Brightsolid office, London

26 November 2012

Brightsolid office, London

Wall graphics reference the company’s business of publishing genealogy research websites. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Wall graphics reference the company’s business of publishing genealogy research websites. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Wall graphics reference the company’s business of publishing genealogy research websites. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Wall graphics reference the company’s business of publishing genealogy research websites. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Wall graphics reference the company’s business of publishing genealogy research websites. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Wall graphics reference the company’s business of publishing genealogy research websites. Photo credit: Grant Smith

A walkway in steel and glass bridges the atriium. Photo credit: Grant Smith

A walkway in steel and glass bridges the atriium. Photo credit: Grant Smith

A walkway in steel and glass bridges the atriium. Photo credit: Grant Smith

A walkway in steel and glass bridges the atriium. Photo credit: Grant Smith

A walkway in steel and glass bridges the atriium. Photo credit: Grant Smith

A walkway in steel and glass bridges the atriium. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Freestanding meeting rooms cubes are in MDF and glass. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Freestanding meeting rooms cubes are in MDF and glass. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Freestanding meeting rooms cubes are in MDF and glass. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Freestanding meeting rooms cubes are in MDF and glass. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Freestanding meeting rooms cubes are in MDF and glass. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Freestanding meeting rooms cubes are in MDF and glass. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Pixel artwork is based on the company’s logo. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Pixel artwork is based on the company’s logo. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Pixel artwork is based on the company’s logo. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Pixel artwork is based on the company’s logo. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Pixel artwork is based on the company’s logo. Photo credit: Grant Smith

Pixel artwork is based on the company’s logo. Photo credit: Grant Smith

This 19th-century former chapel has been converted to house a company whose business is the past while wanting to be very much part of the present

Client: Brightsolid
Design: John Robertson Architects; Nicoll Russell Studios; Elastic Creative
Size: 850 sq m
Completion time: Nine months

As part of its business, Brightsolid, the online publisher of genealogy websites findmypast.co. uk and genesreunited.co.uk, helps people delve into their family histories - so it's fitting that the company's new office in Shoreditch, east London, has an interesting history of its own.

Built in the 19th century, the building was a functioning church until 1950 and was first converted into offices in 1974. Part of the private Chapel Place estate of 12 properties that sits within in the South Shoreditch Conservation Area, the building underwent extensive interior alterations in 1988 when reinforced concrete walls, slabs and columns were inserted within the shell of the building turning it into a three-storey office.

The latest chapter in its story involves the renovation and redesign of the 850 sq m space by architecture practices John Robertson Architects (JRA) and Nicoll Russell Studios working with creative agency Elastic Creative that supplied graphics. The brief was to transform the building into a 'cohesive' working environment for nearly 100 Brightsolid staff. According to JRA's founder and director, architect John Robertson, the company Brightsolid (that also runs the Friends Reunited website), wanted a bold, modern interior in keeping with a Shoreditch-based media company.

The chapel had 'great character', says Robertson. 'Immediately I saw it I thought it had a lot going for it because the shell of the chapel and the roof still existed and there were some very fine exposed trusses on the top floor. The building has quite a good concrete frame, but the actual interior needed to be completely gutted, so we had to do what we call "open-heart surgery".'

Working together, JRA and Nicoll Russell Studios created an atrium by removing a section of the second-floor slab. This created a tripleheight space in reception and created a visual connection between the three floors - an intervention Robertson says will improve communication between office groups as well as allowing natural light to permeate the building. Removing a portion of the first-floor slab above the entrance and replacing it with a new steel and glass one incorporating a walkway further improves views of the upper levels.

In terms of interior design, Robertson says the brief was 'almost to provide a non-corporate environment; Brightsolid wanted the office to be a fun place to work, and it wanted people to have some individual control over their working environment. It wanted the staff to be able to work very closely in teams and across different teams'.

Each of the building's three floors has its own distinct character: the lower floor sits a little more than 1m below ground level and contains a reception area with a bespoke sofa that sits in front of a lime-green coffee bar. The middle floor incorporates the glass and steel walkway, which bridges the atrium band, has a 4m x 3.5m screen that is used for presentations and, most recently, showing the Olympics. The upper floor is the brightest with plenty of windows supplying natural light.

Fitting 95 desks into an 850 sq m space, as well as accommodating breakout spaces and meeting rooms, wasn't easy, and the designers worked with Herman Miller to develop a special curved desk that would save space. The desks are arranged around the perimeter of each floor, with breakout spaces and cube-shaped meeting rooms of MDF and glass taking centre stage.

Graphics designed by Elastic Creative have been used throughout the scheme: multicoloured pixel patterns inspired by Brightsolid's logo have been applied to the glass walls of meeting rooms while many of the walls have pictorial graphics representing the websites run by Brightsolid: designed by Lauren Rennet of Elastic Creative, these incorporate found images and text and tell the story of real and imaginary characters - a First World War soldier who could be an ancestor of someone looking on findmypast. co.uk, for example.

By combining the church's period features with raw concrete ceilings, colourful graphics and modern technology and materials, the architects have delivered on the brief to create an office befitting of a modern Shoreditch media company, but Robertson says they have gone further than simply satisfying the brief. '

Hopefully what we've given the client is more than just the brief. I think we've given something that not only matches but exceeds expectations, and is very much in the character of Shoreditch and Hoxton. It's a very media and Silicon Roundabout-type building. And most importantly it's unique to the company.'

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