Invest Northern Ireland HQ, Bedford Street, Belfast

Invest Northern Ireland is the government agency responsible for the encouragement in growth of local businesses and inward investment into the province from overseas.

Their headquarters in Belfast emerged out of a PPP process, with the practice designing the scheme for a consortium of developers McAleer & Rushe / Dunloe Ewart and delivering it with the contracting arm of McAleer & Rushe.

Accommodating some 500 staff, the ‘L’ shaped building footprint wraps around a landscaped courtyard, stepping up from a 6 storey glazed drum overlooking Bedford Street, to 12 storeys at the rear of the block. A dramatic, triangle triple height entrance atrium enclosed in frameless glazing provides the building with an appropriately scaled arrival space.

The scheme was one of the first office buildings in the province to secure a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

It’s design quality is directly evidenced in the building receiving the province’s premier architectural accolade, the Liam McCormick Prize for Architecture in the RSUA Design Awards 2006.

The building has also gained a new identity in recent years having become the home of AC12 in the BBC police drama “Line of Duty”!