Destined to be the largest purpose-built office building in Grand Cayman at 10 000 sqm. The folded rhombic form is broken down to resemble four buildings stitched together at the points of shared vertical access and amenity. The tartan grid, variable windows and shaved corners create a dynamic protective façade and the central atrium creates new environmental and social opportunities within. The office floors are arranged around a central atrium, which brings daylight flooding into the heart of the building so that all parts of all floors can benefit. This also allows views throughout the interior from one wing to another and between floors across this central space. In this way the support staff occupying the open-plan interior parts of the building share in its grandeur and its expansive generous internal environment. For most of their working day their desks will be lit only by daylight moderated by the atrium roof high above them. Using engineering at the cutting edge of global technology, Walkers intend to show the way forward in climate-responsive building design. Basic sound good practices, such as limiting the solar gain to the building’s interior are combined with state-of-the art environmental control techniques.These are employed throughout, setting off initial increased capital costs against long-term energy-saving advantages, making the Walkers HQ an example of a new sustainable architecture: added environmental value designed specifically for the island. Walkers’ headquarters will be designed to be Category Five Hurricane Ready and sustain minimal damage in this eventuality both to itself and the surrounding neighbourhood.The particular arrangement of its structural form is engineered with this in mind so that every part of the fabric contributes to its strength. For example, the visible lattice at the building’s cores on each of its main facades brace the building and the angled parapets at roof level attenuate for wind load on the atrium roof. Walkers intend their enlightened attitude, permeating through the whole building, to be clearly visible from its exterior so that the building itself will be a public sign of their intent, immediately apparent from Elgin Avenue. Walkers are setting new standards of employment practice in the design of their workplace. They want these high expectations and the embodied added value to be reflected in every aspect of their new building to make a new architecture that will be truly Cayman. with Woods Bagot UK Ltd