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BP North Sea Headquarters, Aberdeen.

NEW OFFICES DESIGNED TO IMPROVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN STAFF ONSHORE AND IN THE NORTH SEA

BP NORTH SEA HEADQUARTERS

ABERDEEN

BP’s new state of the art North Sea Headquarters provides open plan office space for 1,300 staff directly related to the exploration and day to day management of North Sea oil assets. From here staff can communicate directly with offshore oil platforms from specially designed areas, called ACEs (Advanced Collaborative Environments), using dedicated data monitoring and video conferencing equipment to ensure operations are kept running on a 24/7 basis. Other specialist areas include showcase High Immersivity Visualisation Environments (HIVEs) providing 3D projection facilities to allow staff to visualise such things as drilling routes through rock formations, and the real time assembly and dismantling of complex heavy engineering components. The HIVEs are enclosed in LCD glass, allowing passers by to see what is going on, but for this to be made visually secure when privacy is needed.

The interior layout of the building was created following extensive consultation with staff to develop the brief. The key criteria in developing the space planning has been to encourage collaboration across teams and between staff, together with a desire for office areas to be arranged to avoid straight lines. Furniture and accommodation has been set out accordingly, providing a workspace that allows different ways of working at different times, improving the effectiveness of the working environment. Oases have been provided at the entry to each wing providing photocopying, printing, recycling, refreshment functions, and touchdown and break out.

In addition to using standard ranges of office desking, BDG McColl worked with Steelcase to develop a new desk configuration for high intensity users of computer equipment to minimise the risk of repetitive strain injury.

Building finishes use a range of subtle and strong colours on walls and furniture, developed from BP’s brand colours to reinforce the BP brand to both staff and visitors alike.

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