Dalkeith Corn Exchange

Description

A Grade-A 19th Century Jacobean-style hall, which has undergone a full refurbishment to provide office, exhibition and museum space.

Background
Once one of Scotland’s largest and busiest Corn Exchanges, Dalkeith Corn Exchange remains one of the town’s most important historic buildings.  The project involved the rescue, restoration and conversion of the much-loved former indoor grain market into the new HQ for Melville Housing Association, in partnership with the Dalkeith History Society. Through collaboration, several community engagement initiatives, including apprentice enterprise schemes in Traditional Construction Skills, helped to engage the local community and celebrate Dalkeith’s rich history and heritage.

Challenges
A 160-year old structure. A single large space with a hammer beam roof. Vacant for several years, and experiencing some deterioration, the building required repair, restoration and regeneration.

Solutions
Partly funded by Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project sympathetically integrates renewable technologies including GSH and photovoltaic panels. We also delivered a natural ventilation system, and designed algorithms to control the inside temperatures. A steel frame was also put in to provide a mezzanine level that houses the local museum with offices underneath. This project picked up the Historic Environment Scotland Award for Conservation and Climate Change at the 2017 RIAS Awards.