Rover Group Design Complex
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External view of entrance
Peter Cook/View (website) Download Original
Flexible design and engineering complex for the Rover Group
The various building elements of the design, workshops and engineering offices, are laid out around a street, which runs east to west through the building. The width of the street is determined by the need to move large, unpowered vehicles from the workshops that flank it. A cafe and informal meeting space add value to the space.
Offices for around 650 engineers are located over two floors on the north side of the street. At the western end is the design complex, which has a fully glazed northern facade overlooking a garden.
A separate, distinctive wing to the north houses the directors, project teams, meeting rooms and a break-out space. This wing is joined to the main building by a light, airy reception area.
A steel-frame and precast-concrete floor units make up the structure. A aluminium and glass rainscreen system clads the building.
Data
- Begun: Mar 1995
- Completed: Oct 1996
- Floor area: 30,380m2
- Sector: Industrial
- Total cost: £29M
- Procurement: Partnership Procurement
- Address: Rover Group Design Complex, Gaydon, Warwickshire, CV35 0BJ, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Weedon Partnership
- Project architects: John Carter, Terry Lee
- Client: Rover Group
- Quantity surveyor: Yeoman & Edwards
- Structural engineer: David J Rolton Consulting Engineers
- Services engineer: Rolton Services Consultants
- Main contractor: SDC Builders
- Landscape architect: Barry Chinn Associates