AYA 2017 shortlists: Office Architect of the Year

Today’s shortlist is the Office Architect of the Year Award

Delvendahl Martin Architects

The practice submitted two highly contrasting London workplaces. At 30 Cannon Street, upgrades and new additions including a roof terrace were carried out in sympathy with the original design of the Grade II listed 1970s building.  In Barking, Ice House Court Studios provides space for 25 artists within a shell and core commercial unit. Delvendahl Martin’s main intervention was a timber screen and shelving system lining the perimeter of the studios.

Fletcher Priest Architects

Fletcher Priest entered three projects for longstanding clients Land Securities and Derwent London. For the latter, it successfully rehabilitated the previously unloved White Chapel Building as space for creative and media businesses and started on site with the new Brunel Building on the Grand Union Canal in Paddington. The 165,000sq ft One New Ludgate development reanimated a neglected City block near St Paul’s Cathedral while reinstating a finer urban grain once typical of the area.

Duggan Morris Architects

Submitted projects range in budget from £1.3m to £70million. The latter is the mixed-use R7, currently under construction at Argent’s King’s Cross Central and due to complete later this year. The ongoing Monmouth House redevelopment will provide multi-use office accommodation rising to 11 storeys near Old Street. Completed projects include The Shepherds Building in Shepherds Bush and The Loom in Whitechapel, both for Helical Bar.

Ben Adams Architects

Two workplaces for designers, a co-working space and the £28million rejuvenation of a City of London office building form the entry from Ben Adams Architects. At 24 King William Street, the practice is reinventing and extending a tired 1980s building to meet contemporary expectations. At the other end of the scale, its £175,000 fit out for typeface designers Monotype created an agile workspace that drew inspiration from the clients extensive archive of fonts.

Lynch Architects

Lynch Architects aims to make office buildings that contribute to the life and character of the city by bringing a new civic, sustainable aesthetic to central London. Its entry features three buildings for Land Securities on Victoria Street in central London - the £100million Zig Zag Building and the forthcoming 15-storey Nova East and mixed-use Nova Place.

Flanagan Lawrence

The practice completed six offices last year including 12 Hammersmith Grove, the second phase of a 34,500m2 development that aims to set new standards for office accommodation in the area. Outside London, projects include the £36.5 million, copper-clad R+ building adjacent to the Grade II* listed Reading Town Hall, and the transformation of an office block at the entrance to Slough Trading Estate.