Blackburne House is an education and enterprise centre in Liverpool City Centre providing opportunities and support primarily for women. HSA were approached to look at the design and delivery of the new Health Place to be located in the existing basement. The brief was challenging – to provide the maximum amount of useable space in the basement of this Grade 2 listed building on a tight budget, ensuring acoustic separation form the offices above. The complicated access arrangements also had to be resolved in order to ensure the new use could operate autonomously yet provide an inclusive clear arrival point for all, while still utilising the existing lift in the building.

Non-original partitions subdividing large spaces were removed in order to reveal some of the original features of the building . The result is the transformation of the space despite minimal structural alterations, opening up a brick vaulted ceiling previously used as toilets to provide a new light filled entrance, and circulation leading to a variety of treatment rooms and activity spaces acoustically separated from the remainder of the building.