Bernat Klein Studio seeks conservation design team

Scottish Historic Buildings Trust has launched procurement for a conservation architect-led design team to advance the restoration of the Category A-listed Bernat Klein Studio near Selkirk. The initial commission will take the project through indicatively costed concept design proposals at RIBA Stage 2.

The architect will act as lead consultant, Principal Designer, and Contract Administrator, while the multidisciplinary team must include at least a conservation-accredited structural engineer, building-services engineer, and landscape architect. The procurement is being run through a restricted procedure, with five candidates expected to be invited to the later stage.

Requests to participate are due by noon on 11 September. The procurement timetable gives an anticipated contract period from 3 November 2026 to 30 June 2027, establishing a defined period in which the selected team will turn the current restoration objectives into a coordinated concept and cost basis.

No contract value is stated in the public notice. The significance lies instead in the transition from securing the building to working out exactly how it can be restored, a process that requires considerably more technical definition before construction packages can be prepared.

The studio was designed by Peter Womersley in 1972 for textile designer Bernat Klein. It has been on Scotland’s Buildings at Risk Register since 2002 and suffered prolonged vacancy, water damage, deterioration, and vandalism before a coalition led by SHBT secured the building at auction in July 2025.

The coalition, which also includes the National Trust for Scotland and Bernat Klein Foundation, paid £279,000 for the property after a crowdfunding campaign raised more than £33,000 in a little over a week. Acquisition removed the immediate risk of losing control of the building, but it also transferred responsibility for a technically difficult restoration to the new owners.

An earlier condition survey and structural assessment had identified extensive problems arising from the prolonged vacancy. SHBT estimated in 2025 that a full specialist restoration could exceed £2.5m to £3m, while urgent work was expected to focus on stabilisation, assessment of the concrete cladding, and repairs to the flat roof.

Modernist conservation creates a different problem from restoring older masonry buildings. Much of the architectural character can depend on exposed structure, slender profiles, large areas of glazing, purpose-designed junctions, and materials that were relatively experimental when first used.

Replacing those elements with conventional modern systems can improve short-term performance while substantially changing the building. The design team’s task is therefore not simply to specify new components, but to establish which original material can remain, which requires repair, and where intervention is unavoidable.

The requirement for a conservation-accredited structural engineer reflects that balance. Concrete deterioration, reinforcement condition, previous repairs, movement, and structural interfaces need enough investigation to establish how the building behaves before strengthening or replacement strategies are fixed.

Building services create another set of constraints. A 1970s studio was not designed around current expectations for heating, ventilation, electrical installations, fire safety, accessibility, security, or public use. New services have to be introduced without allowing ducts, plant, cabling, or penetrations to overwhelm the architecture being conserved.

That is why the Stage 2 commission brings the structural, services, architectural, and landscape disciplines together early. Decisions about environmental control can affect glazing and fabric repairs; structural interventions can alter internal finishes; drainage can influence both landscape and building fabric.

Costing at concept stage will also establish whether the restoration ambitions align with available funding. Heritage projects carry significant uncertainty because inaccessible areas may hide defects that only become visible through opening-up, access equipment, testing, or removal of failed finishes.

An indicative cost cannot eliminate those risks, but it can identify the parts of the project most likely to control the budget and determine where additional surveys are worth commissioning before detailed design begins.

The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland is supporting the procurement process, while the first restoration phase has funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund alongside the Architectural Heritage Fund, Pilgrim Trust, Path Fund, William Grant Foundation, and Scottish Borders Council.

The intended future use also affects design. The coalition wants the studio to return to a creative role and provide a permanent base for the Bernat Klein Foundation, introducing requirements for safe access, services, environmental conditions, visitor management, and day-to-day occupation alongside conservation.

For specialist contractors, that future programme is likely to be relatively small in area but unusually concentrated in technical interfaces. Concrete conservation, roofing, glazing, services, access, drainage, and internal interventions will all have to respect a building where retaining the original architecture is the central purpose of the job.

The current procurement is consequently a significant project milestone despite involving professional services rather than physical works. Saving Bernat Klein Studio at auction established ownership; the Stage 2 commission has to establish a credible route from deteriorated structure to buildable restoration.

By the end of June 2027, SHBT should have a considerably clearer picture of the intervention, programme, and cost required. Only then does the harder procurement question begin: how to repair a highly regarded modernist building without restoring away the qualities that made it worth saving.