One Chamberlain Square
by Eric Parry Architects
Client MEPC / Argent
Awards RIBA West Midlands Award 2022
One Chamberlain Square, the first building within the Paradise Masterplan, provides a footprint for high quality workplaces for the future. While the building respects the principles of the overarching masterplan with its focus on creating a sustainable new destination for the city, it has truly embraced the opportunity offered by this unique and sensitive location.
The design has delivered active and permeable ground floor spaces, which have been occupied with a vibrant mix of uses, contributing to an open and complementary civic space. The consideration of the public realm and the scheme's desire to integrate its users into the contextual fabric is also evident in the generous sinuous perimeter roof terrace provided by the set back of the upper floors.
The façade components were designed consciously to create a façade, which is not only locally unique to this building, but to minimise waste with a minimum number of profiles utilised. The material richness, depth and individuality revels itself once close, with the twice-fired glazed faience’s subtle variation and uniqueness. The organic curved form of the building, developed to respond to its 360-degree aspect, provides a dynamic form which continually changes depending on the daylight and the position of the observer.
Internally, whilst the building has been fully occupied by a single tenant, the core and floorplates were future proofed with flexibility provided in the base building design to allow for future tenant fitouts, including the provision of services to allow the installation of commercial kitchens and plant space to allow increased cooling system provision to all floors. The 9m x 9m column grid with efficient post tensioned slabs enables soft spots, a feature that has been utilised by PwC, to connect several floors for their staff.
The building has successfully provided the current occupier with the ability to tailor features to best suit their fit-out. PwC have provided healthy and stimulating environments focused on the health and wellbeing of its people. An integrated hot desk software and lighting system, have fully addressable controls that provide both presence detection and daylight linking to help limit energy consumption.
Net internal area 15,073.00 m²
Contractor Bam Construction Ltd
Environmental / M&E Engineers Arup
Quantity Surveyor / Cost Consultant Faithful + Gould
Landscape Architects Grant Associates
Facade Engineers FMDC
Facade Engineers Wintech Engineering
Structural Engineers Arup
