Working

BBC Scotland Headquarters

Brief
BBC Scotland decided to move from their previous facility at Queen Margaret Drive, which had been their home since establishing operations in 1936. The new building was to be located at Pacific Quay, on the banks of the River Clyde, alongside the abandoned Govan Docks, an exposed plot of land next to the iconic buildings of Glasgow Science Centre, Glasgow Tower, SECC and Armadillo.  The BBC's brief was to provide the design for a world-class broadcasting centre for Scotland, in a building that established its own sense of place in a contained, yet publicly accessible way.
Response
The waterfront location is part of ongoing regeneration proposals on either side of the River Clyde (containing media, exhibition and conference facilities) much of which was masterplanned by Keppie.  The concept for the new building, by David Chipperfield, was to create a formal response, integrating the building elements to avoid a back-of-house atmosphere for technical areas and the compartmentalisation of common spaces.  This would ensure the building, as a whole, could absorb and reveal the diversity of its uses.  The simplicity and transparency of the design is provided by a double skin, double glazed, unitised curtain walling system that provides the building with a contemporary, understated but prominent exterior.  Keppie successfully implemented the concept design in close collaboration with David Chipperfield and BBC Scotland.
Outcome
The new building houses more than one thousand, three hundred staff and is the BBC's first digital broadcasting centre of the twenty first century.  The design encourages creative interaction amongst the staff by connecting all the workspaces within a glazed central atrium, incorporating a grand central rising staircase that provides a powerful visual representation to the public aspect of the building while concealing the three major studio spaces. This balance was successfully achieved;  a major undertaking when you consider that the TV studio alone extends to eight thousand, five hundred square feet.

Team