Atrium 12
A 1930s textile warehouse reopened around a planted atrium — daylight, quiet and room to think.
A warehouse opened around a garden.
Atrium 12 turns a 1930s textile warehouse into a workplace for 260 people, arranged around a planted court that brings daylight deep into the plan.
The building had good bones: a concrete frame, tall ceilings and a sawtooth roof. It also had a dark centre that no amount of desk lighting could fix. Our first move was to remove a quarter of the first floor and plant a courtyard in the void.
Around the atrium, the plan is deliberately loose — a sequence of rooms rather than a field of desks. Meeting rooms are lined in felt and oak; the café opens to the street; a library occupies the quietest corner. Materials are reused where possible: floorboards from the old loading deck, bricks from a demolished partition.
The roof is now planted and accessible, with a small pavilion for lunches and events. The building is expected to use 40% less energy than its previous fit-out, largely through daylight, natural ventilation and a well-sealed envelope.
Inside the project.
A workplace designed to be photographed at lunchtime, when the atrium is at its fullest.
Our people come back after lunch to sit by the trees. That was never in the brief.
Mette Fritz, Fritz & Søn