Chapter 2 of 24
Office Building, Stockley Park Near Heathrow Airport, 1991. Plan
My building sits astride a basin of water that has been created, that flows into the canal to the south. The buildings on the Park as a whole are all orientated nine degrees off north and you'll see from the site diagram that the southern wing of the building is to that orientation whilst the north wing sits parallel with the entry road. This was the first rule that was broken and it enables the building to relate to its context in a closer way than some of the other buildings that are placed away from the road. The two wings split to echo the geometry of the lake and the opening up to the landscape, and form an entrance at the split. The north is set in a hard landscape and the south is set in a soft landscape, and in the middle a divide creates a cascade that falls into the lake below. Water is used to herald the threshold to this phase of the Park so that you hear the cascades as you cross the road at road level and you are, when you approach the building, you are hearing and smelling the effect of moving water which is calming. There's a lower terrace that sits on the level of the lake and this is a place to which people working in the building can retreat.
The skin of the building is a panellised system of glass blocks that are bonded together with silicon beads and the blocks themselves are translucent rather than transparent, having a fibre-glass insert. That means that solar devices like brise-soleils or fritting of the glass or other devices that give a sciagraphy to the facades, are omitted to make a very laconic and clear definition between the ground floor and the first floor of what is intended to be a glass pavilion.