1009 Wexford Hill

Too often bright minds deeply buried within their work domain have limited contact beyond this. For this reason the nature of this building has been developed to encourage interaction in a wide range of ‘between’ spaces. This has been provided by a critical mix of work and play environments to relax, eat + drink, recreate, think, meet, brainstorm and exchange ideas – flexible office floor plates, breakout pods, and a large covered garden room for recreation and refreshment.

These diverse environments are linked through the huge wintergarden and two atria with vertical circulation between standard floorplates makes it possible to generate many overlaps between normally separated functions and thus benefit from additional synergies and added value from the range of shared services and facilities for the building. Two separate entry lobbies maximize flexibility and access for multi-tenant lease. The idea of a “campus on the hill” to bring together the various ingredients – robust and flexible creative working environments

• CAMOUFLAGE strategy of disappearance Using techniques of camouflage we have mapped the topography of Wexford Hill as a device to develop a unique language of the architecture for the building. The building becomes topographic in nature. The overall composition, structure, and skin are all informed by this approach utilizing folded and bent geometries to achieve a logical and unified whole.

• COMPOSITION: The building’s primary composition is defined in section by the height dimension of the cliff topography behind, and in plan by articulating three sub-buildings which bend to tune in with the landscape contours.

• STRUCTURE: Pre-cast concrete floorplates are braced in both directions by pairs of cantered columns at 3.0m centers. This allows a freespan between column pairs of 7.5m north-south, and 11m east west which is an ideal layout for both carparks and office floor

• SKIN: The building is wrapped in two layers; an inner skin and an outer second skin. The inner skin is a curtain wall system with variable finishes, translucency and colour ranges. The second skin is a triangulated folded topographic layer clad in kaynemaile to modify glare, heatgain, and privacy.