When Cooper changed the face of Grand Prix racing in the late 1950s with their “kit car” of bought-in components, they did so from a simple garage workshop – the sort of small-time establishment that may have serviced your old car 20 or 30 years ago. Most of the teams that went on to dominate Formula One in the 1960s and early 1970s were based very much on the Cooper blueprint. Typically, these workshops would be home to around 15–25 employees. The cars would be designed, built, and race-prepared there. Ken Tyrrell’s team, which won three World Championships between 1969 and 1973, was based in a former timber yard. Then the money began to come in. When the car producers began returning to the sport, they brought not just the hardware of their engines to the specialist teams, but also vast research and development budgets. Teams quickly quadrupled in size and workforce, wind tunnels were built together with autoclaves where the cars’ carbon-fibre chassis are built. Today a top Formula One team employs over 600 people. And they no longer operate from timber yards or roadside garages. They are based in places like McLaren’s Paragon Centre.
Designed by the world-renowned architect Lord Foster (who numbers the Reichstag building in Berlin and Hong Kong airport among his credits), the Paragon Centre’s stunning circular glass and steel structure is housed within a 50-acre site. It has two man-made lakes – one of them inside the building! Within the circular form are 18-metre wide “fingers” housing individual departments. Between each are 6-metre wide “pavements” that also bring in sunlight and ventilation. The lakes form an intrinsic part of the building’s cooling. Hot air from the on-site wind tunnel heats the building when needed; the exterior lake cools it when it’s not. An underground tunnel links the Paragon Centre to an auxiliary building, in which is housed the McLaren museum. Fittingly, the man whose vision this all is – McLaren’s Ron Dennis –began his involvement in racing by working in Cooper’s roadside garage.
Designed by the world-renowned architect Lord Foster (who numbers the Reichstag building in Berlin and Hong Kong airport among his credits), the Paragon Centre’s stunning circular glass and steel structure is housed within a 50-acre site. It has two man-made lakes – one of them inside the building! Within the circular form are 18-metre wide “fingers” housing individual departments. Between each are 6-metre wide “pavements” that also bring in sunlight and ventilation. The lakes form an intrinsic part of the building’s cooling. Hot air from the on-site wind tunnel heats the building when needed; the exterior lake cools it when it’s not. An underground tunnel links the Paragon Centre to an auxiliary building, in which is housed the McLaren museum. Fittingly, the man whose vision this all is – McLaren’s Ron Dennis –began his involvement in racing by working in Cooper’s roadside garage.
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