Inside storeys: bank offices have been transformed by imaginative treatment of stacked atria.The atrium atrium (ā`trēəm), term for an interior court in Roman domestic architecture and also for a type of entrance court in early Christian churches. The Roman atrium was an unroofed or partially roofed area with rooms opening from it. is frequently one of the duller parts of big office buildings. What do you do with a void? Institutional art is one response, more or less self-conscious lighting another. Neither was really an option for this tower in Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is a large business development in London, located on the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, centred on the old West India Docks in , the commercial centre of London's Docklands; it has five stacked atria Atria The heart has four chambers. The right and left atria are at the top of the heart and receive returning blood from the veins. The right and left ventricles are at the bottom of the heart and act as the body's main pumps. , each with an external facade. Designed by HOK Architects, the block was the subject of a sophisticated space plan and fit-out by the London architects Pringle Brandon, who suggested that landscape architect Martha Schwartz Martha Schwartz is a landscape architect who through her designs has almost single handedly redefined the notion of landscape design. Her projects range from private to urban scale. Schwartz background is in the fine arts as well as landscape architecture. should bring animation and use to those large empty spaces. The result has been an explosion of colour and activity, and a welcome change of feeling from the cool efficiency of the office environments beyond. That in part derives from the hyperscale of the spaces, which are each six storeys tall. The programme for each space differs, varying from break-out space to cafe/dining; informal meeting areas, and more formal spaces for group presentations. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In each space the basic approach is the same: use three-dimensional installations, including both artificial and organic components. On one floor, for example, artificial bamboo rods hang from the ceiling at varying angles, while a circular seating area is delineated de·lin·e·ate tr.v. de·lin·e·at·ed, de·lin·e·at·ing, de·lin·e·ates 1. To draw or trace the outline of; sketch out. 2. To represent pictorially; depict. 3. on the floor by real planted bamboo. On another, artificial leaves hang from the ceiling while real plants on which the leaves are modelled sit in planters Planters is an American snack food company under Kraft Foods manufacturing, best known for its nuts and the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Started by Italian immigrants Amedeo Obici and Mario Peruzzi in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1906, it was incorporated in 1908 next to seating. The uppermost atrium takes the form of an indoor geometric hedge garden, with blue and green glass boxes suspended in space. The effect is delightful, not merely for users at the ground level of each space, but for occupants on the floors above--a winter garden feeling for office inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. . A proper lighting scheme gives an entirely different feel to the space at night, both inside and viewing from the street. We don't expect bankers to be colourful, preferring a safe pair of hands, but that is no reason to deny their office employees the benefits of design, colour, light and transformed space. |
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