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Contract Magazine Features HOK’s Design of BBC Worldwide’s Headquarters in West London

Stage 6 at Television Centre in White City, London, has been transformed into the new headquarters for BBC Worldwide, the primary commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Excerpted from Contract:

The space was formerly occupied by the broadcast studios of BBC News, which relocated to the BBC New Broadcasting House that HOK designed in central London.

HOK’s design provides an open, flexible environment that promotes the BBC’s brand while facilitating cross-functional collaboration among more than 1,200 employees across six floors.

The Television Centre’s reputation as the first “television factory” when it opened in 1960 inspired the industrial design aesthetic. In addition to energizing staff by avoiding the corporate atmosphere of a traditional workplace, exposing the structure and services within a 15-foot-high frame preserves the open floor plate and maintains clear sightlines.

“While reassuringly familiar from the outside, Stage 6’s new interior could not be more different. Gone are the dingy office spaces hemmed in by low ceilings and bulky columns. In their place is a cathedral-like refit. ‘We were given total creative freedom,’ says Beate Mellwig, the project’s principal in charge at HOK. ‘The BBC is one of the best clients I have worked with in my career. They were incredibly engaged. The only restrictions we had were a start date, an end date, and an incredibly tight budget.’”

“Opened this year, the new office has already had a significant impact on its occupants, according to Hayden Matthews, BBC Worldwide’s head of global property. ‘The new design experience more closely maps our way of working,’ he explains. ‘There is a seamless transition from formal workplace to more informal. It gives a flexibility of approach where an individual can now choose the type of seating or environment in which to work for the day.’”

Market / Discipline

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