Bloomberg’s new European headquarters in London has been shortlisted for the 2018 RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious architecture award.
Conceived in collaboration with Foster + Partners, the building is the first wholly owned and designed Bloomberg building in the world and brings Bloomberg’s 4,000 London-based employees together in a dynamic, innovative workplace designed to inspire collaboration and to push the boundaries of sustainable office design.
The building achieved an ‘Outstanding’ rating against the BREEAM sustainability assessment method, with a 98.5% score. This is the highest design-stage score ever achieved by any major office development and recognises the development’s innovative environmental strategies, which deliver a 73% saving in water consumption and a 35% saving in energy consumption compared with a typical office building.
The building has also been acknowledged for its sympathetic exterior, which embraces its historic setting and provides new civic and retail space in the heart of the City. Bloomberg Arcade divides the site and returns a lost portion of Watling Street – an important Roman road – back to the city grid. The covered dining arcade features a variety of independent restaurants and serves as a new pedestrian thoroughfare.
The project also encompasses the restored Temple of Mithras, an ancient Roman temple that once stood on the Bloomberg site. The temple has been carefully restored and returned to the site of its discovery at London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, a free new cultural destination that combines contemporary art, archaeology and immersive installations to create a unique encounter with Roman London.
The RIBA judges’ citation said: “Overall the project is a tour-de-force. This is the opposite of a quiet understated building. In fact, the multiplicity of invention at numerous levels is carried through with such conviction that you cannot fail to be impressed by it.”
Awarded annually, the RIBA Stirling Prize is judged on a range of criteria including: design vision, innovation and originality, capacity to stimulate engage and delight occupants and visitors, accessibility and sustainability, how fit the building is for its purpose and the level of client satisfaction. The 2018 Stirling Prize winner will be announced later this year.