A
new coworking space completed in
London’s West End is the fifth
dedicated flexible office project
that architects Barr Gazetas have designed.
It is also the first coworking space in
the country to be certified under the
Well Standard, increasingly popular for
rating office employee wellness, the project
receiving Gold certification.
Situated on the edge of Mayfair, the
refurbished office building sits in the
U-shaped side street that graced the cover
of David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust,’ and
which is now Regent Street’s food and
drink quarter, populated by bars and
restaurants. The Grade II listed building
once housed a historic cinema (the
‘New Gallery Kinema’, before being
adapted for various use including most
recently, offices, and it has now been fully
refurbished as a hotspot for the ‘megatrend’
that is coworking.
The project sees client The Crown Estate
moving from its traditional role of landlord
of a wide range accommodation across
London and the UK, to providing fully
fitted-out flexible office space which
‘members’ – i.e. people seeking office space- subscribe to, rather than lease.
It enters a busy and powerfully-marketed
field, with the likes of WeWork, The
Office Group and LABS all providing
competitively desirable coworking space.
Particularly suitable to small start-ups
wanting absolute flexibility as they grow,
coworking offices are increasingly being
adopted by larger firms (a 30-strong
company now occupies space at One
Heddon Street).
The project offers some distinct USPs in
this space however. The whole emphasis
within this well-appointed new scheme is
on a more relaxed, hospitality-oriented
approach to workspace, where kitchens,
planting and ping-pong tables are as
common a sight as desks.
Managing director at Barr Gazetas Jon
Eaglesham told ADFthat this fed into the
refurbishment’s success on the IWBI
(International Well Building Institute’s)
criteria, but he was somewhat shocked to
find it was the only UK coworking project
yet to be registered under the Well
Standard, given the promises of wellness-
oriented, worker-friendly environments
inherent to coworking’s ethos. “It’s sort of
outrageous really – you’d think the story
behind coworking is all about the occupier- it’s the best space for you, it’s flexible, but
actually until now, none of it has been
reviewed for how good being inside the
workspace is.”
The Crown Estate had already plunged
fully into the world of Well certification,
with its HQ at nearby St James’s Market in
London becoming the first office in Europe
to receive Well Platinum, in 2018.
According to Eaglesham, this illustrates
how the client avoids a “bolt-on” approach
to sustainability and wellness: “They’re not
decided late, they’re always part of the
brief, and actually it makes it much easier
for the design team, and is cost effective.”
Brief
Eaglesham says that the brief from the
Crown Estate was “non-prescriptive.” Barr
Gazetas, who have worked for them on
several other schemes, spent three months
optioneering ways the outdated office
building could be made more flexible.
Eaglesham praises the client for how theyThe Crown Estate’s first coworking venture, off London’s Regent Street, offers
a nurturing environment for small businesses in a refurbished building which is
also the first Well-accredited project of its kind. James Parker reportsWest End wellness
ONE HEDDON STREET
LONDONBUILDING
PROJECTSLOCATION
Situated on the edge of Mayfair, the refurbished office
building sits in the U-shaped side street that graced
the cover of David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’
All images © Philip Vile23ADF AUGUST 2019 WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK