“ Each floor has a balance of closed and open
workspaces with ‘light’ and ‘dark’ areas to suit
all work activity.
CPMG ARCHITECTS
BUILDING ARRANGEMENTS
The building was located on the northern part of the site
because of the view from the vehicle access point and the
building being surrounded on two sides by an existing tree belt.
This was reinforced to provide sheltered external spaces for
work and leisure, a vital ingredient of the design ethos.
The front entrance is identified by flags, the reception clearly
visible from the outside and on entering the building the atrium
and stairs are immediately in front of you to provide easy
access.
As the atrium lies at the heart of the building, breakout and
communal working areas were located closer to the atrium
and meeting rooms and social working areas were located on
the ground floor. Each floor has a balance of closed and open
workspaces with ‘light’ and ‘dark’ areas to suit all work activity,
alongside 320 fixed desk positions.
SUSTAINABILITY
The building was designed to be both low energy in use and
sustainable by adopting an unconventional approach based on
the principles of Passivhaus.
The building incorporates:
• Exposed thermal mass
• Super insulation
• Good airtightness
• Maximum daylight with external shading to control solar gain
• Displacement ventilation providing high volumes of fresh air
at low velocity
• Openable windows
• Rooftop PV array
• Rainwater harvesting
• EV charging points
DESIGN FEATURES
The interior of the building is warm in character with an earthy
and organic colour palette– using materials such as timber,
concrete, stone and metal - to represent a company that is
centred around agriculture and to create an energising and
sensory environment. The exterior contrasts this with a formal,
crisp and timelessly modern design.
There is great elegance to how external solar tracking glass fins
move to control the sunlight, opening and closing and causing
the building’s appearance to change throughout the day and
again at night. The extent of the views that can be seen from
within is impressive, with the fins adding complexity to the
scenery through their inter-reflectiveness, creating intrigue as
well as alleviating the need for internal blinds that can disrupt
the connection of staff with the outside world.
The internal environment provides a mixture of formal desking
areas, meeting rooms, telephone booths and a large amount of
flexible space designed to encourage people to circulate within
the building. The ground floor is shared, containing a restaurant,
a separate coffee bar and meeting rooms. The building also has
opening windows at the upper floors and huge sliding doors at
ground level, increasing the connection to outside from within.
Circulation between floors is via an open staircase which acts
as a unifying feature, enabling the entirety of the building to
be perceived and understood from a single location. It also
encourages physical interaction between staff members of all
levels at every opportunity.
PAGE 19 - ARCHETECH