Staff move into new B&Q store support office

Staff have moved into DIY retailer B&Q’s store support office building in Eastleigh, Hampshire, designed by an interdisciplinary BDP team following its principle of ‘creating places for people’. The building brings together 1,400 staff from three separate sites into one main office, and provides the stores with technical support for product sales. It is a showcase for B&Q’s business, reflecting its brand, culture and values, and demonstrating its commitment towards environmental sustainability.

The focus of the building is the orange room, which acts as the main point of contact between store managers countrywide and the store support office staff. To highlight the importance of this function the building’s elevational treatment reflects its significance creating a striking architectural feature of the orange room which is placed adjacent to the arrival atrium and clad, along with conference block, in bright orange glazed lava stone.

The building is located on the southern edge of a mixed commercial retail area; it maximises amenity space for staff while minimising impact on adjacent buildings. The highly flexible and visually connected space is arranged on three floors and organised around an outward facing atrium, the heart, which is the main circulation space and includes areas for informal meeting, relaxation and interaction. A restaurant, café, and shop are located adjacent to this atrium, and open onto a courtyard. They also act as a buffer zone between the public atrium and the office space.

The project has been designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment through the efficient use of energy, water, and natural resources, whilst also reducing waste, pollution, and environmental degradation. The building is naturally ventilated with a low energy mechanical mode for seasonal extremes. The typical floor plate is a 13.5m structural grid arranged around three internal courtyards to give staff high levels of natural light and views. Thermally efficient materials have been used, such as concrete frame and low embodied energy materials such as timber for the external cladding, helping to maintain a pleasant internal environment and to reduce heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer.

The building will be officially opened in September by B&Q celebrity ambassador George Clarke and yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur.

Source : BDP
www.bdp.com/en/News/2011/Staff-Move-Into-New-BQ-Store-Support-Office/