The extension to the Office Building within tfhe Farsons Brewery campus was, like many extension projects, both an architectural and a structural engineering challenge. The existing building was a masonry building, roofed over with a concrete roof slab of limited capacity. The intention was to erect a two-floor office extension, which would require a different way of access – previously located at a front corner.

The warehousing activities below the office floor plate could not be interrupted, and the existing roof slab could not be pierced to create a pit for a new lift: it was therefore proposed to locate the lift external to the building, and to change the whole movement pattern into the extended office. It was felt that the exterior lift should not read as an “appendix” to the modified building, but that it should become a clear marker of the new approach into the building. A number of options were explored, not least to resolve the way this new “entrance building” would relate to the existing stonework, and to the white cladding of the extended floors.

The solution is based on an elevated cube, comprising a steel frame, clad in multi-faceted Bianco Carrara marble – with a pattern subtly referring to the Trident logo – overlying the fully glazed ground floor. The entrance building provides access to the upper executive office levels, and to the underlying warehousing extension; the glazed ground floor also separates the public entrance concourse from the landscaped garden reserved for Farsons employees. The use of Bianco Carrara makes reference to the marble in the interior of the 1950’s Brewery Building.

The final product expresses the desired “polished diamond” approach, marking a unique experience to visitors of what has now become the Farsons Corporate Offices. To a certain extent, this is what we wished would respond to the challenge of the original 1950’s grand entrance hall.

Photography: Sean Mallia