Barr Gazetas’ office block retrofit presents a pragmatic, layered response to contemporary occupational patterns, extending the life and relevance of an existing building.
Located between the City and Shoreditch, 15 Bonhill Street reworks an existing commercial building into a hybrid workplace, designed for contemporary patterns of occupation. The project, led by Barr Gazetas, extends and retrofits a 13,000 square meter office building, the interventions focusing on renewal, environmental performance, and user well-being.
Within walking distance of Liverpool Street, the building sits in a zone of commercial properties defined by an increasingly hybrid workforce. Here, Barr Gazetas have retained the existing structure adding two floors that leans heavily towards flexibility.
The introduction of a green façade – claimed to be the first in the borough – extends into the interior, where biophilia is used, threading through the entrance, circulation and workspace. Internal green walls and planting are distributed throughout aligning with the emerging culture of wellness-driven workplaces.
Inside, the plan is deliberately open, structured to support a range of working styles. Shared floors encourage interaction, while breakout areas and enclosed booths offer moments of retreat. Recycled materials are used throughout, intended to create an atmosphere that is closer to domestic than corporate. A softening of the traditional office is reinforced by lots of natural light.
Sustainability was approached as an integrated strategy, encouraging sustainable thinking and actions from its users. The retention of the existing structure reduces embodied carbon, while cycling facilities and EV charging points encourages behavioural change from users. At the same time, the additional two storeys holds an energy-intensive data centre, which the design team saw as a productive tension, on which Jonathan Allwood, Director at Barr Gazetas said: “It has been an exciting project to work on, and with data centres in play, the team have been pushed to think and design inovatively to help reduce the typically high energy demand they have.”
15 Bonhill Street positions retrofit as a viable model for commercial development in central London demonstrating how existing buildings can be repurposed to meet evolving demands without defaulting to demolition.
