RAC Regional Headquarters

Thomas Arnold

Description

The circle is the best geometric form for optimum communication in meetings and the most spatially efficient surface area in relation to the circumference. Grimshaw and Partners were successful in using it to turn the RAC Regional Headquarters into a classic example of both a communicative and an energy-saving office building. It was originally planned for the coordination of RAC (Royal Automobile Club) activities in the southwest of England. Since the sale of RAC Motoring Services to Lex Service PLC, it has provided comprehensive services to members, from auto financing to package holidays.

The building is located directly at a motorway junction north of Bristol. Because of its compactness and its sixty-metre-high radio mast with a visitors’ observation platform at the 35-metre level, it reminds one of a control tower. The dark-toned structural glass façade on the two upper storeys strengthens this impression. In addition, it slopes outward and is circumscribed by maintenance walkways that serve to provide shade. Visitors and staff enter the building via a bridge from the parking lot to the first floor, arriving in the light-flooded central atrium. With its network of stairways, it is the social and functional centre point. Originally planned for 450 employees, today approximately 800 people work at 600 workplaces. They are arranged around the atrium on three levels, with views to the outside. This radial arrangement means that staff never have far to go and hence circulation areas could be kept to a minimum. The inner ring of glazed conference rooms allows eye contact from one floor to another.

Highly efficient spotlights in the ceiling supply glare-free indirect lighting to the workplaces in the sunless hours of the day via the exposed coffered ceiling on the ground floor and the first floor. On the second floor, the lights are situated above a suspended ceiling of light-diffusing fabric. Construction and building geometry were used extensively for the design of the climate control system. The thermal mass of the exposed ceiling construction contributes to the air-conditioning of the building, which operates with 100% fresh air. The air supply is piped to the office areas through the raised floors. The waste air is carried off upwards through the atrium and through a circumferential opening running between the ceiling of the second floor and the façade, so that it too can be drawn off in the upper area of the atrium. In order to maintain the levels of heat and humidity in the building, a regenerative heat exchanger, a thermal wheel, has been implemented.

The building form and the workplace organisation – reminiscent of a beehive in both respects – was a successful feat in creating a communicative and united environment, which has lost none of its qualities in spite of today having to accommodate double the original number of employees.