Richard Hopkinson Architects - Marketing Suite at SEGRO Park, Rainham

Project Overview

Located prominently on the A13, the Marketing Suite at SEGRO Park, Rainham acts as a gateway building for this new business park in east London. The building is constructed from recycled shipping containers, fitted out off-site and elevated onto a slender steel podium frame to maximise its visual impact from the A13 and its internal views across the business park. The building provides a management office for the new business park; SEGRO Park, Rainham and a marketing venue for this and future SEGRO developments along the A13 corridor. Lifting the building 10m into the air gives a direct and prominent relationship with the elevated A13 ensuring that the building is highly visible to all passing traffic.

The main office and marketing spaces (with toilets/kitchens/storage facilities) are formed from 6 twelve metre shipping containers stacked three wide on top of each other. The lower level management office provides an on-site client presence for the day to day running of the business park, while the upper floor offers a large dedicated marketing and meeting venue for SEGRO and the wider business community.

Access to the elevated office/marketing floors is via a stair and lift core housed in a series of stacked pairs of 6m long upcycled shipping containers. The circulation containers are not lined internally and express the industrial aesthetic that inspired the building. A bright red solid steel stairwell provides a strong contrast to the grey painted metal enclosure. The design of the staircore deliberately restricts views out as visitors climb up the 3 levels to the office floors where but upon arrival large full landing windows provide dramatic views across the industrial landscape and towards the busy elevated A13.

Internally the smooth white painted lined walls, glazed screens of the office/meeting spaces sit alongside sections of the containers original corrugated walls. The design focuses on light and views out with full height glazing in all offices and panoramic views from the cantilevered marketing suite overlooking the business park and the A13. Once painted the containers provide an excellent durable and robust outer shell to the building allowing a highly insulated lining to walls, floors and ceilings to be installed and finished in the offsite workshop.

The use of upcycled shipping containers allowed the architect, client and contractor to work collaboratively to design, deliver and install the building on site far quicker than traditional construction methods. As a result, the building was completed well ahead of the rest of the business park, enabling to SEGRO to have an immediate marketing and management presence on the park to attract and welcome future occupiers.

 

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