Evolution of the Office Building
We have collaborated with SGPM for many years, on many projects. With each new project the cooperation has become more efficient without precluding a first principles brief verification and analysis of the specific challenges and opportunities of every new project. Very close cooperation with the Client results in a very rigorous interrogation of each element of the brief including what we have learnt from the last project and how the market expectation is changing. We jointly push to be ahead of the times with responsible contextual architecture that advances the sector.
The Brief
The 3T brief continues to the commercial sector forwards and reflects the successful evolution of the Polish economy, the commercial office market and workplace standards. With 38,000sqm of net lettable area the 3T Office Park is the largest office project in the TriCity area. The scale of this undertaking was un precedented and as a result the challenges we faced were also different.
Since our first project with SGPM tenant expectations had moved on considerably with the Polish tenancy market now fully aligned with international expectations. All tenants now wanted more than spatial flexibility, they wanted MEP flexibility as well so that they weren’t constrained with how they planned their space.
Urban Context Creation
The site is in an area of Gdynia that is being urbanized. The plot of land for the development was empty but there were signs of buildings under construction all around. The 3T project will be by far the largest project in the area and become the focal point of the many smaller developments around. A new urban context was being created and 3T would be at the heart of it.
The main challenge of the project was how to achieve the brief area requirement without resorting to building volumes completely out of proportion with the context. Office projects in the area had focused on smaller, well-lit floor plates that attracted maximum 4-6 tenants per level. Since then though the tenant expectations had moved on and as such a greater variety of floor plate areas was needed.
A number of volumetric studies were completed which analysed how the floor area in the brief could be distributed on the site without resulting in over scaled dominant structure that would dwarf the neighbouring context. Our studies concluded that what was needed was one building that could also be three. The one building strategy would attract the tenants who could utilize a number of different floor configurations available within the complex and three buildings would suit tenants who either wanted buildings for themselves or wanted smaller floor plates.
The Building Concept as Part of an Integrated Urban Hub
Essentially 3T is a business park of three similar buildings elevated to sit on a shared connecting podium. It has the best of both worlds, smaller typical floor plates so that tenants with smaller area needs aren’t crowded onto one floor of the building as well as tenants with much larger area needs who take office space in the podium which has much larger floor plates. Contextually the individual volumes within the composition weren’t too dissimilar to the neighbouring buildings. By introducing the shared podium volume, we were also starting to form street frontages which would consolidate the urban feel
Whilst planning the new development we were cognisant of the existing public movement routes (‘desire lines’) around the site between the local destinations. Enhanced pedestrian and cycle routes were integral to the project and consideration of the future plans to locate the (now constructed) Gdynia Stadion rail station directly next to the project impacted substantially on the circulation.
“Village Square” within 3 Towers
It is critical within a development of this scale that the public realm is made a priority. Even though the project location is close to the City Centre and is adjacent to the Riviera retail centre – the concept of a sustainable development saw the incorporation of sustainable development principles into the project. Public facilities such as a clinic, food outlets, retail units and other services are all integrated into the podium. These functions reinforce the vibrant urban ‘village square’ we wanted to provide for the area.
The Architecture
The podium contains the public functions at ground level with the three individual building entrances and flexible office space above. Above the podium are the three main office volumes with 10, 13 and 10 levels. Each volume has a central core and dividable office space around it. The floor depths (façade to core) are all shallow, so the office space is very well naturally lit.
Below ground the development has a shared 2 story basement with 420 parking spaces. The roof of the podium provides space for landscaped terraces that can either be shared as common spaces or divided and allocated to specific tenants.
Smart Orientation and Façade Design for Sustainability
We design responsibly – that means looking for sustainability opportunities from day one. Sustainable gains are generally much more impactful and cheaper (often zero cost) in the earlier stages than at the tail end of the design process when technological devices give small gains (often with large costs).
One such large gain was to study building orientation, façade designs to lower operational and MEP installation costs. The orientation of the building and the advantages of passively controlling southern heat gain drove the façade logic of treating each office tower as two volumes – a glazed volume interlocking with a solid one. In principle the solid facades faced south to reduce solar heat gain and the fully glazed facades faced north to capture northern ambient daylight. This principle was applied to the two southern most towers. The third tower has its facades reversed around the other way – full glazing facing south, solid façade facing north. There is a logic as to why this tower works the other way around. The solid facade provides privacy between 3T and a new residential building to the north of 3T. The glazed façade facing south is not a solar heat gain problem as tower two substantially overshadows tower three making a glazed façade less exposed.
3T comfortably achieved Breeam Excellent pre-certification
Social Sustainability
The third sustainable aspect of any successful development (the first two being environmental and financial) is its social sustainability. The needs of the modern office user are broadening, and their expectations are no longer simply anonymous air conditioned, office environments full of desks. The softer issue of user well-being is rightly becoming a key issue when tenants choose in which building to locate their office space. Choosing a building that has considered user wellness a priority demonstrates they are considerate employers and that care for their employees is paramount. It also sends a positive signal to the market when they are recruiting.
As more and more employees desire a hybrid work life combining working from home with working from the office, the office needs to evolve to provide its users the same level of well-being and comfort as being at home. At 3T a substantial amount of time was focused on creating a working environment that met our ‘softer’ human needs. Generous public spaces and externally landscaped plazas create a wealth of destinations for tenants to use in their working lives beyond their own tenant areas. Each tower is even equipped with a roof top observation deck with fantastic sea views. Even though these ‘soft ‘ facilities in the building need to be paid for, they make the process of marketing and attracting good quality tenants much easier as they differentiate the development from its competitors.
BIM Technology Supporting the Construction Process
The 3T Office Park was constructed by one the leading European General Contractors – with a strong PM team supporting the Client in managing the delivery process. To ensure this was possible – meeting the budget and scheduling targets – whilst providing new levels of quality excellence, the entire multidisciplinary project was drawn and built using extensive BIM technology. The benefits of using BIM technology for this project meant that not only were we able to ensure fully integrated coordination between the disciplines – but that even though incredibly technically complex (also from the point of site management and organization) the building could be delivered quicker and with far fewer issues to address on site. They’d been successfully designed out and anticipated in the design and construction planning process.
This is the 7th office building AD-Studio have designed for SGPM in the Tri-City area – the others being the 5 buildings at the award winning Łużycka Office Park and the Łużycka Plus. All highly successful and sought-after office locations.
Recently 3T Office Park won the European Property Awards award for “Best office development in Poland 2020-2021”.
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