The Embers Hotel

Project idea

The Embers Hotel is a long-stay business hotel in Digbeth that addresses a recurring weakness in contemporary hospitality: hotels that are anonymous, underlit, and detached from their urban context. The proposal replaces this condition with a building that is clearer in organisation, stronger in identity, and more closely tied to place. In a district shaped by industry, infrastructure, and continual change, the hotel establishes a calm internal environment while maintaining a direct relationship with the street. The proposal retains the existing neoclassical façade of the Ladbroke Hotel, a Grade B locally listed building within the Digbeth and Deritend Conservation Area. This frontage is preserved as the public face of the project, maintaining the building’s civic presence and historic character while allowing the interior to be completely reconfigured. The new design follows the original structural grid, using the inherited order of the building as the framework for a contemporary intervention.

The hotel is designed for business travellers staying for extended periods, with rooms arranged as compact two-level apartments incorporating kitchen and living spaces rather than conventional hotel bedrooms. This shifts the building away from short-term occupancy and towards a more domestic form of temporary living. The atrium serves as the scheme's distinguishing architectural feature, drawing daylight deep into the structure, improving circulation, and creating a common interior area that gives the hotel its character. Circulation is treated not as residual space, but as the core of the experience.

The project is fundamentally about adapting a historic building for a new mode of occupation without erasing its identity. The preserved façade and structural rhythm retain the memory of the building, while the new interior repositions it for contemporary use. In this way, the Embers Hotel becomes part of Digbeth’s wider transformation, not by imitating its industrial past, but by abstracting its logic into a hotel that is durable, adaptable, and rooted in the city.

Project description

The hotel is organised around a central atrium positioned directly behind the retained façade, forming the main spatial and circulation core of the building. This space establishes immediate orientation on arrival and acts as the social heart of the scheme, bringing guests, visitors, and local users into a shared internal environment. The atrium is defined by full-height glazing above, allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the building and shape the experience of movement through the hotel. Light becomes a key part of the architecture, defining circulation areas, opening up the internal routes, and giving clarity to spaces that are often dark and enclosed in conventional hotels. At the centre of the atrium, a tree acts as the focal point of the space, reinforcing the idea of the building as a place of pause, growth, and connection. Public functions are concentrated at ground level and include reception, two restaurants, and a conference room for business events. These spaces are arranged around the atrium to maximise visibility and accessibility, extending activity into the central void and encouraging interaction between hotel guests and the wider community. The hotel is designed primarily for long-stay business users, with guest rooms configured as duplex units containing living and kitchen areas, offering an alternative to conventional short-stay hotel typologies.

The spatial organisation prioritises clarity and legibility, with movement structured through a simple vertical hierarchy: public functions at ground level, shared circulation within the atrium, and private accommodation above. The garden strategy extends this idea further, with an edible garden at ground level and hydroponic growing systems in the basement supporting food production and landscape maintenance within the building. The atrium therefore operates not only as a circulation space, but as the defining architectural condition of the hotel, transforming movement, light, programme, and planting into a continuous internal environment. Rather than functioning as a closed hotel, the scheme is designed to create a connection between guests and the local community through shared spaces, visible activity, and a strong sense of internal life.

Technical information

The external envelope is constructed using a combination of Corten steel and Shou Sugi Ban timber, selected for their durability, environmental performance, and response to Birmingham’s industrial context. Corten steel forms the primary structural cladding system, developing a protective oxidised surface over time that reflects the material ageing of the city’s manufacturing heritage.

The façade is structured on a strict grid derived from the original building’s structural rhythm. Within this grid, bay window elements are inserted in Corten steel, extending the depth of the façade and creating moments of occupation along the elevation. These interventions remain subordinate to the overall order, ensuring continuity between retained and new elements. A rainwater harvesting system is fully integrated into the façade and roof structure. A network of grid-based channels collects water across all external surfaces and directs it through concealed downpipes into underground storage. The system is designed as a performative envelope, making environmental processes visible while supporting building operation. Harvested water is reused for irrigation, greywater systems, and landscape maintenance, including the internal atrium planting strategy. This creates a closed-loop system that reduces reliance on external supply networks and supports long-term environmental resilience.

Together, the material and technical strategy positions the building as a responsive system, where façade, structure, and environment operate as an integrated whole rather than separate layers.

Documentation

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