Veech x Veech shortlisted BCO Award for Al Jazeera London Headquarters

Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) has unveiled its new UK headquarters and broadcast studio in the iconic Shard skyscraper in London. The scheme has created a pre-eminent broadcast production facility, incorporating innovative workspaces and offices with a multi-purpose newsroom and revolutionary studio, which breaks the mould of the ‘black box’ studio and re-imagines how broadcast facilities are designed. Experts in their respective fields, Al Jazeera appointed John McAslan + Partners to design the reception and office area and Veech x Veech Architects to design the broadcast studio and adjacent newsroom. The Al Jazeera Media Network’s Creative Division were vital to this collaboration, providing the brief for the scheme and being a collaborative partner throughout the design and construction process.

Housed in Europe’s tallest building, this new facility, creating major news and current affairs content across the global Al Jazeera network, reinforces AJMN’s position as a leading news organisation in the UK and European marketplace. The UK office now provides a vital communications role for AJMN, becoming the European hub linking the time overlap between the headquarters in Doha and the studios in the USA.

Patrick Bedeau, Al Jazeera Global Art Director, comments: “This exciting project challenges the way news is made and required the design team to adopt a radical approach, integrating the broadcast studio into the office space within an open-plan setting. The result is the most technologically advanced global production facility anywhere in the world.”