The Energy Hub is a biomass district heating plant serving the wider Hope Estate, bringing together heating infrastructure, power generation, workshops, storage and office accommodation within a single building.

Responding to both the scale of its programme and the sensitivity of its setting, the building is conceived as a series of interconnected volumes embedded within the landscape. Carefully positioned to remain hidden from surrounding roads and viewpoints, it minimises its visual presence while becoming inseparable from the landform in which it sits.

Externally, the building appears as a collection of robust stone forms emerging from the hillside. Traditional dry-stone walling, sourced from a nearby quarry, is combined with expansive green roofing to soften the contemporary architecture and reinforce its relationship with the landscape. The carefully articulated massing breaks down the building’s scale, allowing it to sit comfortably within its dramatic setting.

A restrained palette of materials blurs the boundary between inside and outside. Copper-clad doors punctuate stone elevations, while the internal structure is expressed through precast concrete columns, beams and panels assembled with a precision more commonly associated with fine joinery than industrial construction.

Although fundamentally a working building, the Energy Hub is enriched by natural light, texture and carefully considered detailing, elevating a piece of essential infrastructure into an architecture that reflects the wider ambitions of the estate.