The guiding principle for the new masterplan for BP’s International Centre for Business Technology (ICBT) was to create a campus that was flexible and adaptable enough to respond to the company’s various business areas and their needs and objectives.

The masterplan took the form of a cluster of buildings that radiated from a central landscaped courtyard, incorporated within a wider parkland landscape with mature trees and water features.

Reflecting the fast changing technological environment in which BP operate, the masterplan created a series of integrated buildings which could also be conceived as individual office buildings with their own frontage, car parking and access.

At the focal point of the second phase, the Link Building connects three commercial office buildings – which use the same structural system as Phase 1 – and includes an elegant curving glass façade facing the central courtyard. The Link building completes the southern section of the site providing a sense of arrival for the overall scheme. The building houses central facilities including reception, restaurant, meeting and break out spaces and a ‘town hall’ meeting space for 400 people. A distinctive saw-tooth roof is clad in photovoltaic panels, which provide shading to rooflight windows and power the ground water pumps that cool the building’s air supply. A highly efficient cycle was created whereby the more the sun shines, the greater the photovoltaic contribution, the harder the pumps work and the cooler the space becomes.

Sustainability was a key consideration in the Sunbury project with each building within the campus achieving either BREEAM Excellent or Very Good ratings. A mixed-mode energy strategy has informed the design of the buildings, combining advanced technology with natural passive systems. Throughout the project the team embraced and maximised the potential Broadway Malyan of new technologies such as photovoltaic panels, chill ceilings, displacement ventilation, thermal mass, natural ventilation and super airtight construction. CO2 emissions have been reduced by 50% compared to that of other typical BP UK buildings while waste was minimised through modular design and repetition and 80 per cent of all waste produced during construction was recycled.