BDP wins British Council for Offices Award for BBC Mailbox

The BBC Mailbox in Birmingham, designed by Building Design Partnership, has won the Best of the Best Award at this year’s British Council for Offices Awards.

With interior design by Idea, The Mailbox is a 9000m2 mixed use development in the city centre, created inside a former 1960s postal sorting office. The BBC relocated there from its Pebble Mill home in September 2004.

The design is centred around a four-storey entrance space and includes a public atrium, broadcasting facilities, a bar and a café, alongside space for general office activities. According to the BCO Awards jury, The Mailbox represents a ‘courageous stand’ by the BBC to create a ‘mixed use wonder’.

Lancaster University’s InfoLab21 research centre, designed by architect Faulkner Brown, won the Corporate Workplace National Award. The Commercial Workplace National Award went to the National Air Traffic Services Corporate and Technical Centre in Whiteley. It was designed by architect Aukett, with interiors by Pringle Brandon.

The two other National Awards – Refurbished and Fit-Out Small – went respectively to the Shed KM-designed Vanilla Factory in Liverpool and The Harmsen Group for its Bristol office. BCO president Simon Ward also bestowed Lord Foster, principal at architect Foster & Partners, with the BCO President’s Award 2005, praising the ‘first-class output’ of Foster’s studio in the area of office design.