Client: Stoford
Project overview
The Tea Factory brings a 100-year-old industrial building back to life for the next 100 years, transforming a neglected part of the city’s heritage into a landmark 84,000 sq ft custom-built broadcast centre hub for 700 staff across TV and radio.
The site was selected by the BBC for its incredible transport links close to the upcoming HS2 Birmingham Station and close to New Street Station, giving it fantastic transport links across the city and country.
Over the next decade, Stoford plans to deliver up to 800,000 sq ft of new residential, office and hospitality accommodation around the new BBC building. The broader scheme will see more than 10 acres of underutilised land around Typhoo Wharf and the adjoining canal basin transformed into a new mixed-use neighbourhood characterised by attractive public spaces and open thoroughfares.
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84,000 sq. ft.
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£39 million construction cost
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Over 700 staff
BWB's role
Preservation and sustainability
Reflecting the philosophies of the BBC and BWB, we worked with sustainability in mind, utilising our team’s expertise and knowledge to save as much of the existing building as possible. To deliver this, we thoroughly inspected the existing structural frame to justify its extensive reuse.
Structural enhancements
To improve the lateral stability of the building, BWB developed designs which saw the installation of braced stair and lift core towers on newly-piled foundations. We also proposed the installation of new steelwork towers within, bracing to the new foundations and attaching them to the building, making the structure stiffer against lateral loads.
Load-balancing solutions
We also performed load-balancing methods on the existing concrete floor to see if it was possible to reuse it. However, due to budgetary constraints and variable stability found, new composite flooring will be used on the existing frame rather than the existing 100-year-old pre-cast planks.