Archinect - News

According to WeWork "Buildings equal Data"

2019-03-02T13:08:00-05:00

There are T-shirts floating around WeWork’s New York City headquarters that say “Buildings equal data.” The nano manifesto hints at a conviction that architecture should be shaped by a methodical study of how people utilize spaces instead of unique aesthetic signatures. More than that, correlating digital information with physical structures is good business—it has quickly become a core strategy for the eight-year-old, $47 billion company racing to expand its footprint globally.

Architects today are very familiar with data and its influence over design, construction, and feasibility. However, what else can data teach us? When you're a massive billion dollar company like WeWork, opportunities for turning data into teachable tools coincides well with the company's progressive ethos.

No 1 Poultry in London - WeWork interior; Image © WeWork

Say what you will about the company, regardless of your views their intentions of transforming the tools and perspectives of real estate, architecture, and design is reflective of the decisions they've made thus far. For WeWork, data isn't just a tool but an asset to the company's overall growth and success. "It’s hard to overstate how essential data is to WeWork’s operations. Specifically, architectural data. Nearly four years ago, the company underscored this dependency when it acquired Case, a BIM consultancy whose expertise WeWork relied on even in its early years (it was founded in 2010). With David Fano, Case’s co-foun...

WeWork is taking over London's postmodern icon One Poultry

2017-11-21T19:20:00-05:00

This year, the group has expanded aggressively into the City of London, snapping up floor space usually reserved for large corporates over the year to date, including large offices in Moorgate — its largest site globally — and at One Poultry, a Grade II listed building directly opposite the Bank of England.

The start up WeWork has acquired One Poultry, the Grade II post-modern icon designed by James Stirling and completed in 1998. After a heavily contested designation, the building is currently in the process of undergoing an extensive refurbishment headed by Architects BuckleyGreyYeomen and expected for completion in spring 2018.

WeWork will replace the former tenants, the British insurance company Aviva, who moved out of the building earlier this year. According to the Financial Times, the co-working giant is seeking to capitalize on Brexit uncertainties by offering flexible office space in London to anxious global banks. The company has been aggressively expanding into the city, nearly doubling its city footprint in the past year, and is in talks to buy a 12-building campus near Liverpool Street railway station.

City of London’s One Poultry to become design-led creative office

2017-03-27T13:43:00-04:00

Development manager General Projects, along with architects BuckleyGrayYeoman, have been commissioned to re-establish the building as a Grade A HQ office and retail building, thoughtfully designed around the evolving needs of today’s creative sector businesses, whilst celebrating and reconstituting the building’s original splendour as a masterpiece of modern British architecture.

One Poultry, completed almost two decades ago in 1998, is both an iconic and striking building, located above Bank underground station in the heart of the City, with neighbours including the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England. Recently awarded Grade II* listing, One Poultry, with its characteristic, colourful material usage and prominent positioning, is truly a landmark building. Recent exhibitions, books, and talks have focused on the history of this project; of the start of the site, and the turbulent unbuilt plans of the previous Mies van der Rohe design.

BuckleyGrayYeoman's scheme, which will deliver 110,000sqft of inspirational Grade A offices, will maintain the solid, inspirational, postmodernist style with commissioned artwork, generous facilities, and ‘gallery-style volumes’ including ceilings soaring to almost four metres.

The surrounding area is soon to reflect the City’s ‘vibrant future’ too, with a new hotel from the Soho House Group and the Foster + Partners design fo...