Charcoal on tracing paper, c.1958
RCAHMS: Sir Basil Spence Archive
This interior perspective of an office by Basil Spence and Partners is typical of the time. The freehand drawing shows a modern, airy, light-flooded entrance foyer, with clean lines and no applied decoration. This building embodies both the status of the company, and the needs of the staff.
The office building is one of the defining building types of our lifetime; it has changed the face of cities all over the world. Many of us spend more waking hours in the office than we do in our homes.
Basil Spence and Partners built offices throughout the world, including the Scottish Widows Fund and Life Assurance Society Head Office, St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, 1962.