Description

The 1997 merger of Glaxo and Wellcome, two multinational pharmaceutical concerns, made a new headquarters necessary, one that would express an open and above-board atmosphere as well as the new work style.

An existing site west of London was redefined. The overall design of the research and administration complex, a campus-like grouping of buildings embedded in the landscape, was to express the desired openness and proximity to the consumer. The focus of this master plan was the administrative headquarters designed by RMJM. The clients’ main requirement was transparency – there was to be an unobstructed view both from inside and outside. However, this represented the greatest planning challenge. The east-west orientation of the building’s main façades in accordance with the master plan allowed large solar heat gains. In order to cut down on the heat gain without affecting the transparency, a double façade was used. Until then this type of façade had not been implemented much in the UK(see also “The Changeable Envelope,”).

. Planned and executed in textbook fashion, it consists of point-fixed structural single-glazing on the exterior and on the interior, of double-glazed thermal insulation with sophisticated solar protection elements in the interstitial space. It is about one metre wide in order to be able to actually enter the space between the two skins and ventilated by adjustable openings above and below. This maintenance walkway gives access to the rigid louvres of red cedar and the automated translucent blinds that provide solar protection. The blinds, consisting of gauze that only minimally restricts the view, are only used when the sun shines directly in. The heat that accumulates could not be used for the building’s air conditioning because the client stipulated a conventional air conditioning system.

The interior of the three-storey building is organised around a central atrium that also functions as the focus of the building. In addition to the main access, the shared functions like the restaurant and exhibition areas are also located there. The workplaces of the teams themselves are arranged flexibly in open-plan areas in accordance with their tasks. However, as the workplaces are in cubicles, employees are relatively isolated from each other. Changes in work organisation are easy to deal with, as the interior walls are movable and the freight elevator is correspondingly large. Colourful, high-quality furnishings and fittings and contemporary art works in the common areas create an open, creative atmosphere for the company’s administrative staff.

The implementation of the carefully detailed double façade has enabled openness and transparency to be expressed in an ecological and economical fashion.

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Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.