For me, with buildings, it's not just the structure that makes an impression but the ambience, the atmosphere, the people. When I was at there, Irish folk music was being played and it permeated through all the corridors – the acoustics were beautiful.
My blunders are big industrial sheds. We talk about the UK's manufacturing industry fleeing to the Far East and it's no wonder when you think about how we treat our workforces. We put them in these ugly, angular, grey sheds with hardly any natural light – we really are keeping them in the dark. The most popular flooring product we sell to the manufacturing industry is mid-grey. Depressing.
We need to bring more nature into these sheds, just as we're doing with public buildings, bringing in natural light and plants. Our manufacturing workforce deserves it.
Postscript
Dawn Gibbins is chairman of flooring specialist Flowcrete Group and Veuve Cliquot Businesswoman of the Year.