The Willis Building (originally the Willis Faber & Dumas regional headquarters) in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England, is one of the earliest buildings designed by

Norman Foster Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (born 1 June 1935) is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. Hi ...

and Wendy Cheesman after establishing Foster Associates. Constructed between 1970 and 1975 for the insurance firm now known as

Willis Towers Watson Willis Towers Watson plc, branded as WTW and stylised in its logo as wtw, is a British-American multinational company that provides commercial insurance brokerage services, strategic risk management services (such as contingency planning, sec ...

, it is widely considered a landmark in the development of the 'high tech' architectural style. The building houses some 1,300 office staff in open-plan offices spread over three floors.

Location

The bulbous floor plan of the office block reflects the layout of the available site in the centre of Ipswich, which is sandwiched between several road junctions and the Grade I listed Unitarian Meeting House . Thus two of the town's Grade I listed buildings stand side by side.

Design

The centre of the building is constructed from a grid of concrete pillars, 14 m (46 ft) apart, supporting

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

concrete slab A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings, consisting of a flat, horizontal surface made of cast concrete. Steel- reinforced slabs, typically between 100 and 500 mm thick, are most often used to construct floors and ...

floors. The curtain wall exterior is clad in panels of dark smoked glass. The use of dark glass, a curtain wall and lack of right angle corners mirrors the

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

Express Building Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * '' Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Ex ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, cited by Norman Foster as one of his favourite buildings and a design influence. The central

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...

well leads up to a rooftop staff restaurant surrounded by a rooftop garden
360 panorama
. Originally, there was also a swimming pool for employees to enjoy during their lunch break. This has now been covered up (and preserved, rather than filled in, due to it being a listed building) and the space is used for more offices. The swimming pool can be seen underneath the false floor.

History

The Willis Building was commissioned by John Roscoe, chairman of Willis, Faber & Dumas, in the early 1970s. The architectural firm of Norman Foster was selected after a shortlist was provided by the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

. Foster's design, inspired by a glass-clad office building he had recently completed, featured innovative energy-conscious elements and open-plan floor spaces. The building was officially opened on June 2, 1975, by former Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...

. In 1991 the Willis building became the newest building to be given

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

status in Britain. At the time it was one of only two listed buildings under 30 years of age.

References

ConcreteCentre.com

External links

BBC Four episode of series ''Building Sights'' on the Willis Building, presented by Zaha Hadid

Project description from Foster + Partner
* {{Coord, 52.0556, N, 1.1507, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Office buildings completed in 1975 Grade I listed buildings in Ipswich Grade I listed office buildings Foster and Partners buildings Office buildings in Ipswich

Location

Design

History

See also

References

External links