OfficesProjectsIngenuity House: A collaborative and sustainable space

A Birmingham development has won plaudits for its impressive design and eco credentials.
Content Team5 years ago4 min

Birmingham office Ingenuity House has emerged victorious at the British Council for Offices’ (BCO) National Awards, thanks to its pioneering focus on health and wellbeing. The office, which was designed by Sheppard Robson for support services and construction firm Interserve, won the Innovation award at the London event and is credited with transforming the occupier’s way of working.

A collaborative and sustainable space: Birmingham development has won plaudits for its impressive design and eco credentials.

From a visual perspective, the building’s central atrium is no doubt the star of the show. The floors overhang internally, creating a terraced effect, and light penetrates from a vast hexagonal skylight, onto the café below. This space not only enables circulation around the business, but also acts as a social hub and focal point for staff to come together and enjoy. Collaborative spaces are arranged around the atrium, while the stepped design of the building forges visible connections between floors and teams.

 

A collaborative and sustainable space: Birmingham development has won plaudits for its impressive design and eco credentials.

Of course, the design is highly sustainable too, targeting BREEAM Excellent. Perhaps the greatest innovation has been providing an intelligent building and successfully using space occupation analysis systems to maximise space utilisation and energy consumption. Thanks to self-balancing mechanisms and intelligent smart control, the environmental system enables the temperature to be monitored and tempered with turbo chillers as required.

The fresh air supply is also controlled via CO2 sensors, optimising the indoor air quality. Of course, the design also features low energy LED lighting, while EPC – B and BREEAM Excellent were achieved through the air tightness specification and supplementary power via solar panels.

 

Thanks to the innovative design Ingenuity House has successfully created a community, bringing together 1,200 staff who were previously located across five regional offices.

To find more collaborative and sustainable places, click here


The British Council for Offices (BCO) is the UK’s leading member organisation representing the interests of all those who occupy, design, build, own or manage offices in the UK. 

Content Team

Work in Mind is a content platform designed to give a voice to thinkers, businesses, journalists and regulatory bodies in the field of healthy buildings.

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