NORD Architecture

The design of the internal environment makes reference to the existing patterns of townscape: public spaces within the building are treated as streets, courtyards, gardens and squares.

A public internal street is the main organising element of the building. From here all council departments can be accessed via the main entrance. Expressed as individual blocks or buildings, they form the street, which becomes an active space, one that encourages social and public activity to pervade the whole building at ground floor level and ensures clear legibility and easy way finding for visitors. A series of landscaped courtyards between these blocks brings in natural light and ventilation to all spaces and provides direct visual contact with the surrounding countryside. These disparate spaces and activities, which create a ‘townscape’ environment within the building, are wrapped by a unifying glazed skin. This skin performs both symbolically and environmentally. Symbolically, as well as presenting a coherent and unified face, which gives it a scale appropriate to both the context and its civic status, it expresses a desire towards transparency in political terms. Environmentally, it functions as a thermal buffer, controlling solar gain, glare and helping to preheat air when necessary before it enters the building, all of which reduce the energy consumption of the building and so the running costs.