You can look at the making of workplaces in two very different ways. The first is to make buildings that are air-conditioned, have the deepest possible (or bearable) plans and are sealed, smooth and roughly as long as they are wide. An elegant classic of this first kind is the Willis, Faber & Dumas building in Ipswich in Suffolk. The second way is to allow yourself to open the Pandora’s box labelled ‘Environmental Design’. As soon as the seal on the box is broken you find yourself tossed about in a welter of considerations that fundamentally alter the form and the aesthetic of buildings. The smooth, sealed, minimalist building box becomes impossible; the overall shape of the building must cause ventilating air to move through it, façades must open and close and shelter and protect; elevations that face into the Sun and away from the Sun may be different; materials needing small amounts of energy for their production might be used; heavy mass for energy retention, high levels of insulation and ventilating rain skins may be appropriate; and so the list would go on.