IDK is leading the design of the Octagon, a multi-use building at the heart of a retreat dedicated to spiritual practice and growth, on the site of a former ironworks in South Cumbria. Located at the edge of the Lake District National Park, on a peninsula jutting out into the Duddon Estuary, the Octagon will form a new spiritual centre on the foundations of Millom’s old industrial heart. It will exemplify the marriage of traditional and new forms of low-impact construction and achieve the highest level of BREEAM accreditation. Decisions around the Octagon’s form, situation and materiality have been guided by the philosophical practices of the client and its construction will contribute to the area’s ecological and social regeneration, further entangling the site in the rich lifeworlds of its environment.