‘Serendicity’ at 22 Bishopsgate
22 Bishopsgate (also known as Twentytwo and 22BG) was always an ambitious project. At 278m tall, 22 Bishopsgate is the tallest building in the City of London and the 2nd tallest in the UK. The true brilliance of the building never rested on its height; the building was set to become the smartest building in London and one of the most technologically-enabled in the world. The high level of technology was not just a technical project though. It was designed to enable a user experience that would make the building far more than simply a container for work. This vision was based on the UnWork concept of “serendicity” – making the building a real time social network for its users, blurring lines between work and the social sphere, and supporting both. The intention was for the tower to become a vertical city, providing new places to eat, drink, learn, relax and work.
Unique User Experience
Due to its cost and height, 22BG was always an impressive construction project. But the real key to its success and the heart of its unique offering to tenants lies in its technology. 22BG was built with a vision to create an unrivalled user experience that puts people at the centre of the building experience and uses technology to unlock novel techniques for interacting with the architecture. To understand how the building could best use technology to create an excellent user experience, the team behind 22BG turned to UnWork.
User experience in the workplace sits at the collision between people, place and technology, and UnWork used this as a framework for exploring what the “art of the possible” was for 22BG and how it could use new technology to build something truly different from other buildings on offer.
In order to help 22BG create this vision, UnWork conducted a series of workshops to explore the different aspects of technology and user experience that would be most relevant to the eventual users of 22BG. The workshops used an interactive format that drew out and consolidated participant’s ideas, filtering down to the key ideas that would make a success of the project.
“How can we democratise our lives? We need to make experiences equal and bring in a social element.” – Sir Stuart Lipton
The 22 Bishopsgate Vision
UnWork created a user experience vision backed up by technology that addresses every facet of what the experience should deliver. From the moment a user enters the building to their journey around it and eventually their departure is covered by the UnWork strategy, detailing a comprehensive approach to an exceptional user experience. The main factors covered by the strategy are:
- An app-centric building – 22BG should have a cutting-edge user application providing a new experience rather than just inert information. This should include elements such as: wayfinding, services integration, social networking, building activity dashboard, marketplace platform and travel information.
- Marketing – innovation at 22BG should start with the marketing of the building. The whole approach needs to be different to make the building stand out using digital technology.
- A digital building – 22BG should be the best-connected place in the city and the easiest place to do business. This involves full 5G enablement and carrier grade Wi-Fi.
- Big data – 22BG should be the first building to provide big data to a range of corporate functions such as Corporate Real Estate, Facilities Management and Human Resources. Eventually, the building should even be able to function as an algorithm, driving and making decisions.
- User experience from the ground up – for occupiers, part of the appeal of the building should be that it comes ready provisioned so tenants no longer have to modify base build infrastructure and systems. All infrastructure and systems should be cloud ready, resulting in less technology infrastructure required and a faster fit out programme. For individual users, services and amenities need to be delivered by apps that leverage the strengths of the sharing economy and can offer a seamless and easy way for users to get what they need.
- Shared amenities – specialist space should be provided that is not exclusively part of the tenant’s domain to bring people together as well as specialist spaces to cater to different needs. These should include auditoria, presentation suites, screening rooms and innovation spaces; the types of spaces that are required but seldom fully occupied.
The vision for 22BG was to unite these elements into one integrated experience that used technology and innovative design to deliver a cutting-edge office space that is future-proofed against the unknown challenges of the future.
An App-Centric Workplace
The team responsible for 22BG have implemented a great deal of the vision set out by UnWork. The 22BG application has completely removed the need for a lobby reception desk where people queue up for a plastic badge; visitors are simply sent an electronic QR code pass to enter the building. Concierge style service is provided by informal hosts in the lobby, which makes the service feel more like a hotel than an office building.
