Moxon submits plans for ‘reed thicket’ Preston office
London-based architectural firm Moxon has submitted a planning application for a striking new 40,000 sq ft office building north of Preston.
The design uses a series of anodized aluminium fins suspended from tensile rods on all four faces of the building.
Moxon won a RIBA competition last year to design the office for an unnamed Jersey-based developer.
Subject to planning, the landmark office will occupy an acre next to a roundabout at the corner of Oliver's Place and Eastway, close to J32 of the M6 and J1 of the M55, north of Preston.
Ben Addy of Moxon said: "The aluminium fins, or reeds, are all oriented in the same direction. On the South West facade they act as a large-scale brise soleil and rain screen, but appear more visually permeable on the SE facade. Early morning and winter sunlight is able to enter the building while high summer sun is excluded and so does not adversely alter the environmental conditions within the building. The reeds also appear as a thicket of material that gives the building a striking appearance that changes dramatically depending on the position of the viewer.
"The roundabout and the three dimensional nature of the cladding system combine to create animation as one moves towards the building obliquely along the approach roads. By turns the building appears solid and then transparent depending on the viewers position: it reveals the interior as one moves around it."
The RIBA judges included Nick Johnson of Urban Splash and architects Ian Simpson and Nazar Sayigh. The judges said the Moxon scheme was a "potentially unique design that offered good simple spaces, intriguing views out, and an extraordinary quality of light."
