The “Cowshed” project for composer Matthew Bourne was the creation of a new recording studio by replacing a tumbledown garage with a micro piece of architecture that responds to the context in which it’s located.

This renovation project, from Gagarin Studios in Halifax, is an exceptional piece of design based on a piece of music by composer and client Matthew Bourne. From this a piece of contextual architecture developed in which to make and record music.

The resulting design responds to this brief whilst locking into the terrain and views to the landscape beyond; training views and screening off the clutter on Keighley’s periphery and focusing on the moorland across on the valley top. This is very much an introspective space, a place informed by acoustics as well as the landscape that it frames.

The studio reworks a garage space set at a lower level; the aim was to work with simple, economic and honest materials – concrete block, timber joists, steelwork expressed and put together in an interesting way to form a dynamic space hooked around acoustic principles.

Part of this design was to create a strong, high performing floor, that had large acoustic figures so that the music studio wasn’t affected by anyone on the upper floor.

As such Lewis Deck, with resilient and flanking strips, were a major part of the floors construction on top of a Glulam floor structure with very wide centres, as can be seen from the photo below.

We were initially contacted by Gagarin Studios in October 2024 to help put together the specification and ensure that all of the details that they were looking for would be achievable and with Lewis Deck this was done very quickly meaning we were given the order by the contractor the following month.

The Lewis Deck was on site in late November 2024 and was installed in just a couple of days.

Cowshed Studio, Keighley – Gagarin Studio

Lewis Deck