Powergen
Workplace
An influential workplace that redefined British office design for a generation.
Project Details
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Coventry
Location
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PowerGen
Client
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12,700 sq m
Area
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£15m
Value
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1994
Completion
Completed in the early 1990s, Powergen’s headquarters marked a turning point in the evolution of the post-industrial workplace. Designed to reflect a newly privatised company’s need for efficiency and integration, the building prioritised daylight, fresh air and human scale over corporate monumentality.
Its linear plan is organised around a three-storey atrium, with naturally ventilated office wings arranged for maximum daylight penetration. Narrow floorplates, just 12 metres deep, and exposed vaulted concrete ceilings enable passive cooling and create a calm, well-lit environment.
Externally, timber-clad service towers punctuate the façades, providing circulation and informal meeting points that animate the building’s rhythm. The restrained, industrial aesthetic embodied a philosophy of doing more with less, a message that resonated during a period of national austerity.
Thirty years on, the building remains in use and largely unaltered, a testament to its flexible structure, environmental foresight and enduring influence on British office architecture.
“PowerGen’s headquarters near Coventry is an outstanding project. In fostering an innovative and entrepreneurial atmosphere, in environmental friendliness and in the elegant understatement of its aesthetic, it could be described as seminal.”
Santa Raymond and Roger Cunliffe
Tomorrow’s Office
Awards
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UK Brick Awards
Engineering Application Award 1995
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RIBA Award
RIBA Award 1996
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BCO Awards
Best Out-of-Town Office Building 1996
Credits
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PowerGen
Client
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Buro Four Project Services
Project Manager
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Curtins
Structural Engineer
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Ernest Griffiths & Son
Services Engineer
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EC Harris
Quantity Surveyor
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Laing Midlands
Contractor
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Mark Westcott Design
Landscape Architect
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Arup Acoustics
Acoustic Consultant