S-Tiles - PARAGON, MCLAREN TECHNOLOGY CENTRE

	[PARAGON, MCLAREN TECHNOLOGY CENTRE]
	Name: McLaren Technology Centre		Design: Foster and Partners, Londra
	Destination of use: offices, laboratories, visitors and training centre, wind tunnel		Manufacturer: Pastorelli Ceramiche (Gruppo Del Conca)
	City: Woking, Surrey		Ceramic Materials: 42,000sq m of floor and walls tiles
	Country: Regno Unito
	Type of intervention: internal flooring and coverings
	Costumers: McLaren Corp.
	Year of completion: 2003
	The Project
	From the air, the Paragon - McLaren Technology Centre can hardly fail to catch the eye. It looks, for all the world, like an ancient Chinese yin-yang symbol inscribed, unexpectedly, in the pages of a polite Surrey landscape near Woking. On closer inspection, the interweaving black and white elements of this ambitious new headquarters for the TAG McLaren Group - makers of McLaren grand prix racing cars - prove to be a pairing of an artificial lake and a kidney-shaped factory. As in the yin-yang symbol, these two elements are interactive and interdependent. Each gives the other energy; you cannot have one without the other. McLaren's new Technology Centre will make architectural history. "It's one of those rare occasions when the nature, the workings and the appearance of a factory really do matter, not just to those who'll work there but to those who visit.” - said Norman Foster.