Minerva, Westminster

Headquarters Entrance Courtyard

To win an invite-only design competition by submitting the best planting proposal for an entrance courtyard to a new headquarters building.

We broadened the brief to take in the whole sequence of approach, entrance and arrival at the new headquarters. The gates on Wigmore Street give way to an arcade, which in turn opens out onto the courtyard. Steps sweep down to the central area of the courtyard, which is enclosed by Camellia shrubs and overhung by a mature Acer palmatum. The planting has the effect of masking the other buildings while framing the headquarters building as the principal facade facing onto the courtyard and thus taking possession of the space.