IPC Media’s space age Blue Fin Building in London has picked up the regional and national award for best corporate workplace in the British Council for Offices Awards.
IPC moved into the purpose-built, energy-efficient £200 million HQ in June last year, that come complete with a radio station in the basement for NME and a specially designed tasting suite for wine magazine Decanter.
The building was designed by local architects Allies and Morrison. Judges at the BCO awards said: ‘”Bad buildings weigh down occupiers: good ones raise their spirit. The sense of vibrancy before you even enter Blue Fin shows that it falls into the latter. The Blue Fin Building works not just as a sustainable icon. It buzzes like a hive.”
Not everyone is as amazed with the building, however, and it is also up for the Carbuncle Cup from Building Design magazine. Architect Christopher Woodward said the building has “no architectural qualities whatsoever. It’s staggeringly bad and represents the end of civilisation as far as I am concerned.”
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