thred.org

the humanist office

Completed 2006 The fourth phase of the Eden Project in Cornwall, The Core functions primarily as a visitors and learning centre.  Adopting an ‘inclusive design’  approach via a series of workshops between the client, the architect and the Sensory Trust, the client’s insistence on providing internal ramps, intuitive circulation around the building and coloured wayfinding has afforded a facility accessible for all, avoiding the typical exclusion zones for disabled access. e.g. All public exits lead to graded exits with careful consideration to eliminate access barriers and a four-colour seasonal palette (Winter/Blue, Spring/Green Summer/Yellow, Autumn/Orange) encourages wayfinding for the visually impaired.

Completed 2008 Maggie’s London is a ‘non-institutional’ building, an ‘open house’ of 370 square metres, arranged over one and a half floors. It is both flexible and adaptable. It can be transparent or opaque, noisy or quiet, light or dark, with a kitchen at the heart of the structure. The building is made up of four components: a wall that wraps around four sides, providing protection from its exposed location; the kitchen – a double height central space which will be the main focus and heart of the building; annexes off the main space, conceived as meeting, sitting and consulting rooms; and a ‘floating roof’ that oversails the outer wall and acts as the enclosure to the heart of the building. Small courtyards are formed between the building and the wall.
Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners
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the bioclimatic office

Completed 2005 Approaching zero CO², HEELIS accommodates up to 485 staff in 76,500 square feet of office space on a brownfield site at the heart of Brunel’s Great Western Railway complex. As with the 19th century engineering works, it is the roof that deals with climate modification. Northlights along each ridge are shaded by projecting photovoltaic panels; ventilation ‘snouts’ emerge to provide natural ventilation in summer. Daylight penetrates through a series of double-height spaces to ground floor offices which have an unusually generous ceiling height of 3.7m to ensure that both natural lighting and ventilation systems work efficiently.
FCB Studios
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Completed 2008 The intelligent design model at the Mountbatten research centre has been acheived via a number of key features: the use of the campus-wide CHP system, evaporative free cooling, naturally ventilated office spaces with underfloor pipework to aid in heating/cooling and water recycling, naturally lit clean rooms, exposed concrete soffits with thermal mass which stabilize temperature variations, solar control coatings on the windows and horizontal aluminium brise-soleils to reduce excessive solar gain rain water harvesting, and green and brown roofs which promote bio-diversity. The result is a building which the engineers predict will consume 65% less energy than a typical comparable scheme of this type.
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the corporate office

Completed 2007, the Learning Plaza project in Maidstone Kent is part way through a bold experiment to turn children into consumers of education. Using their own shiny new Tablet PCs, each pupil at New Line Learning Academy will be in charge of his or her learning programming, liasing with teachers either virtually or in the flesh in vast, open-plan ‘learning plazas’ that hold up to 120 children. Gone are the classrooms of 30, and corridors rife with opportunities for mischief and bullying. Gone are the old “chalk and talk” styles of teaching. Here, teachers circulate around fluid groups of children, acting as mentors rather than lecturing from a whiteboard.
Lanway Solutions 
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Completed 2010 The Circle Bath (Centre of Clinical Excellence) combines natural light (through glazed facades and double height atriums) with access to fresh air. It prioritises idyllic views of Bath’s rolling countryside with sympathetic landscaping to further emphasise the therapeutic natural environment. The shared central space unites the building’s activities and includes a café, nurses’ station and reception point.  Internally, the division between functional zones is minimised, easing the stress involved in consultation, treatment and recovery for patients. Walking distances for staff are kept to a minimum. The compact scale of the building (6000m²) eliminates the confusion and disorientation common in larger hospitals.
Foster & Partners

the hyperesthetic office

Completed 2005 The Blizard Building and centre of the cell embody the aspiration of collaborative working. The laboratory spaces are all accommodated on a single floor located some six metres below the street and filling the entire site. Above ground, scientists write up their research in a simple glass pavilion, in which are suspended four large pods. One, the Centre of the Cell, is to be fitted out as an interactive exhibition for school children. The first of its kind in a research building; it reaches out to the local community to celebrate the human body and reflect the research interests and aspirations of the scientific community. The other pods facilitate meeting activities and provide a striking backdrop to an otherwise normal office environment. 
Alsop Design
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Completed 2007 The Birkbeck Film School project was about the creation of an emotive, thought provoking place for the study of Film and Visual Media. We intended the project to transform a utilitarian extension into a vibrant new environment, a feast for the senses. The auditorium is a tapering black volume at the heart of the project. Conceptually, the break-out circulation space is created by a ‘cutting block’ that tumbles through the ‘solid mass’ of the extension, morphing into  different configurations. This movement is frozen at particular points in time like a stop frame animation. It creates a 3D cutting pattern that carves out the space and leaves a reciprocal imprint on the space.
Sam McElhinney
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