MICHAEL HOPKINGS
High Tech Architecture
BY: VISHAKA BOTHRA

Contents
• Biography
• Awards and Achievements
• Works undertaken
• Examples
 PORTCULLIS HOUSE
 INLAND REVENUE BUILDING
 WELLCOME TRUST BUILDING
 THE FORUM, NOEWICH

BIOGRAPHY
• Ar. Michael Hopkins was
born on 7th May 1935 in
Poole, Dorset, England.
• He educated at Sherborne
school and trained at
Architectural Association.
• He worked for Frederick
Gibberd before entering
into partnership with
Norman Foster.
• He was one of the leading
figures in the introduction
of High-Tech Architecture
into Britain.

• In 1976, Hopkins set up
what became HOPKINS
ARCHITECTS in
partnership with his wife.
• One of their first building
was their own house in
Hampstead.
• He was elected to the Royal
Academy in 1992.
• Hopkins received the Royal
Institute of British Architects
Royal Gold Medal in 1994.

NOTABLE BUILDINGS
• University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre, London
• London 2012 Velodrome, London
• Rice University: South Colleges, USA
• Princeton University: Frick Chemistry Laboratory, New Jersey
• Norwich Cathedral Hostry, Norwich
• Nottingham Trent University: Newton and Arkwright
Buildings, Nottingham
• Yale University: Kroon Hall, USA
• Dubai International Financial Centre: Gate Village, Dubai,
• Lawn Tennis Association: National Tennis
Centre, Roehampton, United Kingdom
• Evelina Children's Hospital, London, Wellcome Trust: Gibbs
Building, London
• Portcullis House, London, The Forum, Norwich, United
Kingdom
• Inland Revenue Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom
• Wellcome Trust Building, London
• The Forum, Norwich

PORTCULLIS
HOUSE
• Portcullis House is an office
building in Westminster, London,
England that was opened in 2001.
• The building is named after the
chained portcullis used to
symbolize the Houses of
Parliament on letterheads and
official documents.
• The building is six-storeys high
and, like other buildings of
the high-tech architecture style,
has its services and structure
expressed externally.

• The building was designed by Michael Hopkins
and Partners and incorporates Westminster
tube station below it.
• Its form and structure is organized around a
central atrium.
• The building is supported by six huge
foundation piles.
• Where these piles meet the courtyard, they
emerge above ground to support a series of
concrete arches that form the sides of the
atrium.
• The arches also provide structural support for a
huge glass canopy that covers the atrium and
is further supported by a grid of steel and oak.

• Portcullis House's chimneys are not used to
expel fumes but are part of an unpowered air
conditioning system, which is designed to
draw air through the building by exploiting
natural convection flows.
• The building itself was designed to look and
feel like a ship inside.
• All the offices and passages are made up
with bowed windows and light oak finishing.
• Each floor looks identical to the others
except the ground floor which houses the
main courtyard with ship-like metallic sails
suspended overhead.
• The offices at Portcullis House are generally
in sets of two sharing a common bay in the
centre.

INLAND REVENUE
BUILDING
• It is located in Nottingham, UK.
• Seven separate buildings, in the
form of courtyards and L-shaped
blocks, are arranged along a curving
spine road.
• The office buildings were extensively
pre-fabricated to meet a tight
construction programme.
• The local bricks of the load-bearing
piers were laid in a factory around
steel lifting rods and support shallow
barrel-vaulted concrete floor
spanning the width of the building.
• The office buildings are capped with
projecting lead-clad attics.

• The amenity building has a fabric roof
suspended from four raking steel
masts and is placed centrally along
the spine.
• It is both the visual and social centre
of the complex, containing a multi-
purpose sports hall.
• At night the inherent thermal mass of
the concrete is exploited and purged
with fresh air to pre cool the structure.
• At the corners of the buildings, the air
within the glass block stair towers
warms and rises on sunny days,
giving extra drive to the ventilation
system.

WELLCOME TRUST
BUILDING
• Wellcome Trust is the
headquarter building for the
largest medical research charity,
located in London.
• The building consists of two
blocks of accommodation - one
wider, of eight stories, facing
Euston Road to the north, and a
narrower four storey parallel
block to the south.
• Over both is a curving glazed
roof, enveloping a generous
atrium between.
• This composition means the
entire ground floor can be used
as one huge floorplate, linked to
the existing headquarters.

• Above this, each floor of the northern
block has five large 18m by 12m bays,
separated by service cores, and with
double height mini-atria to break down
the large, open working areas into
focused spaces for rapid and casual
interaction between team members.
• Double skin, glazed façades create an
environmental buffer between inside
and out.
• Translucent glazed stair towers
articulate the internal space.

THE FORUM
• The Forum is a community
building
in Norwich, Norfolk in
England.
• The amphitheater-like
steps at the front have
provided a venue for
functions such as amateur
theatrical performances,
outdoor opera, musical
competitions, art
exhibitions,
processions, and
celebrations.

• The Forum is conceived as a courtyard
surrounded by a three storey, horseshoe-
shaped enclosure of loadbearing brickwork,
which accommodates the various activities
on a series of balconies.
• The courtyard roof is supported by bow-
string steel trusses forming leaf shaped
panels, infilled with acoustically absorbent
material or glazing.
• Light enters into the heart of the building,
creating a dynamic public atrium.
• The key sustainable strategy is the use of
the building mass as a 'passive'
environmental modifier, and the introduction
of 'active' building engineering systems to
assist the fabric in recycling ambient energy.

THANK YOU