We were tasked with creating an office block for

Pinewood Studios. We had a few initial ideas, but

eventually decided on a rotated style, inspired by

‘Jenga’ and ‘Rubik’s Cube’.

Initially, we wanted to have each floor rotated at 22. 5˚ to give a good aesthetic appeal to the building.

We then simplified this design to have each floor at opposite angles of 45 ˚.

We decided to place the large open view windows on the South and West

side to maintain sunlight throughout the day.

We chose to use the cantilever balconies as rooftop gardens making the

building more aesthetically and environmentally appealing.

The slanted roof idea meant that we could harvest the rainwater and use it

to water plants, we could also recycle it within services.

We would intend to look further into the ground beneath before any construction, although the London Clay would mean that we could have a solid structure.

We would use piling to create the foundations, they would be concrete and they would have to be long enough to go through 10m of made ground to ensure stability.

Originally we thought that we would use

floor to ceiling glass windows on the faces that

would be in direct sunlight. On the other sides

we were going to use wood. We also explored

the idea of using coloured sides like a Rubik’s

cube, although it didn't give the desired look.

The glass windows would be double glazing to

improve the BREEAM score of out building-

we intend for this to be outstanding.

We also put a skylight above the central core

to make the most of natural lighting through

the stairwell reducing the need for electricity

supply during the day.

Floor plans of building Services layout in building

We decided to base our services around the lift shaft

so that no space used for offices would be taken up.

The services included on all the floors are; electrical

wires, ventilation pipes, gas pipes and water pipes.

Ground Floor1st Floor

2nd Floor 3rd Floor

By increasing

some of the beam

sizes (especially of

the cantilevers)

we reduced the

torsion in the

building, this

meant that the

building could

support both the

dead and live

loads.

What we have learnt:

There are many more types of engineering than we initially thought

You don’t necessarily have to study the same branch of engineering at university that you want to do later in life

Engineering is much more difficult than we initially predicted as there are so many aspects to consider when

carrying out each project

The design of the building is not the only consideration which the client may wish engineers to consider. Things like

sustainability, BREEAM rating and environmental effects of a project are just as important.