Amazon, Coventry

The site in Coventry was originally developed by the government as a World War II “shadow factory” to make tank engines. In an attempt to disguise the factories from aerial attack they were daubed in camouflage, using muted landscape tones.

After the war this was the historic site for all Jaguar car production, as well as their corporate headquarters from the 1950’s until 2005, when the main factory closed after 75 years of production.

This building for Amazon is the largest of 5 buildings by Goodman on the site. The   L-shape site neatly divides into parking and building areas, with the Building Entrance between. Stair pods and a Bridge link provide a separation between vehicle movements and pedestrians.

The building is designed with 5 spans of 30m by 8m portal bays with internal hit & miss valley columns, with a large mezzanine to accommodate Amazon’s internal workflows.

Learning from the “shadow factory”, a palette of natural green tones in a vertical random pattern was chosen for the main elevations. This approach of ‘visual disruption’ is intended to soften the view from neighbouring residential areas during the seasons when trees have lost leaf.