Most worthy

Here's some of the citation accompanying the award of "Best of Best" to the BBC Mailbox project - 2005 national winner of the British Council of Offices competition for "Fit-out of workplace (Large Projects)". Some overlaps with today's phrase-making around the move to Digbeth....

To appreciate what has happened it is important to understand the key reasons for moving from the iconic Pebble Mill headquarters to what was essentially a giant box, although The Mailbox scheme itself is a clever and groundbreaking project with enough presence to regenerate, along with Brindleyplace, a whole district of Birmingham. Firstly, the BBC needed new facilities to reflect a revolution in working practices. Multi-skilled staff have evolved from discrete studios to working across radio, television and the web. Close-knit project teams form and dissolve with blinding speed, so flexibility was essential. But just as important, everything had to be geared to 'engage and interact' with the public.

The Mailbox base space was far from normal and the BBC made a courageous stand to go to this mixed-use wonder. The success of BDP as Architect and Engineers and iDEA as Space Planning and FFE Consultant can be measured against the challenge they faced from Mailbox's mail sorting office ancestry. The standard of fitout is very high; all elements display imagination, but also great discipline. It could have been frightful: instead it is great. The building is full of dynamism and light. A sense of openness is created by vast internal spaces, carried outwards by cutting huge windows across the front of the shell. Extra space was conjured from thin air by floating mezzanine 'gondolas' within the hangar-like shell. Over a narrow band, they reduce ceilings below BCO standards but this has been overcome on the upper level with a clever 'wavy' ceiling making the most of space and hiding existing structure and environment-friendly chilled beams.

The office space has been made to work very hard, with dense tables for programme production rapidly re-deployed for each new team. The judges were impressed that staff numbers had been increased by 100 while the usable area had reduced from 255,000 sq ft at Pebble Mill to 95,000 sq ft. at Mailbox. Adding the mezzanines created the unusual ratio of 142% net to gross.

The whole project is a good sustainability story. Although green options were restricted by working within an existing shell, increased natural lighting, passive chilled beams and solar shading acknowledge the green agenda.

This is a bespoke and specialised product and, due to its nature, was not cheap, but that does not take away from the success of this scheme. The judges considered that the solution exemplifies the BBC's willingness to embrace the culture and dynamics to promote change, increase efficiency and to provide a stimulating workplace. With notable civic responsibility, the achievement of this environment within an existing building is remarkable. A most worthy Best of the Best.