Entry can be entirely touchless, with employees using NFC (Near Field Communication) or biometrics to get through access gates. Integrations between the app, Boon Edam security gates, Ayonix biometrics, HID, Chubb Security and OTIS lifts make this possible. The experience of each building user is also highly customisable, with a range of building services including visitor management, food delivery and space booking, which are bookable directly from the app. Each tenant IP network is even integrated directly so that it can be used for alteration of the work environment, such as operating blinds, lighting and temperature.
Vertical Village
“Humanity is the number one point. 22BG is a people building. It should allow people to go home feeling better than when they arrive” – Sir Stuart Lipton
Entering the building is just the beginning of the user journey. 22BG has a carefully crafted, rich user experience that relies on high-quality shared spaces and amenities to make the building a place people want to be rather than just somewhere they go for work. In support of the strategy set out with UnWork, the building hosts around 100,000ft² of shared amenity space including a market, event space, “active commuter park” and a speakeasy.
The marketspace is run in partnership with the Rhubarb hospitality group and houses a restaurant, terrace bar, food stalls, pop-up stands and its own event space. It is also committed to sustainable practices such as a zero-waste policy. This policy is made possible by the app; users are encouraged to order in advance where possible. Plus, in the background, data is being gathered that will track consumption patterns for food delivery.
The two-floor event space is hosted by Convene, the meeting and event space company. It offers meeting, training and event spaces for tenants whenever they need them. Spaces range from small rooms to a 300-person auditorium. In addition to providing a brilliant experience, this helps tenants use less space on facilities that are only used occasionally, for example for board meetings.
The active commuter park is aimed at supporting people who actively commute to the office; i.e. those who walk, run or cycle. It has space for 1,700 bicycles, 75 showers and 1,300 secure lockers, perfect for supporting the needs of a vast number of these commuters. It even boasts its own dedicated team who manage events, bike maintenance, washing, dry-cleaning, rentals and charging or electric bikes.
22BG also features a range of other amenities, including The Exchange and The Retreat. The Exchange is a dedicated innovation space managed by New Flex that supports start-ups and entrepreneurs by creating an environment of creativity, knowledge-sharing and ideation. The Retreat is a bespoke wellness space that provides wellness activities and therapies to tenants. These include yoga, physiotherapy and mindfulness meditation. Having these located in the office space makes them far more accessible for busy city professionals who may not have time to access these services where they live.
Technology and Connectivity
A key concept of UnWork’s strategy for 22BG was always that the building should be digitally connected and leverage data to become a leader in the smart building arena. After a series of firsts during its construction (e.g. the world’s first pre-installed Blow Fibre Tube system to allow future flexibility), 22BG continued to deliver impressive feats in building technology and connections.
Diverse technology infrastructure creates an “always on” philosophy for the office and separate intakes from various points of presence allows tenants to use their own preferred service providers without navigating complex wayleave agreements. The building also features a fully converged Cisco network that connects to a whole world of IoT devices: BMS, HVAC, CCTV, security, access control, EMS, lighting control, energy management, smart blinds and multiple Wi-Fi networks. It even comes with a Platinum WiredScore certificate, validating all of the work that has gone into connecting the building.
The operational management of the building also relies on a high-level of connectedness, with a series of innovations that attempt to make the most of the interconnected nature of the building. Where vans normally clog up the streets to bring deliveries into buildings, 22BG uses a consolidated delivery management system in which all deliveries are collected at an off-site dispatch centre for redistribution to 22BG outside of normal working hours by electric trucks.
On the analytics side, ICONICS have also developed an advanced analytical package which uses digital-twin modelling for automated fault detection and diagnostics on the building. This is the same type of solution that has produced a 6% year-on-year energy saving and resolves 50% of maintenance issues without having to alert a user at Microsoft’s Seattle campus. This solution learns from historical trends to constantly improve efficiency and minimise downtime of services, creating a vast dataset that can be used to constantly iterate the performance of the building.
Key Facts
Year: 2020
City: London
Country: UK
Size: 1,325,000 square foot
Industry: Commercial development
Developers: Lipton Rogers, AXA Real Estate Investments
Architect: PLP Architecture