THE SHEDS

Isle of Iona Craft Shop

Alongside our work on designs for a new Iona Craft Shop, we were commissioned to design a new home across the road for Iona Wool: a sister business to Iona Craft Shop focused on the island’s sheep flock. The new building (named The Sheds after the old storage sheds that occupied the site for many years) provides gallery space, a small studio apartment and space for a new pizzeria. The understated forms of the building set the scene for intricate details and material treatments, such as naturally weathered larch cladding and dusky pink brickwork which reflect the soft palette of the Nunnery. The fit-out of the building forms a holistic part of the overall design, focused on providing a calm and inspiring space to browse in. The new building responds to the surrounding mature trees, level changes across the site, and the Scheduled Ancient Monument and neighbour to The Sheds, the Iona Nunnery. Designing for a site in such close proximity to historic structures and in the heart of the village required careful assessment of how the form and materials of the building related to its context.