<h1>Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters</h1>

The office building of Willis Faber & Dumas is one of the first realizations by the Foster Associates office, which emerged after the dissolution of Team 4. At the same time, on April 25, 1991, it succeeded in obtaining the status of a Grade I listed building as the youngest structure in Britain, meaning it can never be altered architecturally. Two years after its completion, the building received a RIBA Award. In 1990, it was awarded the title of RIBA Architecture Awards Trust, Trustees Medal, and was designated one of the most beautiful buildings in the world designed by a British architect over the past quarter-century.
The amebic form of the Willis Group headquarters (a company involved in crisis management and insurance brokerage) arose from the irregular shape of the building plot in the center of Ipswich, which is surrounded by several busy intersections. The dominant feature inside the three-story building for 1,300 employees is a central lobby with a battery of escalators leading from the entrance to the rooftop terrace with a restaurant and garden. Another initiative that aimed to encourage a sociable life among employees was a 25-meter swimming pool on the ground floor of the building. Due to low usage, the pool was eventually closed in the 1980s, covered with a wooden floor, and today serves as additional office space. However, the trace of the pool is still visible thanks to a glass strip embedded in the carpet on the floor.
The construction of the 750 mm thick cassette ceiling panels rests on reinforced concrete columns arranged in a grid of 14 x 14 meters. The more slender load-bearing columns surrounding the perimeter of the building are spaced every 7 meters. Throughout the perimeter and stair lobby, the brackets are exposed and taper, adding lightness and elegance to the ceilings. The heavily reinforced concrete structure (three layers of reinforcement above the column heads) designed by Anthony Hunt Associates lacks any expansion joints. Due to its stiffness, a stabilizing core was also unnecessary. The load-bearing columns (with 40 mm thick reinforcement) have a diameter of one meter on the ground floor, tapering in profile on each subsequent floor. The façade of the building consists of frameless glazing. The smoky tone of the glass is intended to prevent overheating of the interior from sunlight.