The original note, as written at the time
Is it so terrible having this for a Dream Office for Creative Work? All landscaping, work pods — lots of organic work pods. At the centre of it all shall be a three level tower stepped with three suspended green terraces. I spend money on the structural core, which shall serve as secure central storage. I invest less on windows and doors and invest more on security systems.
Ongoing development
A dream office for creative work: landscaping, work pods — lots of organic work pods — and at the centre a three-level tower, stepped, with three suspended green terraces. Spend on the structural core, which serves as secure central storage. Spend less on windows and doors, more on security.
The allocation of money is the design idea and it is unusual enough to be worth stating. Almost every office building spends on the envelope, because the envelope is what the client sees and what the photograph shows. This one spends on the core, because the core is what holds everything and what can be locked.
Security as a design brief rather than an afterthought changes the plan. A building with a strong central core and light perimeter has a different logic: valuables, records and equipment live in one defended volume, and the workspace around it can be open, cheap and temporary.
The suspended green terraces are the other half and they cost nothing structurally if they hang from the core, which is the same move as spending on the core. Everything interesting about this building comes from one decision about where the money went.
The organic work pods are the part I would guard against. A pod is a room, and rooms in an open plan are either too enclosed to collaborate or too open to concentrate. Three kinds of pod, clearly differentiated, would beat forty of the same.
The best offices are the ones where the money went somewhere you cannot photograph.