Commissioned by the well-known décor and homeware company Hertex, this building serves as their national distribution centre and associated offices. 

As a company which specialises in textiles and designer homeware, the brief was to create a building with more grace and sophistication than the standard industrial ‘box’. In response to this brief, we conceived the main roof as a curving and voluptuous cloth (reminiscent of the fabrics which are stored within), which generously enfolds the main warehouse and working spaces within, and lifts to allow abundant natural light into the warehouse. The curved roof lends the building an elegance and is also an efficient and cost-effective solution to the practical aspects of the brief. 

The office component continues the theme of curving elements, only here the curves are expressed vertically as the external envelope of the office building sweeps around the South, East and North facades. The finishing touch is a permeable lasercut screen which is suspended in front of the facade, evocative of the patterned fabrics for which the client is so well known, and which provides sun-screening to the office spaces within.