In 2000, Land Securities Properties Ltd appointed Allies and Morrison as architects for the full redevelopment of the site occupied by St Christopher House and Tabard House, adjacent to the newly opened Tate Modern. In response to the changing context and to repair the disjointed urban grain formed by the existing buildings, the masterplan comprised a group of commercial office buildings set within a permeable public realm reconnecting the site with its surroundings. The simple forms and detailing of the buildings evoke the industrial character of Bankside whilst providing flexible and efficient floorplates capable of accommodating a wide range and combination of future tenants. They were designed to high sustainable standards with particular emphasis on lifetime flexibility, resilience, ease of maintenance and low carbon emissions. The spaces formed between the buildings each have a unique character and purpose and were designed, constructed and are now managed to optimize permeability, accessibility and activity. The buildings are fully occupied and their ground level retail units serve a vibrant mix of workers, visitors and local residents. Bankside 1, renamed the Blue Fin Building by IPC Media, was completed in 2005 and is the largest of the three buildings, with a gross internal area of 697,000 sq ft. Its plan arrangement is a continuous ring of efficient, flexible space encircling a central, glazed atrium and internal cores. The plan form shifts in response to the overlaid geometries of the site at the second and tenth floor, creating base, middle and top sections and producing ground floor covered porches and a roof terrace. These changes in geometry are telegraphed to the atrium, transforming it dramatically as it rises through thirteen storeys to its glazed roof. The external facades of the building comprise a unitised, fully-glazed aluminium curtain wall, shaded by vertical fins supported between horizontal shelves. The setting-out of the fins was randomly generated, but their angle and density was optimised to minimise solar gain on each facade aspect without obstructing views out. Through design collaboration with the manufacturer, a pre-fabricated system for the facade was developed based around a simple repetitive unit. The units were transported to site and installed on the building with the fins attached ensuring a fast, accurate, safe and exceptionally high quality installation requiring no external access. The various angles of the fins and the reflectivity of their metallic finish creates an ever-chaging, dynamic shimmer as the direction and intensity of the sun changes throughout the day. The construction of Bankside 2 and 3 commenced in 2005 and their shell and core and Cat A fit-out were completed in 2007. The buildings were conceived as a pair to give them an identity commensurate with the distinctive character of Bankside 1. Together they have a combined gross internal area of 588,000 sq ft and have been let in their entirety to the Royal Bank of Scotland for their new London headquarters. Both buildings follow a similar arrangement comprising flexible, efficient office floor plates wrapping around a central, glazed atrium accessed via generous ground level entrance halls. The primary entrances to both buildings face each other across a new landscaped public square whilst retail units provide active frontages to the public realm. Although rational, rectilinear forms in plan, the buildings are set at an angle to each other to create positive spaces between them and to enhance the manner with which they address the surrounding streets. This angle has been used to generate the geometry of the buildings’ deeply modelled facades, which comprise full-height glazed openings with splayed reveals clad in ceramic terracotta panels of six tones supported between a metalwork grid. The use of ceramic terracotta and the strong rhythm of the elevations is a reference to the industrial heritage of Bankside, whilst the horizontal components within the metalwork grid relate to those within the facade of Bankside 1.