Zurich celebrates 'topping out' and artist appointment for new office building

On Wednesday 18 August, insurer Zurich announced that it would be hosting a ‘topping out’ ceremony to celebrate a milestone in the building of its Swindon office project with Skanska. The ceremony celebrated reaching the highest point of construction for ‘Unity Place’ - its new state of the art office which is set to be completed in the summer of 2022.  Justin Tomlinson, MP Swindon North also attended the event.

At the same time, Zurich also announced that artist Charlotte Kidger has been commissioned to produce artwork for the exterior of the building to reflect the project’s focus on sustainability, community and wellbeing. Charlotte, who also attended the ceremony, was chosen from a shortlist of 30 artists due to her focus on transforming industrial waste materials to create functional and beautiful objects in a project that is being delivered by Ginkgo Projects. Her design concepts will be unveiled at the end of the year.   

Unity Place is looking to secure a BREEAM[1] rating of ‘Excellent’ on completion having minimised waste during construction and with plans to continue this through the building’s life cycle. Energy will be supplied by renewable sources, it will be ‘single use plastic’ free and aims to be a paperless office with no printing or filing with all post digitalised. Electric car charging will also be installed for visitors along with extra facilities for cyclists, to encourage more sustainable means of getting to and from work.

You can read the full announcement here.

Image courtesy skanska.co.uk.