Dundee House
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Dave Morris Download Original
Refurbishment and extension of a four-storey listed industrial building, constructed in 1910 to house Dundee City Council's offices
The existing building, classical with rows of tripartite windows and tall arches, is transformed into a ‘civic loggia’. The seven-storey extension projects backwards from the original structure into an array of three open plan office spurs.
The plan-form of the building exploits the linear layout with a cruciform circulation plan at ground-floor level and a pedestrian route zigzagging across from the loggia. Most of this is left open as a two-storey civic space with two additional floors of offices and a glazed, meeting room floor above.
A web of corridors, light wells and glimpsed views dissolve gradually as one ascends through the building. The building uses a limited palette of enduring materials: oak, brick, stone, glass, concrete. Rough brick of the retained building dominates the interior spaces.
The rear external brick wall extends over the entire building. On the east side, a set-back, gold-tinted glazed attic block manages the transition from low front to high back. To the west, the strong forms of the three splayed office towers are faced with a gridded pattern of light pink Danish brick piers and precast concrete slabs.
Data
- Begun: Jun 2009
- Completed: May 2011
- Floor area: 12,500m2
- Sector: Civic
- Total cost: £29.8M
- Procurement: Two stage traditional
- CO2 Emissions: 26kg/m2/year
- Address: 50 North Lindsay Street, Dundee, DD1 1QE, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Reiach and Hall Architects
- Project architects: Lyle Christie, Neil Gillespie, Nick O'Neill
- Client: Dundee City Council
- Structural engineer: Buro Happold
- M&E consultant: Buro Happold
- Quantity surveyor: Turner and Townsend
- Planning supervisor: Reiach and Hall Architects
- Lighting consultant: Spiers and Major Associates
- Lighting consultant: Buro Happold
- Lighting consultant: Reiach and Hall Architects
- Main contractor: Lend Lease Projects
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