Shady Dealings At Gaming Firm's Sunderland HQ

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A games company has a new Sunderland HQ embracing industrial architecture while using state-of-the-art SageGlass technology for shading and a comfortable working environment.

Low Street in the British city of Sunderland was once a place where goods were warehoused and ships were built. Today, the young professionals here dream up online games for Tombola in this new headquarters building by Ryder Architecture.

The main feature of the new building is its trio of roof pitches that merge seamlessly with the longer sides of the red brick outer shell. To contrast this, the fully glazed facade on the eastern side forms the face of the building and opens up the view of the nearby port.

A central, open stairwell links the three floors and allows visual contact across all the levels. The wide, single-flight stairway provides space for meeting others and the seating areas in the middle section invite people to linger.

In the evening, the spatial transparency also becomes apparent from outside the building as the front facade loses its reflective effect and the inner levels of the building emit a uniform glow of warm light.

Comfort

The user comfort and climate design also needed to meet the latest standards. As most of the company’s staff work on a computer, it was essential to control glare at their workstations. Everyone agreed that the striking appearance of the pitched roofs and glass facade should not be diminished in any way by internal or external shading systems.

The team of architects discovered SageGlass. The dynamic electrochromic glass not only met the clients’ ambitions for the building aesthetically and functionally, it also provides major performance benefits such as lower HVAC costs and improved individual comfort. A total of 9,365 square feet of SageGlass Climaplus Gray was installed.

Tint

SageGlass automatically tints in response to the position of the sun, meaning that it can precisely meet the needs of the building’s users. The smart glass also reduces operating costs, as it allows comprehensive control of the heat and light entering the building.

Picture: The Tombola HQ Sunderland exterior and interior.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
29th October 2020

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