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BUILDING
 
 
McLaren Production Centre
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DESIGNER
 
 
Foster + Partners
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DESCRIPTION
 
Foster + Partners McLaren Production CentreThe McLaren Production Centre is the second building designed by Foster + Partners at McLaren’s rural site on the outskirts of London. The 34,500-square-metre facility is intended for the manufacture of a range of high-performance road cars and is located to the south-west of the existing McLaren Technology Centre. The two buildings will be connected by a subterranean walkway, lined with interactive exhibition spaces. Sharing a common language of details and materials, the new building is clad in aluminium tubes, the rounded corners of its rectilinear plan reference the curves of the Technology Centre and the entrance, echoing the existing building, is a circular glass drum beneath the overhang of the roof canopy.

Foster + Partners McLaren Production CentreThe MPC further develops an approach to industrial architecture that was first explored in some of the practice’s earliest projects for Reliance Controls and Renault. The roof canopy is supported by a series of slender columns based on a standard grid with repeated components, and services are integrated with the painted steel structure. McLaren’s manufacturing processes are closer in spirit to an operating theatre than a factory and the new building, with its ceramic tiled floors, is designed to showcase this technology. The linear arrangement of the two-storey structure mirrors the flow of the production line: components are delivered; the cars are assembled, painted and tested, and then pass through a rolling road and car wash, before leaving the building. Below this is a basement level for storage and above is a mezzanine floor with views over the production line.

The expansion of the campus is a similarly discreet intervention in the landscape. Rising to just over 7 metres in height and embedded in the gentle incline of the site, the MPC is sensitive to its rural setting and will not be visible from the nearby road. Further screening will be provided by the extensive planting of trees and excavated material will help to conceal the building within the hill. The new building is also designed to be sustainable – the Technology Centre uses the lake for its cooling system, so the roof of the MPC supports this by collecting rainwater and implementing a low-energy system of displacement ventilation.
Scale comparisons
  • Foster + Partners McLaren Production Centre3 jumbo jets can fit in the floor plan area

  • 2,469 F1 cars could fit in the ground floor plan area

  • If all the 218,000 ceramic tiles specified were laid end to end they would stretch from London to Reading

  • If all the steel columns were stacked on top of each other they would reach a height of 895m, almost 3 times the height of the Eiffel tower (324m)

  • 180,000m3 of soil excavated. This would fill level +1 and Ground level of McLaren Technology centre

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MATERIALS
 
steel, reinforced concrete

1,500 piles, each around 14 m in length

210,000 m3 of concrete with typical pour sizes of 500m3

9,200 m2 of blockwork equating to 92,000 blocks

1,500 tonnes of structural steelwork makes up the frame, 30 pieces of steel erected each day throughout the programme

Approximately 200,000 m3 of material was excavated as part of the basement box construction, including the temporary batter


Cladding

Glazed walls

Aluminium tubes

9m panels

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ECO-SUSTAINABILITY
 
Foster + Partners McLaren Production CentreAlthough the McLaren Production Centre represents a major increase in McLaren’s capabilities at its Woking campus, the building is dug into in the gentle incline of the site, to give it a discreet presence in the landscape. The lower floor is sunk completely below ground and the superstructure is almost invisible from the nearby road, with further screening provided by extensive tree planting.

The new McLaren Production Centre is designed to be environmentally efficient. The roof collects rainwater and has been designed to integrate photovoltaic panels in future; and the building incorporates a low-energy system of displacement ventilation. No soil was removed from the site, and all excavated material has been used to conceal the building within the green-belt landscape.

  • 34% reduction in CO2 emissions by design from ADL2A baseline

  • 820 new trees - 68 existing mature trees replanted on site before birdnesting season

  • The paint shop requires no air conditioning - a conventional paint shop would require an additional 2.5 megawatts to operate

  • 180,000m3 of soil displaced during construction retained on site and reused in the landscaping project to screen the MPC from view
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LOCATION
 
Continent
Europe
Nation
United Kingdom
State
England
Region
South East
County
Surrey
District
Woking
Town
Woking
Address
Chertsey Road, GU21 4YH Woking (Guilford Road)
 
 
Website
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MAP
 
 
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TYPOLOGY
 
ARCHITECTURE
Industrial buildings and plants
Firms, factories, workshops
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CHRONOLOGY
 
Project
2009    
Realisation
2010 - 2011
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AWARDS
 
2012
Judges Special Award
BCIA British Construction Industry Awards
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BIBILIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
 
 
"McLaren Automotive. Foster & Partners", Blueprint 291, june 2010, p. 31
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CLIENT
 
 
McLaren Group
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DIMENSIONAL
DATA
 
Surface
gross sq.m. 34,500

ground sq.m. 19,223
basement sq.m. 13,167 (not including tunnel area)

external plant sq.m. 620
Height
building: m. 6.60

ground m. 5.00 (floor to ceiling)
basement m. 4.00 (floor to ceiling)
Lenght
building: m. 200

tunnel between visitors centre and MPC: m. 100
Widht
building: m. 100
Floors
2 (ground and basement)
Dimensions
Structural grid
ground level: m. 21 x 18
basement: m. 9 x 9
Capacity
Parking
400 car space
76 bike spaces
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STRUCTURES
 
 
Buro Happold
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LANDSCAPE DESIGN
 
 
Terence O’Rourke
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STAFF
 
Project
Foster + Partners
Project architect
Norman Foster, David Nelson, Nigel Dancey
Design team
Iwan Jones, Dominik Hauser, Nina Linde, Chris Johnstone, Kathleen Mark, Nicholas Papas
Systems
Buro Happold
Consultant for energy and environment
PHA Consult
Quantity surveyor
Gardiner & Thebold
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RELATED PROJECTS
 
 
Norman Foster, Foster + Partners, TAG McLaren, Arup, Woking, England
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CREDITS
 
 
Text edit by Foster + Partners
Photos © McLaren, © Nigel Young
Drawings © Foster + Partners
Courtesy by Foster + Partners

Norman Foster McLaren Production Center


If you haven't already clicked on the photo strip at the top of the page, for the gallery of photos [14 images] and drawings [9 images], enter here
 
 
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