"The building design evolved as a single-storey steel structure conceived as a kit of rapidly erectable parts, with maximum off-site prefabrication to allow the building to be erected bay by bay.The basic concept of Phase 1 of the building is a central linear circulation and service spine with internal wings for specialized activities. The spine...acts as an internal street or informal promenade, generous enough in size to contain vending machines, public telephones, seating, meeting places, planted areas and waiting areas for the offices. It provides total visual security control and is intended to link up with other future phases of building on the site, so that all the facilities in all the buildings are readily available to all staff."

— Barbie Campbell Cole and Ruth Elias Rogers, ed. Richard Rogers + Partners. p61.

The Creator's Words

"Architecture has developed from man's need to order the world in space and time, which is a precondition to its being accessible to our understanding. It is problem solving in the environmental field where logic is transposed into form by art, combining science with art, the practical with the abstract, the measurable with the immeasurable. The science of architecture constantly progresses: science which proves more efficient supplements outdated science. Art in architecture, however, does not make linear progress; it is dependent on symbolism, and develops more randomly through philosophical and visual analysis. Art encompasses our hopes and beliefs beyond the limit of the immediate."

— Richard Rogers. from Barbie Campbell Cole and Ruth Elias Rogers, ed. Richard Rogers + Partners. p8.