching neighbouring buildings. The answer was a set of parabolic fan vaults, which spread daylight across the workshop floor.
Both buildings are timber, which sets them apart from the cathedral they serve. “The buildings are fabricated in timber, stone is reserved for the Minster,” Tonkin said. The contrast is deliberate. The studio drew on the cathedral’s own logic of light, structure and geometry instead of copying its materials.
Reclaimed timber also drives the material choices here, and a Norwegian project shows the same instinct at a smaller scale. Norwegian students’ salvaged-lumber sauna at harbor is worth a look for its resourceful construction and maritime character.
Tonkin describes the link between the two buildings and the church as symbolic as well as physical. “Both buildings have a physical and symbolic relationship to the Minster,” he said. The Quad’s roof rises between a square and a circle to form an arch. The Minster’s perpendicular Gothic style, with its strong vertical lines, shapes that arch.
The Technology Hub’s plan is pulled back from the boundary wall. This keeps the Minster visible from nearby houses. Its timber vaults get their strength from their shape, as the cathedral’s vaults do. Its trusses follow the existing walls and point toward the Minster’s transept.
The studio, founded in 2002 by Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu, says it has won 23 RIBA Awards in its first 22 years, according to its website. The Centre of Excellence has also been shortlisted in the mixed-use category of this year’s Dezeen Awards. Earlier Tonkin Liu projects featured on Dezeen include a biometric tower in Manchester’s Civic Quarter and a swing bridge in London’s Crystal Palace Park, which leads to an island of 19th-century concrete dinosaur models.
Via dezeen.com
Frequently asked questions
What is the Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills?
The Centre of Excellence for Heritage Craft Skills is a pair of timber buildings beside York Minster, designed by the London studio Tonkin Liu. It has two parts: a rectangular Heritage Quad and a triangular Technology Hub, where craftspeople learn and practise the skills needed to repair the cathedral’s stone.
Why does York Minster need new stonemason workshops?
Tonkin says climate change is speeding the decay of the Minster’s stone, which makes the new workshops urgent. He argues they will shorten the conservation programme by four decades, across the next century.
What materials are the Heritage Quad buildings made from?
The Heritage Quad uses glulam, or glued-laminated timber, throughout. Its roof is plywood and partly covers a central courtyard.
What does the Technology Hub at York Minster contain?
The Technology Hub combines steel and glulam and houses digital tools for cutting stone. Its roof is covered in photovoltaic panels that generate electricity.
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