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Amanda Levete and PLP Architecture create Sky headquarters for west London
Amanda Levete's studio AL_A and PLP Architecture have created a shed-like headquarter for broadcasting and telecommunications company Sky, featuring open-planned mezzanines and a wood-lined interior.
![Photograph is by Mark Cocksedge](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-credit-mark-cocksedge_dezeen_2364_col_8-1-852x568.jpg)
AL_A and PLP Architecture worked on the overall design of Sky Central, the company's 13-hectare campus in Osterley, while Hassell created the workplace interiors. Mace construction firm and Arup engineers completed the team.
![Photograph by Hufton+Crow](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-_dezeen_2364_col_7-852x568.jpg)
The three-storey building has a 37,700-square-metre plan arranged around a triple-height atrium. It houses over 3,500 employees, bringing Sky's corporate and creative sections together under one roof.
![Photograph by Mark Cocksedge](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-credit-mark-cocksedge_dezeen_2364_col_10-852x1278.jpg)
The team wanted to base the design on Sky's roots, as the company began on an industrial estate on the edge of the capital. The architects created a shed-like building clad in alternating panels of glass and aluminium.
Inside, large mezzanine floors project over the atrium, which contains trees, informal seating areas and huge television screens.
![Photograph by Hufton+Crow](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-_dezeen_2364_col_12-852x568.jpg)
"Sky is proud of its beginnings on an industrial business park on the fringes of central London," explained AL_A director Ho-Yin Ng.
"[We] worked with Sky to re-imagine a simple 'shed' typology as a means of bringing the broadcaster's activities and people together under one roof in a series of modern and people-centric workplaces on its campus in Osterley."
![Photograph by Mark Cocksedge](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-credit-mark-cocksedge_dezeen_2364_col_2-852x568.jpg)
"The design embraces the simplicity of the industrial shed, the roots of the campus's context, and defines a new model for the industry's fast-paced and evolving future," he added.
![Photograph by Hufton+Crow](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-_dezeen_2364_col_5-852x568.jpg)
The large open-planned floor-plates are intended to inspire staff to work collaboratively, and to produce the best work they can.
![Photograph by Hufton+Crow](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-_dezeen_2364_col_9-852x568.jpg)
The floors are planned to create clear sight-lines between areas, while broad flights of steps down into the base of the atrium provide informal meeting spots.
Here, the 100-metre-long Sky Street runs the width of the ground floor, linking each area of the business.
![Photograph by Hufton+Crow](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-_dezeen_2364_col_16-852x568.jpg)
"These open and flexible spaces are designed in clusters of neighbourhoods to accommodate a new type of creative industry, where the traditional distinctions between creative, technical, production and corporate have been broken down," said AL_A.
"We wanted to give people a sense of ownership and belonging over their workplace, and for them to feel a genuine sense of connection with the organisation they work for," added Felicity Roocke of Hassell.
![Photograph by Hufton+Crow](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-_dezeen_2364_col_13-852x568.jpg)
The building is topped by a grid of skylights that flood the wood-lined interior with natural light and reduce the need for artificial lighting.
![Photograph by Mark Cocksedge](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-credit-mark-cocksedge_dezeen_2364_col_5-852x1278.jpg)
Sky is the latest company to adopt a workplace intended to create more collaboration between staff, by doing away with cubicles and individual offices.
But, following a string of reports damning traditional open-planned offices for nurturing unfriendliness between co-workers and damaging productivity, the form of this type of office is changing.
Many now incorporate a range of private, semi-private and socialising spaces, taking cues from the service and residential sectors as well as co-working spaces.
![Photograph by Hufton+Crow](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/12/sky-central-al-a-plp-architecture-hassell-mace-and-arup-architecture-offices-london-uk-exterior_dezeen_2364_col_6-852x824.jpg)
AL_A is also currently working on a new entrance for the V&A museum in London, featuring a porcelain courtyard, and recently completed the MAAT museum of art, architecture and technology in Lisbon.
The firm's founder Amanda Levete placed at number 179 on Dezeen Hot List, a comprehensive guide to the most read-about architects, designers and institutions of the last year.
For job opportunities at PLP Architecture, visit their company profile on Dezeen Jobs.
Photography is by Hufton + Crow, unless otherwise stated.