Amnesty

After fifty years in rented offices, the British section of Amnesty International set out to make a long-term home, where they could bring all their staff and volunteers together, and where they could host training, school groups and events. We adapted two furniture factories in Shoreditch, adding the generous entrance and stair that the factories lacked. We kept the airy, light feel of the upper floors, and developed a plan in consultation with the staff, placing rooms for meeting and quiet working to form a suite of linked rooms for the different teams. New hardwood windows and ventilation chimneys were part of a comprehensive passive environmental strategy.

Together with the Amnesty management team, we developed their vision of a ‘human rights action centre’, for outreach and events, helping to build a capacity that at that time they did not have. We extended and opened up the ground floor and basement, accommodating a schools room, the campaigns office, a public archive, and a 250 seat flexible events space in the old loading bay. The new entrance area is spacious but informal, and serves as a bar and breakout area for events. When you enter the building, it opens up around you, so you feel the activity and energy of the organisation – like the Amnesty movement it’s both collective and personal.