Fletcher Priest Architects creates a theatrical new workspace for British Land

Photography: Jack Hobhouse

Fletcher Priest Architects has completed the design of Storey, British Land’s flexible workspace, within the studio’s wider sensitive refurbishment and refit of 155 Bishopsgate.

Existing volumes found in the wider refurbishment of the building led to a likeness to theatre design, with tall spaces featuring draping fabrics, soft divisions and dramatic lighting. Fletcher Priest’s interior design team extended this theatrical narrative to the design approach for Storey: the Foyer opens onto the Theatre, an impactful double-height public-facing space animated by an illuminated mesh curtain suspended from the soffit, highlighting the black sculptural piano-like structure which forms the coffee bar below. The concept of ‘front-of-house’ and ‘backstage’ lends itself well to Storey’s shared spaces, with material and lighting choices including exposed bulbs, layered curtains and reflective surfaces characterising the communal areas.

Tenant suites wrap the central shared space, which – like a stage – forms the heart of Storey, promoting collaboration and cross-fertilisation of ideas amongst occupiers. Fletcher Priest designed Storey to respond to the increasing demand for spaces that encourage collaboration and connection, bringing people back to the workspace while offering occupiers enhanced flexibility. The rise of online meetings has resulted in more technology-enabled focus rooms and an increase in the variety of breakout spaces.

The flexible rentable work areas, like theatre sets, are easily changeable to meet the particular needs of the occupier – demountable partitioning allows the space to adapt quickly to tenants’ fluctuating requirements enabling space to expand as tenants grow, and a series of functional modules within each workplace compartment support the people working in them: tea points, a mixture of collaborative space both open and enclosed in addition to focus space.