VISION Issue 34 | Page 18

VISION 34—DIRECT TRANSMISSION The glass at the front of the building is very deliberate. It’s the windscreen to Mazda, for want of a better expression. It performs an environmental function of letting lots of light into workplaces. PATRICK NESS, ARCHITECT How important were such sizeable panels and minimal framing? The major glass panels on the front façade are big. That’s one of their heroic qualities. They’re greater spans than you normally have and that’s technically what we had to solve. The reason for that is trying to keep it as transparent as possible. How does the sustainability supply chain influence your work? Ideally in sourcing materials. What we do first is to look at who is local, and how we can utilise that and ultimately that’s our first decision. From there on it becomes what’s the best material for the job, so there’s a process we go through. We always start with identifying the local suppliers and what they can bring to the project