Bracken House

John Robertson Architects (JRA) has retrofitted Bracken House in the City of London for Obayashi Corporation. Originally designed by Albert Richardson in the early 1950s as the headquarters and print works for the Financial Times, the building underwent a dramatic reconstruction in 1988 by Michael Hopkins and Partners in the High-Tech style. After a quarter of a century of use, JRA has sensitively refurbished the Grade II* listed building. The building has been altered to provide an enlarged entrance hall, new internal courtyards which link the central office space with the 1950s wings, and a landscaped roof garden with a running track. The offices have been completely modernised with a new energy efficient air conditioning system and state-of-the-art LED lighting. Additional daylight has also been introduced into the atrium by partially glazing the atrium roof. JRA’s designs focused on innovation and practicality, prioritising intelligent design over costly solutions and value engineering at all stages. Maintaining an existing building allowed the team to reduce both cost and carbon without compromising on quality. JRA worked closely with ARUP to plan the refurbishment and used Building Information Modelling level two for design coordination and managing clash detection. The finished model contains over 27,000 items charting every aspect of the construction, which will enable repairs and replacements to be carried out with ease in the future. After an absence of almost 30 years, the team’s sensitive refurbishment has unified the designs and created an energy efficient, contemporary workplace with outstanding amenities, making it possible for the Financial Times to return.