Photo © H.G. Esch Photography |
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Unilever House (100 VE)
London, England
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
The crescent facade of the Unilever headquarters in London has been a prominent sight along the Thames since the 1930s. Working with English Heritage and the City of London, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates developed a scheme to retain the historic fabric of the 120,000-square-foot building while transforming the interior, which could no longer accommodate Unilever's operational needs. Consolidating several elevator cores, the architects opened a luminous, eight-story atrium. A four-story grid of suspension cables hangs from the atrium's glass ceiling and supports a series of "flying carpets," small break spaces floating in the atrium, which are linked to each other by a spiral staircase and to the surrounding floors by glass bridges. The design creates an imaginative and invigorating work space and updates a historic building to suit modern office requirements. |