Notes on lime, and why we keep coming back to it
Lime lets old walls breathe and new walls forgive. A short history of the material, and what we have learned using it on eleven projects.
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Architects in Leeds, working across the north of England
Buildings that belong
to their weather.
Northline is a studio of fourteen people in Leeds. We design homes, cultural buildings and new lives for old ones, from the Pennine hills to the North Sea coast.
01Selected projects
Made slowly, for particular places and the people who use them.
A small body of work across Yorkshire, the North East and Cumbria. Every project is led by a director from first sketch to handover.
Index of work
Selected, 2014 to 2028
| No. | Project | Location | Type | Status | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Durham Almshouse Studios | Durham | Adaptive reuse | Planning | 2028 |
| 02 | High Moor House | Haworth, West Yorkshire | Residential | On site | 2027 |
| 03 | Hexham Market Hall | Hexham, Northumberland | Adaptive reuse | On site | 2026 |
| 04 | Kirkstall Courtyard Houses | Kirkstall, Leeds | Residential | Completed | 2025 |
| 05 | Calder Rise House | Hebden Bridge | Residential | Completed | 2024 |
| 06 | The Weaving Shed | Saltaire | Adaptive reuse | Completed | 2024 |
| 07 | Ouseburn Reading Rooms | Newcastle upon Tyne | Cultural | Completed | 2023 |
| 08 | Swaledale Field Pavilion | Gunnerside | Cultural | Completed | 2022 |
| 09 | Whitby Net Lofts | Whitby | Adaptive reuse | Completed | 2021 |
| 10 | Wharfedale Studio House | Ilkley | Residential | Completed | 2020 |
| 11 | Settle Chapel Gallery | Settle | Cultural | Completed | 2019 |
| 12 | The Flax Store | Holbeck, Leeds | Adaptive reuse | Completed | 2016 |
| 13 | Otley Riverside Library | Otley | Cultural | Completed | 2014 |
02Practice
Our practice
We founded Northline in 2009 on a simple belief. Good buildings come from listening closely: to a site, to a budget, and to the people who will live with the result for a very long time.
01
Start with what is there
Most of our work begins with something that already exists: a wall, a view, a slope, a mill with a century of use left in it. We would always rather adapt than erase.
02
Choose materials that age well
Stone, lime, timber and concrete that weather into their place. Fewer materials, used carefully and detailed so they can be repaired rather than replaced.
03
Design for the long winter
Low energy is where we start, not something added at the end. Our buildings are airtight, well daylit and built to Passivhaus principles wherever the budget allows.
Material palette
Six materials account for most of what we build.
Yorkshire sandstone
Walling, copings
Lime render
Breathable, repairable
Charred larch
Rainscreen cladding
Board-marked concrete
Low carbon mix
Reclaimed brick
Salvaged on site
Standing seam zinc
Roofs, 80 year life
2009Founded in Leeds
14People in the studio
62Buildings completed
40%Of our work reuses an existing building
03Recognition
Awards and shortlists
11
National and regional design awards since 2014. We enter sparingly, and only for buildings that have been lived in for at least a year.
- 2025 Northern Housing Medal Kirkstall Courtyard Houses Winner
- 2024 Small Buildings Prize, House of the Year Calder Rise House Winner
- 2024 Adaptive Reuse Review The Weaving Shed Commended
- 2023 Pennine Design Forum, Civic Building of the Year Ouseburn Reading Rooms Winner
- 2023 Concrete and Craft Awards Ouseburn Reading Rooms Shortlisted
- 2022 Timber in the Landscape Award Swaledale Field Pavilion Winner
- 2021 North Sea Coast Heritage Award Whitby Net Lofts Winner
- 2019 Dales Building Conservation Prize Settle Chapel Gallery Commended
04Journal
Notes from the studio
The roof goes back on at Hexham Market Hall
After fourteen months under scaffold, the restored oak trusses were lifted into place last week. Notes and drawings from site.
4 min readWhy we still draw by hand
Every project at Northline starts on tracing paper at the long table. It is slower, and that is rather the point.
5 min read05Studio
- Hannah GreavesFounding director
- Tom AshworthDirector
- Priya LalAssociate director
- Ellis MorganAssociate, conservation
- Joe WhitakerSenior architect
- Aisha RahmanArchitect
- Callum ReidLandscape designer
- Martha DoyleModel maker
And six more, including Rosie, the studio dog.
One long table in Holbeck.
We work from the Flax Store, a Victorian warehouse beside the canal in Holbeck that we restored in 2016. There are fourteen of us: architects, a landscape designer, a model maker and a studio manager who keeps it all running.
The person you meet on your site is the person drawing your building.
06Contact
Tell us about your site.
We take on a small number of new commissions each year. First conversations are free and informal, and the best ones usually begin with a walk around the site.
hello@northlinearchitects.co.ukStudio
The Flax Store12 Marshall Yard, Holbeck
Leeds LS11 9YP
Telephone
+44 (0)113 496 0582
Monday to Friday, 9.00 to 17.30
New commissions
Hannah Greaves
hannah@northlinearchitects.co.uk
Press and careers
Studio manager
studio@northlinearchitects.co.uk