Mirroring Ipswich: Contextual Glass Transparency of the Willis Building
Shaped like a grand piano, the curved, three-story Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters (1975) by Foster Associates1 in Ipswich, UK is draped from the roof to the sidewalk in dark gray, frameless glass curtain wall in a continuous ribbon (Figure 3.1). In Louis Sullivan’s tripartite grammar of a high-rise (base, shaft, and capital), it appears to be nearly all shaft, with deemphasized base and capital. The Willis Building — as it is now called - made pioneering contributions to glass transparency. Notably, the building achieved a breakthrough in the curtain wall system; Foster’s team worked with glass manufacturer Pilkington to suspend glass panels from concrete floors by metal corner patch plates, absent of mullions. They realized the dream of frameless glass curtain walls depicted in Mies van der Rohe’s drawings of the Freidrichstrasse Skyscraper (1921) and the Glass Skyscraper (1922).
Additionally, the Willis Building presented an alternative approach to an urban glass building that is contextual while radically contrasting the masonry buildings that surround it. In comparison to the freestanding mirrored glass box buildings in the sprawling office parks of the 1960s, or the conventional rectilinear high-rise, Foster’s building responds purposely to its urban context. The building fills the boundaries of the irregularly curved medieval streets “like a pancake in a pan,”2 in Foster’s words. The building exhibits mutable readings on and through the glass at different times of the day. In the daytime, the frameless glass curtain wall becomes a scrim on which the masonry buildings across the street appear reflected in the black tinted glass. It denies views into the office, except on occasions where the interior is lit more brightly than the exterior. At night, the building reverses the black piano-like reading: the transparent glass walls expose the illuminated interior and concrete structures like an X-ray (Figure 3.2). While modern and high-tech in appearance, its
FIGURE 3.1 The northwest façade on Princes Street reflects both itself and the building across the street. The main entrance with three revolving doors is located on thr lower left side.
Photograph: Author (2019).
FIGURE 3.2 At night, the transparent glass walls expose the illuminated interior and concrete structures like an X-ray.
Courtesy of Norman Foster Foundation (1971—1975).
undulating footprint and building height echo the city’s history. Finally, the building introduces a new kind of idealism through social transparency in the workplace; it realizes latent ideas of Climatroffice, a novel workplace imagined and drawn by Foster and Buckminster Fuller a few years earlier in 1971. The Willis Building cultivated non-hierarchical interactions among employees and employers through architectural elements, such as sky-lit escalators that run visibly through the center of office floors, a pool adjacent to the reception area for employees and their families, and a planted rooftop with a restaurant for meals and breaks.
Building in an English Medieval City
The building was commissioned by the insurance company founded by Henry' Willis in 1828 in London. A global leader in the industry, the company insured the ill-fated Titanic in 1912 and in 1972 the moon buggy, the rover vehicle of the NASA Apollo program.3 At the time of the building commission in 1970, Willis, Faber & Dumas, as the company was called, had a series of buildings throughout London. In 1971, they had 21,000 employees, and the new building would bring 1,200 under one roof. They chose the city' of Ipswich for a variety of reasons: its proximity' to London, which is an hour by train; good schools; a variety of housing options; closeness to the countryside; and the building’s location in an historic city center.4 The Ipswich city planners were keen to support commercial developments that would bring the prestigious company and employment opportunities. Consequently, they approved a strikingly contemporary architecture proposal that more conservative officials might have denied.5
The building occupies the footprints of former buildings that were demolished, while stopping short of the historic Unitarian Meeting House (1700) to its immediate east. “It should preserve and reinforce the street pattern, rather than impose an alien geometry on the site,” said Foster at a preliminary' presentation to the client in 1971/’ The seemingly amorphous shape of the building results from tracing the existing streets: the winding medieval streets of Prince and Friars Streets to the north; Franciscan Way to the southwest, which in the 1960s had become a ring road with a roundabout adjacent to the western tip; and another portion of Franciscan Way to the south. The road running on a north-south axis between its east wall and the Unitarian Meeting House defines the only straight portion - and the least visible - of the façade (Figure 3.3).7 Despite its strikingly contemporary appearance, the history of Ipswich pushed and pulled the perimeter outline of the building.
Initially, some residents of Ipswich reacted adversely. They were skeptical of the virtually black, irregularly shaped glass building that they could not see into during the day. When the interior became visible at night, the office floors were empty with no one working inside, which further intensified the
FIGURE 3.3 Site plans showing existing condition (upper left), final scheme (lower right), and two preliminary schemes. The seemingly amorphous shape of the building results from tracing the existing streets.
Courtesy of Norman Foster Foundation (1971—1975).
mystery of the foreign building.8 However, the people of Ipswich were given tours of the office and, over time, softened their opinions. In 1991, the Willis Building was listed as a Grade I building by the British government for its architectural significance, becoming the youngest building in England to receive such status and given protection against demolition or alteration.9
