• BCO Home
• BCO Awards
• BCO Conference

• Home
• Award Categories
• Judging Process
• Winners
• How to Enter
• Awards Dinner
• Sponsors
• Enquiries

• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
  • Chairman's Overview
  • President's Award
  • Corporate Workplace
  • Commercial Workplace
  • Refurbished / Recycled Workplace
  • Fit-out of Workplace
  • Commendations
• 2003
• 2002
• 1992-2001

Commercial Workplace

 

Winner National and Scotland
Scottish Gas HQ, Number One Waterfront Avenue, Edinburgh

Call centres are not renowned for their beauty or friendliness. Low cost generally means low-quality location. But Foster and Partners has broken all these rules with their Scottish Gas development.

The client seemed to ask the impossible - something that looked like a high-quality HQ but performed like a cheap and durable, high-use customer centre. It has not been disappointed.

The site is spectacular, with panoramic views of the Forth Bridge and Edinburgh Castle. Fosters has made sure not to compromise that quality, producing something clever, dramatic and delicate.

A very simple brise soleil of thin metal strips disguises the fact that this is essentially a glass box, created as the first building in a business park. These strips cut solar gain but avoid compromising the setting and blocking views.

The judges liked the way the strips delicately enclose the entrance, giving a strong sense of place and setting. The stepped atrium is also clever. Fosters believe they have 'reinvented customer contact centres for the 21st century'. The question is whether others are willing to follow that lead.

Winner North of England, North Wales & Northern Ireland
Whitehall II, 2 Whitehall Road, Leeds

This is the final element in a regeneration west of Leeds City station master planned by Aedas. The task wasn't easy. The layout had to work around huge concrete blocks from a former power station. Approaching from City Square or the river gives the impression of a front entrance, yet the door is actually to the side. Once inside, the well-articulated, clean, double-storey entrance gives a strong sense of arrival and the elevation is complicated and distinctive, providing good aspect to the city and river.

Winner South of England & South Wales
242-252 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire

If John Betjeman had seen this he might have adjusted his famous poem to: 'Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough - but not this part.' The low cost of these three buildings has not stifled creativity. These are straightforward, timeless designs - calm, intelligent and timeless, with good materials and a beautifully landscaped courtyard that lifts the location. Externally, it's inspiring and rigorously detailed. If only all business parks could display such integrity of design.

Winner Midlands & East Anglia
35 Homer Road, Solihull

Some of the greenest buildings are those commissioned by energy providers and this one for Transco is no exception. The brief was to provide an efficient, flexible and high-quality building in the centre of Solihull. The end result is a slick and modern pavilion. The former British Gas site is well located for public transport, and the impact of parking is minimised by 'floating' the building over the sloping site to hide cars in an undercroft. This also contributes to the community by opening to the public on weekends.

Winner London
1 More London Place

Some buildings stick up two fingers at their surroundings but the new Ernst & Young HQ on London's South Bank does exactly that in a civilised way.

The sheer bulk of a 36,000sq m block would have been intimidating, so Foster and Partners broke it down into what they call two fingers of a 'hand' which guides thousands of visitors gently across the site to the river. E&Y needed a light, airy building suiting a new culture of openness and the 11-story atrium, criss-crossed by bridges ensures that every staff desk is daylit.

Commended Avondale House, Stratchclyde Business Park, Bellshill

Commended The Rutland Building, Rutland Square, Edinburgh

Commended Building 2020, Cambourne, Business Park, Cambridge

• Award Categories
• Judging Process
• Winners
• How to Enter
• Awards Dinner
• Sponsors
• Enquiries

© 2008 British Council for Offices. Design & Technology by Reading Room. Terms & Conditions | Privacy Statement