Commissioned to replace Napier House, we proposed a taller, new building with elegant proportions. The result is a new office building with a construction cost of only £277 per square foot. The materials we chose celebrate the difference between the two buildings, with its height mediated by adding thick horizontal banding to the façade.
The narrow width of the site enabled us to achieve column-free internal floor spaces, placing the columns at the perimeter and at strategic locations within the core. For the facade, we chose long-format black bricks, arranged to give clean lines, symmetry and balance, and added perforated metal cladding to give natural ventilation to the office floors alongside full-height glazing on the north, south and west elevations.
