PROJECT REPORT: COMMERCIAL & WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENTS 57
and at its centre is a structural tree supporting the roof, symbolising a tree of growth.”
Key to creating the barn feel was the choice of materials and colours. “They correspond to the language and palette of materials often used in farmsteads, and the detailing aims to be traditional with a contemporary twist,” O’Neill says. The southern face of the site —a small barn — is clad in timber rainscreen boarding, and features a west-facing gable with elements to encourage wildlife to nest. It also has a sedum roof, and a large glazed opening on the south facade’s ground floor appears as a barn door. The large east barn’s external ground floor wall is finished in Leicestershire ironstone, with the upper storeys and roof clad in metal. “In tune with the way traditional farmsteads tend to present a closed facade to the public highway, this barn offers a relatively closed face with a series of punch-hole windows forming a regular pattern,” explains O’Neill. “Large openings on the north and south gables offer glimpses to the inside and a double height project window creates a ‘special event’ on the east facade.” The use of these materials also aids in providing a feeling the site has ‘evolved over time’, while the central atrium visually connects everything. The ‘barn-style’ design naturally ties into the other key part of the brief, representing the Joules brand and countryside heritage. It
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was therefore continued internally, exposing the structure in the main workspace, “maintaining the honesty and simplicity,” says O’Neill. Signature Joules yellow barn doors feature in the artists’ watercolour room, and enclosed meeting spaces have barn-inspired treatments. “The Joules brand values are omnipresent through key moments externally and internally,” he adds. “Everything from the reception, meeting spaces and communal areas, to wayfinding, textures, and finishes have been designed to inspire and engage visitors and users in the Joules way of life.”
Layout
The internal layout of the fully accessible buildings has been carefully considered to allow teams to better connect and collaborate, through “visual and virtual connectivity of spaces, inside and outside,” says O’Neill. The layout of pathways and connectivity was considered in both specification and fitout, which involved looking at the time staff were using certain facilities, and testing different desk arrangements. The open plan areas also feature screens which display company updates and social media.
The working areas have been divided
into ‘neighbourhoods’, with each tailored to the individual department’s needs. These neighbourhoods contain “local activity-based settings and communal areas,” O’Neill explains. “The spaces
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The internal layout of the fully accessible buildings has been carefully considered to allow teams to better connect and collaborate, through “visual and virtual connectivity of spaces”
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