Fletcher Priest Architects’ brand-new London headquarters is a low-impact workplace that prioritises reuse, flexibility and wellbeing, while likewise showcasing the practice’s circular style concepts.
Images
Kilian O’Sullivan
Fletcher Priest Architects has actually completed the fit-out of its brand-new head office at 100 Fetter Lane in London. The practice inhabits the ground, mezzanine and first floors of the office building it designed for YardNine and BauMont Realty. Accessed via a dedicated entryway through a landscaped pocket park, the 1,395-square-metre studio has actually been developed as an open, collective workplace that stabilizes versatility with worker health and wellbeing. The ground-floor arrival space is centred around a domestic-style kitchen area and a screen of architectural designs, developing a casual social heart that supports everyday working together with client occasions and practice gatherings.
The studio floorplates are covered by big boundary windows, with workstations positioned to maximise daylight and sees out. Integrated planting softens the workplace and contributes to the wider environmental strategy developed within the base building. Mechanical ventilation is complemented by opening windows on every floor, ensuring a constant supply of fresh air throughout the office.
Located at the centre of the very first floor is The Grid, a flexible nine-by-nine-metre space enclosed by a yellow acoustic curtain. Created to support a range of activities, it can run as an extension of the open studio or be confined for workshops, presentations, conferences and bigger events. Surrounding it are a product library, model-making workshop and casual tea point, positioning the practice’s innovative processes on screen.
Quieter spaces are distributed throughout the workplace, consisting of meeting rooms and a dedicated health room that supports focused work, prayer and restorative breaks. The mezzanine level has actually been left mainly open and is conceived as a versatile office efficient in accommodating future expansion or complementary organisations.
The interior adopts a deliberately restrained architectural language that celebrates the quality of the original building. Exposed concrete soffits remain noticeable throughout, while the existing lighting and ventilation systems have been maintained instead of changed, lowering both expense and embodied carbon. Dealing with furniture auditors, the practice catalogued and assessed furnishings from its previous workplace, keeping and adjusting as numerous products as possible. Pieces that might not be recycled were donated for further use in other places.
Irene Georgiakis, Partner and Head of Interiors, said, “Designing the fit-out in parallel with the structure has actually implied we could produce a studio that really supports cooperation between architecture and interiors, raises day-to-day engagement, and feels user-friendly for the groups who use it. The reality that this method also minimized both expense and carbon makes the outcome even more rewarding for our new studio.”
The headquarters likewise extends the product passporting strategy very first established for the base structure. More than 5,000 specific building components, representing some 80 percent of the building’s mass, have been digitally recorded, making 100 Fetter Lane the very first building in the UK to execute product passports throughout the majority of its building. The fit-out incorporates this details into the structure’s BIM model, with physical QR codes supplying direct access to product information and future reuse information.
In terms of ecological performance, the structure targets a BREEAM Exceptional rating and has actually accomplished WiredScore Platinum accreditation. A fabric-first method, integrated with mindful retention of existing systems and a flexible fit-out strategy, has assisted provide an upfront embodied carbon figure of 561kgCO two e/m TWO GIA, while supporting the project’s ambition to fulfill the emerging UK Internet No Carbon Building Standard.
At street level, the development likewise introduces a brand-new public destination through the moved Wild Swan bar. Covered in blue faience brickwork with bespoke relief detailing motivated by the history of Fetter Lane, the place extends the civic presence of the structure and reinforces the larger ambition of 100 Fetter Lane as an active, mixed-use work environment ingrained within the city.
Ed Williams, Handling Partner of Fletcher Priest Architects, stated, “Treating ourselves as a customer has actually been a (primarily enjoyable) learning process for us throughout the design of our new studio. It has actually offered us a better understanding of producing a thought about style approach which we can transfer to our client relationships as we support them on future tasks.”