Our shortlisted entry gave us the opportunity to demonstrate once again the imaginative and innovative thinking which is a feature of the Chadwick practice. The brief was for a design solution for a campus in 2018 for a 5,000 person media company based on an island off the tip of Cornwall. Our solution, “The Elastic Environment” revolves around the idea of an entirely changeable physical environment where humans can change their setting according to their needs. The principle is demonstrated through a structure of pixellated discs in which the technological structure is embedded. It is configurable at will and works by the “pixels” growing from the floor to create working and, indeed, leisure situations.
The default status is a flat floor and the environments it can deliver will vary over the course of the day from breakfast in the morning to disco in the evening. The outer skin is conceived as a dome both for its architectural and sustainability qualities. It would be naturally ventilated and automatically shaded against the transit of the sun with the ability to invoke additional shading to complement those tasks requiring reduced lighting conditions.
