Springboard Business Centre | McDowell+Benedetti

McDowell+Benedetti’s The Springboard Business Centre presents a new typology for the workspace, responding to a growing demand in the UK for small, flexible and sociable managed workspaces. Designed specifically for start-up businesses, The Springboard Centre provides subsidized offices, communal spaces and training facilities in a new 13,500 sqft “incubator” building located in an industrial park in Stokesley, North Yorkshire. The building has been funded by Yorkshire Forward, European Regional Development Fund and Hambleton District Council with the intention to foster new businesses and boost entrepreneurship in the region. The winning entry of an international RIBA competition, the design is innovative and highly sustainable in both servicing and construction. The client wanted a landmark building to attract and promote young innovative new businesses. The winning design so captured their imagination, they raised additional funds to deliver the scheme without compromise. The result is a successful local authority public building (built on a modest budget of £2 million/ £148 per sqft) and an exemplar sustainable building model, which could be repeated in other locations with minimum modification. The building creates intimate flexible spaces conducive to how small businesses operate. It is orientated on a north/south axis to maximise daylight through a central atrium bounded by a rigorous arrangement of two rows of offices on two floors. Services design allows easy reconfiguration of layouts of units over the life of the building. All units open onto a generous multi-purpose communal space with stair core and centralised facilities, creating an open atmosphere and promoting the cross-fertilisation of ideas. Folding doors moderate between private offices and communal space, enabling tenants to choose an appropriate balance of privacy and openness. Small inter-connecting units permit businesses to accumulate space as they grow during their maximum 3-year tenancy from 350 sqft to 700 sqft to 1050 sqft or more.