Boho building is One good reason to talk (From The Northern Echo)

Boho building is One good reason to talk

12:52pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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ONE of the world’s first buildings specifically designed for networking is forming the centrepiece of the North-East’s own version of Soho.

The £10m Boho One building in Middlesbrough, which opened yesterday, aims to offer development space for technology companies and keep the region’s brightest young digital sector minds in the Tees Valley.

Already 70 per cent of the building is let and it will provide a base for up to 27 companies, employing 283 people, during their first few years of business.

The building, in the Boho Zone aimed at inspiring a “creative renaissance”

in the Tees Valley, forms a core part of the Digital- City project, which plans to turn the area into a world leader in the technology sector.

Mark Elliott, director of DigitalCity Business, which is behind the Boho Zone, said: “The idea for the Boho Zone came up in 30 seconds one day.

“It is our version of Soho in London, the most successful creative quarter in the world, despite being only 400 yards by 400 yards.

“The power of Soho is in the pubs, cafes and streets where people bump into each other and say, ‘I need to talk to you’.”

He added: “One of the first briefings I gave to architect Tim Bailey was for Soho in a box.

“I said ‘can you design a building that can force people to come out of their shells and talk to each other’.”

With this in mind, Boho One has corridor meeting areas and communal roof terraces.

Even the staircases have been designed as a space for impromptu meetings, with benches in the stairwells.

Mr Bailey, of Newcastle-based xsite architecture, which designed the building, said it was one of the first he knew created with networking in mind.

He said even aerial walkways above the roof terraces would allow people to look down, spot someone they needed to talk to and arrange a meeting.

He said: “The idea of knowledge transfer and networking brings about better business practice.

“It is about economic growth and keeping people in Teesside, which creates a population spending a generation or two here.”

The DigitalCity project came from finding a way to turn Teesside University’s expertise in digital media and digital technology into spin-out businesses.

Expanding on that it offers facilities for the creative sector, with the Boho Zone also including artists’ studios in refurbished Victorian warehouses.

The next stage, Bohouse, due for completion next May, will see twenty apartment offices created for technology professionals, allowing them to work from home.

One North-East chairwoman Margaret Fay and Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon officially opened the building.