Chancery House, City of London

2025 RIBA London Award

Offices
dMFK Architects and Norm Architects
for The Office Group / Fora
Contract value: Confidential
GIA: 16,000m2

This workspace project breathes new life and elegance into a previously anonymous office building in The City. Workspace provider Fora lets space on flexible terms to a diverse range of companies, with a variety of different sizes of workspaces and relaxed communal areas and common amenities – including a very zeitgeist sauna. The project embodies a clear focus on wellbeing, and many facilities such as this alongside the subsidised café and gym are provided on-site, to ensure occupants have everything they need within easy reach.

Existing basement areas were rediscovered and brought back into play via two new landscaped sunken courtyards, which provide very good daylight penetration and a new prospect to areas of the building previously with none. Externally, the design established a new unifying architecture using a vertically proportioned iron-oxide-coloured facade grid which complements the reddish brickwork of the existing buildings to each side. 

Internally, the brick theme continues, with areas of warm red brick paving used in signature floor and wall panels. Natural fibres and timber floors, counters and furniture lend a neutral and stylish aesthetic, while accents of slender silver-framed glazed screens, entrance doors and a central feature stair speak of the underground treasures stored in the London Silver Vaults below. 

The existing building offered some elegant features, such as the pair of grand terrazzo staircases, which have been retained, renovated and lit with new spun aluminium wall lights. Serviceable windows and extensive areas of floor tiles, structure and walls were also retained where possible to reduce the project’s embodied carbon footprint. The visual connectivity of the ground-floor lobby spaces is highly successful, and the restrained palette of materials throughout promotes a sense of calm, human-centred concerns. 

The client and design team have focused on wellbeing and productivity to achieve Platinum WELL accreditation standards for sustainability, to provide a framework for decision-making. This assessment method was not undertaken just as a label but fully integrated into the final design. 

The life cycle of the existing mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) equipment was taken into account when setting the strategy as new equipment had only been installed two years prior. This led to a hybrid solution with a strategy to upgrade elements of the MEP in the future. 

Accessibility was improved with a discreet wheelchair platform to avoid any need for long ramps. The project expresses an intelligent, exemplary approach to reworking the fabric of this 1950s building for the 21st century. The emphasis on its users’ health and well-being is visible in every detail, and a sense of quiet productivity is clear to witness.

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RIBA Regional Awards 2025 sponsored by Autodesk, EH Smith, Equitone and VELUX