A distinctive office building that provides a high quality working environment for a fast-growing IT company.

Sophos specialises in anti-virus software. Their work entails computer intensive analysis of viruses from around the world, combined with a client service that requires large-volume monthly mailings as well as 24-hour technical support.

The design of the company’s global headquarters provides an efficient and high quality working environment within a landmark building. Extensive landscaping, including a lake and roof terraces, enhance the setting of the building and provide amenity for the building occupants.

Having outgrown two buildings in Abingdon already, their primary requirement was for a much larger building on an adjacent site, but competition for staff meant that the building was at least as much about the quality of the working environment and its external image, as it was about the adequacy of accommodation.

The three storey building comprises two office floors above a tall ground floor devoted to non-office functions such as conference spaces, the main restaurant, packaging areas, storage and plant. The form of the building accentuates the difference between the functions and, whilst the office floors take the form of simple rectangles, the ground level has an irregular, sinuous perimeter.