The challenge with this project was one of finding a building type that would be imposing enough to become the centre of a campus dominated by large sheds of power and steel manufacturing units and yet not lose a human scale. After doing eleven schemes for the client--ranging from a tower to low height development, an office with a hotel to an office alongside a hotel to a just an office--we finally settled on a building that would comb the landscape and rise from it. Neither low rise or high rise but both. A collection of buildings that come together to form a campus.

The idea that this building must perform without straining energy resources is paradoxical since it sits within a campus that generates its own power out of the heat required for producing steel. The building, however, achieves a Leeds Platinum rating quite effortlessly owing to a design that intuitively opens to the sun in ways that neutralises solar heat gain while maximising natural light within the building. The blocks are oriented with shorter sides towards the west and east that are structural shear walls. Layers of insulation on these walls and terraces ensure that the heat gain is kept to a minimum. Courtyards within the blocks ensure light penetration and shaded-glare free views.