The owners had found the use of the upper floor to be redundant for them and were seeking to rent it out. An additional floor was added for this purpose. The project presented an opportunity to apply and test some new ideas in space, technique and material.
Given that a floor was to be added to an older foundation, the additions were kept as light as possible. The use of steel columns for support and metal roofs was guided by this rationale. This also allowed for a design where space visually connected across various levels.