The Yellow Building is an environmentally smart, thermally massive, structurally light building that suggests the office of the future can be as delightful to work in as the factories of the past are to re-inhabit. A seven-storey, yellow-striped volume crowned in a saw-tooth roof stands as a landmark on London’s West Cross Route.
A muscular, diagonal concrete grid wraps around the building to define the architecture – both outside and in – and provide structural rigidity without the need for supporting cores. Internally, the concrete lattice lines the full-height atrium which links all levels of the 161,500 square foot building and acts as part art gallery, part social space and part event space.
To maximise connections between staff, the large open, unobstructed floors span either side of the central atrium, which both allows light to penetrate deep into the building and holds the main circulation stair that takes inhabitants on a promenade of their organisation. In stripping away the detritus of detailing that defines so much commercial space, the project demonstrates better ways to work and play and speculate (both financially and architecturally).