The new state of the art BBC headquarters building encompasses all aspects of television,radio,and internet,accommodating production facilities,digital studios,technical support,and office space.The design seeks to encourage creative interaction between the 1000 occupants by connecting all the workspaces with a central rising atrium that acts as a place for meeting,working and circulating.

The building is located alongside the abandoned Govan docks on an exposed plot of land dominated by the expanse of the river Clyde and the mountains of the Scottish Highlands.Faced with this open landscape,the building had to find ways to establish its own sense of place and satisfy the demands of the BBC for a contained yet publicly accessible building.

The building is distinct from conventional offices;more industrial,loft-like in feel,it gives equal importance to collective work areas,individual workstations,and public spaces.Accordingly,the central atrium is configured as a tiered sequence of steps,platforms,and terraces.Circulation and communication through the building and between office floors is promoted by this giant staircase,which not only offers informal meeting areas,but encourages movement between spaces,giving powerful visual representation to the public aspect of the building.

In terms of the formal design of the structure,the most immediate problem posed by the project brief lay in the compositional relationship between technical elements.such as studios(that had to be solid)and office space (that should be transparent to enjoy the surrounding views).In particular,the juxtaposition between the solidity and size of the principal television studio,itself four stories tall,and the adjoining office spaces was the most difficult formal issue raised by the programme.The response throughout was to integrate each of the building’s elements,avoiding a back-of-house atmosphere for technical areas,and the compartmentalisation of common spaces so that the building as a whole could absorb and reveal the diversity of its uses.The building was opened by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 20 September 2007.

Client:BBC Property
Gross Floor Area:30000 m2
Design Architect:David Chipperfield
Executive Architect:Keppie Design
Structural Engineer:Jane Wernick Associates
Services Engineer:Arup
Acoustic Engineer:Arup
Fire Engineer:Jeremy Gardner Associates
Quantity Surveyor:Gardiner&Theobald

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