CASE STUDY | BRACKEN HOUSE A JOURNAL OF DISCOVERY The Financial Times returned to Bracken House after an extensive refurb. Andy Pearson finds out how Arup overcame the challenges of retrofitting a listed London building by creating a digital twin to reveal the services secrets B racken House in the City of London is an unusual blend of tradition and modernity. Originally designed by Sir Albert Richardson, the building started life in the late 1950s as a purpose-built home for the Financial Times newspaper the pink sandstone of the buildings classical-style faades is said to have been selected in homage to the papers distinctive pink pages. Back then, Richardsons scheme featured two classical-style wings for offices which bookended the buildings industrial heart housing the papers giant printing presses. When the FT moved out in 1989, the buildings new owners, Obayashi Corporation, hired Hopkins Architects to transform the building into a contemporary office environment. Its listing in 1987 prevented the building from being demolished. Hopkins solution was a scheme that retained the buildings classical wings, north and south, but replaced its more utilitarian central element with a corrugated, high-tech steel- and glass-fronted office building (which was subsequently listed in 2013). The scheme included a building services solution designed by Arup for the buildings then tenant an Asian bank. In 2014, when the bank vacated the premises, Obayashi Corporation turned to John Robertson Architects (JRA) to modernise sympathetically the 26,000m2, five-storey building (plus its three levels of basement), bringing it up to contemporary office standards. At the same time, Arup was asked to devise an efficient building services scheme compatible with the buildings latest reincarnation three decades after the consultants initial involvement. JRAs architectural enhancements included: replacing sections of the Hopkins-designed central atriums translucent glass-brick roof to let in more light; the creation of a new roof terrace, including the addition of a running track, to allow the buildings occupants to enjoy views of St Pauls while improving their wellbeing; and the addition of two new light-wells at the junctions of Hopkins high-tech central block with Richardsons classical wings to help improve connection and circulation between the different elements. Arups role was to design a shell-and-core/Category A building services solution to complement JRAs enhancements. The consultants brief was to increase the occupation density from a generous one person per 10m2 to one person per 8m2 for most of the floors. However, for two of the floors, which had been slated as potential financial PROJECT TEAM Client: Obayashi Corporation Architect: John Robertson Architects (JRA) MEP engineer: Arup Structural engineer: Arup Project manager and cost consultant: Turner and Townsend Main contractor: McLaren MEP contractor: Skanska 28 January 2020 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Jan20 pp28-31 Bracken House.indd 28 20/12/2019 15:20