BCO Awards 2025 Finalists 31.01.25

Four AHMM projects have been selected as finalists for the 2025 British Council of Offices (BCO) Awards. Providing public recognition for design quality and a benchmark for excellence in workplaces, these awards acknowledge innovation and focus external attention on examples of best practice.

Norton Folgate, a finalist in the Refurbished / Recycled Workplace category, comprises three urban blocks occupying a prominent position on the City Fringe with the retention of a significant number of historic buildings, creation of six new buildings, and new public realm. Delivered by British Land and an architect team led by AHMM, the masterplan employs a building-by-building approach to the retained existing buildings using restoration, refurbishment, extension, remodelling and façade retention. It sets new standards for retrofit, refurbishment, and redevelopment in central London, and acts as a blueprint for reusing building fabric, which is a necessity in the built environment industry’s approach to tackling the climate crisis.

Assembly Bristol, a finalist in the Commercial Workplace category, transforms a long vacant site adjacent to Bristol city’s inner circuit road and William Jessop’s Floating Harbour. Anchored around a waterfront park, the Assembly Bristol campus creates a new urban place that positively engages with the city, brings colour to the skyline, and links the waterside with a restored historic street, Cheese Lane. Three buildings unify the campus while each possessing a character of its own. Building A, now the Bristol headquarters of BT, is long and narrow, holding the street edge. Building B is the smaller of the trio, enjoying a gentle waterside setting, while Building C brings sculptural height over the public realm.

2 Ruskin Square, a finalist in the Corporate Workplace category, is a ten-storey office development in East Croydon, part of the Stanhope and Schroders masterplan which connects East Croydon station to the town centre. As the new HQ for the Home Office, the building brings together three offices currently spread across Croydon to one location. The project has achieved ambitious environmental and social goals which are being collaboratively addressed with the tenants. It has been designed for adaptability and re-use, and sought to minimise embodied carbon and resource use both in construction and operational energy as a Design for Performance (NABERS UK) pioneer project.

80 Goswell Road, a finalist in the Fit Out category, is a four storey office building set within the creative heart of Clerkenwell, London. As part of this full-service interior refurbishment project, AHMM provided workplace planning strategy, interior architecture, colour, material and finishes design, and FF&E selection. Organising the interior spaces around the idea of an “Architectural Ribbon”, utilitarian functions such as the phonebooths, kitchenette, and printer alcove have been consolidated into a single monolithic volume within the floorplate, resulting in an extraordinary amount of open, flexible floorspace in an otherwise compact site footprint.

Regional judging will take place across January and February with judges visiting the finalist projects, followed by regional award winners being announced during the spring