Call centres are a scourge of modern commercial life, a twenty-first-century version of the mill or factory to be built as cheaply and expediently as possible. So this new call centre in Galway by Dublin-based Bucholz McEvoy is that rare thing; decent, environmentally conscious architecture, that humanises the workplace. There is a commercial upside to such virtuousness, in reduced running costs and low staff turnover, but it also acts as a powerful retort to lowest common denominator impulses and instincts. We need more good examples of bad building types.
The client, SAP, is a German software company. Its new contact centre deals with technical queries by phone from around the Western hemisphere. To cover different time zones, the 360 staff work in three shifts, so typical building occupancy is around 18 hours, from 7am to 1am. As each staff member toils at an individual workstation rather than hot desking, different parts of the building are occupied at different times of day. The staff age profile is young, between 21 and 30. For some, it is their first experience of office life and the working environment will condition expectations and performance.
Because of the more variable occupancy patterns, heating, cooling and ventilation requirements change with shifts and seasons. So Bucholz McEvoy developed an integrated approach that exploits passive techniques of environmental control and minimises mechanical systems, but is also flexible enough to respond to these changing conditions.
The site is on a business park east of Galway, a typically featureless edge-of-town condition. Two three-storey blocks of offices flank a central glazed atrium. The shallow 13m wide office bars are orientated on a north-south axis to minimise thermal insolation. The atrium acts as a buffer space both socially and environmentally. A soothing internal landscape of birch trees, pebble beds and timber benches gives workers visual and experiential respite. A herringbone grid of thin plywood beams supports the glazed atrium roof.
