A landmark Hove building, converted into one of Brighton's best-loved co-working spaces.
Project Overview
PLATF9RM takes empty offices and shells in Brighton & Hove and turns them into vibrant, community-led co-working space – today spread across two sites, including a converted floor of the city’s landmark Hove Town Hall.
This project has an unusual place in Matrix’s own story. Richard Geary and Simon Penwarden acted as employer’s agent and quantity surveyor on the fit-out, reporting in to the client-side project manager overseeing delivery – a role filled at the time by Ivan Woodward, who had moved to Brighton specifically to run the project. When that contract came to an end, Matrix invited Ivan to join the firm. It’s how he came to Matrix.
The brief itself followed a familiar pattern for this kind of scheme: taking an existing, characterful building and reshaping it into modern, flexible co-working space, without losing what made the building worth choosing in the first place.
Contract value: Circa £700,000
Project Duration: TBC
Location: Hove Town Hall, Church Road, Hove
Scale: Single site
Services provided: Employer's Agent, Quantity Surveying
Project Management
The scheme had been looked at before by another consultancy and they said it couldn’t be delivered as the space couldn’t house a mezzanine structure. Our relationship with a creative structural engineer developed a solution to prove the structural capability of the slab, therefore creating 2 additional conference rooms required to make the space viable. The building was home to Brighton & Hove City Council – the statutory authority on the project, who had very strict approval protocols. Careful planning and communication led to a successful sign-off and the tenant occupying the building on time.
The Outcome
PLATF9RM’s Hove Town Hall site is now one of two established co-working locations the brand runs across Brighton & Hove, offering flexible desk space, meeting rooms, and a genuine community of local businesses and creatives.
The relationship’s real legacy runs deeper than the building itself – it’s the connection that brought Ivan Woodward into Matrix, where he now performs a senior role in the consultancy’s project management team.
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Contact Us
If you're working on a construction project in the leisure, health and fitness, or commercial sectors, we'd love to hear from you. Tell us what you're working on, and we'll have a straightforward conversation about how we can help.
Matrix Consult Limited
Office One, 1 Coldbath Square,
Farringdon, London EC1R 5HL
Company number 05211741
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