The Brief

This building is one of the city’s most prominent office blocks overlooking the river Thames and is now occupied by the headquarters of international law firm, SJ Berwin. Originally designed for large dealing floors and financial uses in the era of the 1986 “Big Bang”, the site offered large floor plates with a deep plan space. The building had poor natural daylighting and was to be refurbished to provide a vibrant office space and achieve a significantly higher rental income than previously possible.

The architect needed to understand the most effective method of channelling daylight into the building. Our brief was to provide interior daylight quality analysis and to forecast the percentage of daylight level improvement after the planned refurbishment. The existing site contained one atrium, and we advised on whether the addition of a second one would make economic sense.

The Solution

We created and analysed complex 3D computer models of the building. The first model incorporated interior illustrations of the existing atrium, while further illustrations showed two and three smaller atria. The visual, numerical and graphic illustrations from each of these designs were then compared to reveal how deeply natural daylight would penetrate into the building. The illustration of three smaller atria was shown to reduce the usable internal area and the costs incurred were likely to be high. However, despite these negative impacts our technical research and previous experience in fact suggested the design containing three atria would provide far greater long-term benefits. Not only would the design of three atria create a visually stunning and naturally lit interior, but the increased interior natural daylight levels would also encourage a feeling of general well-being in all those who occupied the building.

These benefits were balanced against the financial outlay which was justified as being a worthwhile investment to significantly increase the building’s letting potential. The architect took our advice and post occupancy reviews have since proved the analysis and alterations to be economically beneficial. The implementation of three atria channelled natural light and has created a light comfortable building.

Special Features

1. Use of scientific analysis to demonstrate a solution that optimised the amenity, value and overall quality of this building.

2. Vision and industry experience enabled us to provide advice that went beyond the basic technical aspects to achieve a result which exceeded the initial expectation.