Q&A: Joanna Wilk at Anomaly
31 July 2024Anomaly's passionate team of architects specialise in bringing beauty and character back into buildings that have been long lost to history, rejuvenating them for a modern audience. We met up with Joanna Wilk, one of the lead architects for Sunlight House, to find out how our transformation is coming along.
Tell us a little bit about you, your background and how you came to work on Sunlight House.
I come from Poland, and I moved to England for university, doing interior architecture at Nottingham Trent University. I joined Anomaly three years ago, and pretty early in the process was put on the Sunlight House project. Other people came and went, but I was always in the background.
What is working at Anomaly like and what's your approach when it comes to architecture?
I think for us, it's all about the culture. We're very creative people and a very young practice, so we embrace how everyone's unique. Most of our projects are retrofits. We like to take the history of the building and embrace it with the new design, and just bring it back to its commercial value.
And is that particularly challenging? Retrofits?
It definitely gives you some restrictions, but I think that's the excitement about it, because you always have something to work with. You always get to look at a building that has a bit of history and try to embrace it in some way in the new design.
“The building, over time, just died out. The spirit of it faded. And we wanted to bring it back.”
What was your inspiration when it came to the design of Sunlight House?
The first thing we did was look at the history, the old floor plans, existing materials. And then we found out that the original designer of the building, Joseph Sunlight, was a very eccentric character.
Joseph was an immigrant who came to England. He started with nothing and became the biggest taxpayer in Manchester. For a long time, Sunlight House was the highest building in the city. He had very eccentric views, and was obsessed with Hollywood.
The quote I found when I was looking back at our first documents was that he said that Sunlight House was like flying across the Atlantic with six sandwiches.
So yes, he had this great passion for the building, was very eccentric... And then the building, over time, just died out. The spirit of it faded. And we wanted to bring it back.
In what way do you think the spirit had faded? And how are you bringing that back?
For example, the swimming pool and the whole underground area, that was closed off from the public. Now we want to open it and bring that heart of the building to the public; opening it up to both sides of the street.
The reception will have a hotel vibe, not like a typical office reception. It will have more character and be unique and bolder than usual receptions.
All the office floors will have good quality materials, bold colours. The rotunda rooms on the 13th floor, they're not typical meeting rooms. One will have a lounge sofa, so everything feels a bit different and unique when compared to typical office buildings.
What sort of feeling are you trying to convey with all those changes?
I think we just want to approach younger people, creative people, inspiring people. Just so it's different on the map of Manchester, because the building is so unique. I love that building. And it's good to bring that history back to life.
There are pockets of rich colour. The meeting rooms are very dark, moody green and burgundy, and most of the office spaces are neutral so you really focus on the parquet or historic fabric around you.
What impact do you think the new Sunlight House will have on our city?
Sunlight House is currently in a very financial district. That part of Manchester has a lot of financial offices, not many historic buildings. We just want to bring back that historic asset to this part of the city, and open it back to the public, and bring in some high quality spaces.
“All the decisions were really thought through. Nothing you see is by mistake. ”
What excites you most about the new Sunlight House?
I remember when I first went there, two years ago, for the site visit. It was just very boring and plain. There wasn't much going on and everything was covered. And then once we started stripping out the building, we discovered new tiles or new coverings; there was always something new to discover, just taking back the modern fabric.
Right now, people are on site building it, but we still find new stuff that is exciting — little nods to the original design, like parquet or thee old changing rooms in the basement... so many little things that you don't see from the outside.
We try to embrace as much of it as we can. So a few of the floors will have exposed parquet that's been refurbished. The coffers are protected as well so they will be exposed, and we've tried to embrace them with the light positions and everything around it.
The swimming pool is so lovely, and taking that back just revealed a whole new idea for that space, because it's now a double-height space with this amazing stained glass roof on the atrium. So beautiful and stunning.
What's the first thing you're going to do after Sunlight House reopens its doors?
The first thing I'm going to do is go on to level 13 and the two rotunda rooms. Those are my favourite spaces. That's the highlight of the whole design. I just want to go in and sit on that sofa and be like... wow. I designed this. Take it all in.
What do you want people to know about the new Sunlight House?
That all the decisions were really thought through. Nothing you see is by mistake. Everything has some history behind it. We explored all the options. It's a very thoughtful building, and we've worked really hard to make it the best we can.
