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The Client wanted one building to accommodate a printing press, newsroom and offices for a large
community weekly newspaper. The building was to say something about Belfast and a suggested material was brick.
The design approach was to separate the two main functions into distinct blocks. Using the
social spaces/café as link the blocks are twisted apart, one to the grid of the commercial core of the city and the other at the grid of the local neighbourhood.
An early strategy was to allow a linear progression from entrance to news in-tray to journalist
to printing press to packing to distribution. A hot line of sight. By treating the building as two blocks we were able to use the opportunity to propose different materials to express the nature and
programmatic content of the blocks.
The printing press is housed in a metal box, a pristine smooth panel fixed to a metal frame which
is also exposed internally. The newsroom and offices are within a layered brick and glass box, the first floor of which extends over the base onto concrete posts to create an entrance arcade.
The first floor brickwork is contained in metal frames - the material that forms the character of Belfast used with reference to a Contemporary European Language.
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