White Collar Factory – Office Projects – Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

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As a naturally-ventilated spec-office with a focus on smart servicing, flexibility and adaptation to future uses and likely future climate, White Collar Factory at Old Street Yard is a brave and bold iteration of a five-year research project for Derwent London. A 16-storey tower is placed at the epicentre of London’s Tech City. A series of new alleys and passages connect a new public realm and the tower to two retained buildings and three new ones, all between four to five storeys. Together, they offer a mix of living and incubator working spaces to make a new place in the city.

Featuring long spans, flexible floor plates, operable windows, generous volumes and robust construction, the tower represents a new type of office building that takes its cue from the multi-level factory typology and uses concrete in several innovative ways. As well as forming the structure, the concrete provides the thermal mass, carries the servicing, and creates a highly expressive finish both inside and out. Board-shuttered concrete wraps the building at pavement level. Above, glazing is interspersed with metal panels punched with ‘portholes’ and banded with powder-coated aluminium spandrel panels. In contrast, the lower rise buildings have a range of brick elevation treatments that are unified by a common modular plant enclosure at roof level.

Inside, several health and wellbeing initiatives have been adopted to create a pleasant working environment where users can work, play and unwind. Tenants can enjoy a 150 metres outdoor running track and a rooftop café where they can relax after a day at work and have a drink while enjoying panoramic view towards the City of London. In the basement below, a large two-level cycle hub has rack space for 277 bikes with a dedicated cyclist entrance, space with lockers and single-sex shower cubicles with private changing.

AHMM revisited the project in 2020 to design a new creative workspace at basement level. A mezzanine level was created around the perimeter of the below ground office, connected via a suspended bridge across the space. The new studio’s meeting rooms, including the double height project room to the rear, were created using the Jack modular meeting room system, developed by AHMM and deployed on previous projects including The Office Group’s space on the first, second and third floors above.

The project has become a trademark for a building type that combines the efficiencies of a new build with the character of a 19th century warehouse.