SHH designed the new building as three elegant interlocking volumes, each one larger than the last and variously clad in timber, glass and stone. The first 8.5m high ‘box’ is clad in dark timber slats, allowing the light to shine through dramatically at night-time, whilst protecting against the searing daytime sun. A grand stone entry staircase in Galala marble is located in front of/alongside this first timber slat elevation. The staircase is set beneath a high-impact cantilevered entrance canopy, inset on the underside with brightly-coloured mosaic-style tiling, linking in both to the shapes used on the third stone volume of the building and to a fabric two-storey wall created as part of the interior treatment.

The second 9.7m high ‘Chinese lantern’ box is clad in dark glass and features applied aluminium mullions in a geometric pattern, whilst the third and final 12.2m high box is clad in stone, in the colour of sand to blend in with its environs, in seemingly random grain patterns. In fact, the striking geometric pattern was achieved by turning the basic stone module pieces either vertically or horizontally with filler pieces in between for tolerances.