Grimshaw completes a co-working space for technology enterprises in east London
In designing the Plexal Innovation Centre, a co-working space for technology companies at the Here East campus on London’s former Olympic Park, architect Grimshaw was keen to “avoid the cliches of this building type and offer a space that is flexible, long-lasting and has an authenticity that provides an enjoyable home for serious innovation”, says partner Jolyon Brewis.
Designed and built in 12 months, the centre has a total floor area of 68,000 square feet and is designed to suit the needs of a range of entrepreneurs and start-ups. Its organisation is intended to emulate an urban environment, with public and private spaces, streets, squares and civic areas. “Spaces are designed to intersect and weave together contributing to a sense of community, and each zone has a distinct identity within the various quarters”, says the architect.
A standard set of elements including furniture, lighting, and structural features are used throughout the space, forming a uniform ‘base layer’ that can be customised by occupants to arrange their own work areas.
The innovation centre is divided into a ground and first floor layout, where a street mezzanine structure allows open-plan workstation areas to sit above the ground floor’s private offices. Other office spaces are formed using a ‘kit-of-parts’ Tecno partition system, which can be reconfigured to accommodate expanding and contracting businesses, or to set up new work areas.
A main ‘high street’ runs through the centre of the building, linking workspaces to civic areas on upper/lower and east/west axes, reflective of a city planning grid. The wider layout offers spaces for quiet, contemplative work as well as livelier spaces such as ‘Monument Square’, at the entrance, which incorporates hot-desking spaces, a cafe and a five-metre-high green wall with screens streaming business data.
Other facilities include a 200-seat, multi-purpose events space, green areas with indoor planting, and private phone booths dotted along the ‘high street’. Lighting can be programmed to match natural circadian rhythms.
