The first Grade-A office building in the Liverpool City Region for more than a decade, The Spine in Paddington Village, is now completed and occupied.
The 14,864-square-meter (160,000-square-foot), 14-story building, designed by architecture and building consultancy practice AHR, stands more than 153 meters (500 feet) above sea level. Construction took four years, and cost £35 million (US$50 million).
The new northern home for the Royal College of Physicians draws inspiration from the systems of the human body. The façade takes inspiration from the human skin, with the striking Voronoi pattern including 23 million individual polygons applied in a frit pattern to the glazing. Inside the building, the primary structure represents the skeleton with exposed concrete columns molded to reflect the trabecular system within human bones. The building’s name is derived from The Spine the geometric staircase to the north of the building, inspired by the form of the human vertebrae and visible from the outside.
Biophilia and sustainable practices are a focus at the building. Three double-height spaces on the ground, 10th and 12th floors, filled with plants improve the internal environment. A nearby 14-story parking structure features a large number of bicycle spaces and electric car charging points. This facility also houses a low-carbon heating exchange system in its ground floor which will heat The Spine.
A dedicated exhibition space on the first floor will connect via a staircase to a ground floor café and foyer, while the higher floors, which are around 1,073 square meters (11,550 square feet), feature floor-to-ceiling glazing throughout.
Sited in Paddington Village, a 12-hectare (30-acre) site formerly housing a secondary school, future neighbors will include a health, life sciences and tech focused building, and a Novotel hotel.
For more on this story, go to PBC Today and AHR.