BBC Broadcasting House

Portland Place, London, United Kingdom

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BBC Broadcasting House

Portland Place, London, United Kingdom

Firm

MJP Architects
Sheppard Robson Architects

Type

Commercial › Office
Cultural › Hall/Theater

YEAR

2013

SIZE

1,000,000 +

Our largest project to date is the repair and refurbishment of the Grade II* listed 1930’s BBC Broadcasting House and extension to accommodate staff from BBC News, Radio, Music and the World Service.
We wanted to create an extremely adaptable and flexible building that inspires creative people, promotes collaborative working and provides a sympathetic working environment that attracts high-calibre employees, and is a a commercial asset for the BBC. Our design complements the iconic status of the original Broadcasting House with an emblematic work of architecture.
The extension complements the existing building by the use of similar materials, Portland stone and glass that is fritted to resemble the stone colour.
The BBC have contributed to this part of London by creating a major new public space outside the building that opens up the organisation’s relationship with its audience.
The new build component of the design comprises of 80,000m² of production areas, studios and staff facilities. A 4000m² newsroom is an exciting and theatrical workspace at the heart of the extended building. The design maximises floor space and creates a building which has efficient net:gross floor area ratios and an excellent BREEAM rating.
Broadcasting House now contains one of the largest live news broadcast centres in the world:
• 6,000 staff• 9 radio networks• 241m people worldwide audience• 3 x 24hour television news channels• 26 foreign language services• The Newsroom itself (occupying the basement and ground floors) has 460 workstations – many of them staffed 24/7
A range of new public spaces have been created at the heart of Broadcasting House, which open up the building to create a dialogue between audiences/visitors and BBC staff.
The convexity of Broadcasting House is complemented by the concavity of a translucent façade, creating a cyclorama around the new public space behind All Souls Church, and visually terminating Nash’s Regent Street.This public space between Broadcasting House and the new John Peel wing is defined by the pavement artwork ‘World’ by Mark Pimlott. This unique arena provides a place to linger and see the BBC in action, a performance and exhibition space, and a café.
The original Broadcasting House commissioned an inspiring range of contemporary artists and designers to work on the building. The new Broadcasting House project continues this tradition with a major new Public Art Programme, working across diverse artforms from sculpture and light to colour, text and photography.