Shoredich Vibe

  • Nora kurayshi
Client Brief

We have been asked you to look at the possibilities to develop the Shoreditch Exchange, 74 Shoreditch High Street, into a Co-worker, Start Up venue. The Exchange still houses the telephone apparatus on the ground and first floor and therefore we are to design 3000sqm of unoccupied space but not compromise the security of the remaining BT space. BT are specifically concerned with the digital knowledge workers as the area is renowned for its Tech hubs and innovation.


Studio Brief


The studio asks you to explore a large, redundant, almost empty, concrete space situated in Shoreditch and create a Co-worker hub, (New Business Start-Ups) a place where many companies can co-exist together, small or large. It will be place where not only the facilities are shared but more importantly it will encourage communication and collaboration and inter-company connections developing a spatial co-operative.

The organisation of space needs to encompass the flexibility required to accommodate change and growth, looking at kinetic and dynamic structures that provide options of movement allowing for adaptability and variable spatial solutions making this working space as exciting and resourceful as possible.
‘Fujimoto himself speaks of architecture as a hazy dream a zone of blurry areas. Everything is a subtle play of difference in space and time,’
Essay: Gleiter.J, The most extreme aesthetic: Sou Fujimoto Futurospective Architecture,Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig, 2012 p329.

The journey throughout should consider the spontaneous, the chance and serendipitous encounters which will provide opportunities to cultivate a business richness. The studio will look at the possibilities of altering the structure to design a vertical language as well considering the open space, so all should enjoy being part of the whole building.

The environmental research will reveal the opportunities to develop public and private space, working creatively with sound and light. It will look at the individual identity of each occupier and how these are settled within the BT building and its new brand. We will look at the ideas of movement and being kinetic in terms of the scope within the space and also as extension of the space within the community. It will look at the idea of temporary both occupation and building, collapsible and demountable. Your concepts should add an energy that inspires, that allows for think tanks and innovation where the space instigates and is part of the business activation.

The studio will ask some important questions. What is creative space? How does space support initiative and fresh thinking? How do people work with new technology? How do we consider the whole person and live/work issues? And how does the work place support intangible positive ideas such as spirit and attitude?