Ben Adams Architects UK and Albert House

Great Britain - not just Brexit but great architecture too. Like Albert House in Shoreditch, London, a co-working space designed by Ben Adams Architects. A story of how you can create innovative spaces in existing buildings, working from the inside out.



Albert House in the London suburb of Shoreditch - creative hub of the English capital - dates back to the 1980s. Its dark, inward-looking facade gives away nothing of its light-filled and really attractive interior. Ben Adams Architects have worked miracles for The Office Group - a major player in the co-working market in London - creating a co-working space that meets the needs of Tech City, working from the inside out to give the existing building a makeover.





On entering the building on Old Street, close to the Silicon Roundabout in Shoreditch, you encounter a large open reception and bar, bathed in daylight through a skylight five floors above. A light-filled void that connects the building's five floors, with a metal staircase taking you upwards.





The interiors are designed around the businesses - start-ups, SMEs, even large corporations - with rooms that can hold 2 to 20 people, in addition to individual workstations. Ben Adams opted to give it a speakeasy vibe of 1920s Chicago, with that typical cool, relaxing charm where you could still get a drink during the Prohibition years, and when you had to speak soft and easy so you wouldn't be heard from the outside.





A perfect design for the co-working concept, where you keep your own - and others - privacy, while you're working alongside each other. Of course, this means there are shared areas, including a screening area for presentations and films, a gym and lots of storage for bikes. A sign of the changing times in major cities like London, encouraging the use of public transport and bikes.



Albert House refurbished by Ben Adams Architects is a symbol of this new way of working and of attentive design that doesn't need a spectacular wrapping to create really special interiors.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Ben Adams Architects UK,  http://www.benadamsarchitects.co.uk
Location: Old Street, London, UK
Year: 2015
Images: Morley Von Sternberg, courtesy of carocommunications