Rail House: Towards a New Route
Rail House, once the headquarters of British Rail, now stands vacant beside Crewe Station—an overlooked relic of 1960s concrete architecture. This project proposes its transformation into a vibrant mixed-use development that reconnects the building with the public and the railway it once served.
The proposal includes a new transport hub to support the station’s growing passenger demand, alongside a hotel, retail units, a market hall, a rooftop restaurant, and a convention centre. Together, these elements create a dynamic civic destination and enhance Crewe’s identity as a key rail town.
Architecturally, the design draws from Aldo Rossi’s theory of analogous architecture, using memory and typology as tools for transformation. The new façade introduces playful geometry, vibrant colours, and rhythmic repetition, echoing the arched forms found in 19th-century railway carriages. These references are not nostalgic but reinterpreted to give the building a renewed sense of presence and meaning.
This reimagined Rail House doesn’t erase its past—it builds on it. Through adaptive reuse and bold intervention, the project offers a new chapter for the building and the town: one of movement, connection, and civic pride.
