The Living Apothecary
Architecture: BArch
Manjit Kleir
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Atelier 01: SITOPIA: Feeding our future
Project
The Living Apothecary is a civic herbal healing house rooted in ancestral knowledge, community wellbeing, and healing through nature. For generations, herbal remedies were carried through watching, doing, and repeated ritual; knowledge lived in the hands as much as in words. Without practice, these rituals risk being forgotten. Set within Newark-on-Trent Market Square, the project brings this knowledge back into public life. In a world of quick pharmaceuticals, it asks people to slow down and understand what enters the body, where it comes from, and how it is made. Herbs are grown on site, cultivated through workshops, shared in public tea rooms, and held within a library archive, forming a visible root-to-remedy journey of care.
Spatial Concept
Spatially, the project is arranged as a clear public route through care. Openings align with Newark’s existing alleyways and pedestrian desire lines, allowing people to walk directly through the site. A colonnade frames this movement, creating a sheltered civic edge where people can pass, pause, and look into the workshops and specialist apothecary shops. The massing opens towards the Town Hall, while the excavated courtyard lets the building sit low and protect views across the historic market square. Tea rooms and the library archive complete the journey, moving from public activity to gathering, reflection, and remembered knowledge.
