One Centenary Way

About One Centenary Way

One Centenary Way is a landmark commercial building in the Paradise masterplan, delivering around 280,000 sq ft of Grade A workspace in the heart of Birmingham city centre. The all‑electric, smart‑enabled building is designed to host approximately 3,500 people and has achieved BREEAM Excellent, positioning it as one of the UK’s most advanced workplaces.

Situated above the A38 tunnel and wrapped in a distinctive steel exoskeleton, the building combines complex engineering with intelligent digital infrastructure that continuously collects live data on energy and facilities use. This makes One Centenary Way an exemplar of how architectural ambition, sustainability, and smart technology can work together in a single development.​

The challenge

MEPC wanted One Centenary Way to be one of Birmingham’s first truly smart buildings, capable of attracting blue‑chip occupiers in a highly competitive city‑centre office market. The brief was to set a new gold standard for workplace experience while delivering tangible operational value and flexibility for future tenants.​

Traditional siloed building management systems could not provide the level of integration, data visibility, or user‑centric experience expected by global organisations like Arup and Goldman Sachs. MEPC needed a secure, scalable digital layer that could unify every building system, support multiple tenant requirements, and remain easy to operate on a day‑to‑day basis.

The Smart Core solution

To deliver on MEPC’s goals, the integrator deployed Smart Core as the building’s digital backbone. Implemented as the Building Operating System (BOS) underpinning One Centenary Way, Smart Core acts as the single integration layer for all major building systems. The platform connects HVAC, lighting, access control, energy metering, and other subsystems into one coherent, connected environment,  all managed from MEPC’s digital estate teams control room.​​

Working alongside the wider project team, Smart Core enabled:

• A single Tenant API that enables custom interaction with the buildings core technolgies and sub systems via a single API. Allowing occupiers to integrate their own applications and services safely with the building’s core systems in days and not months.

• FM Dashboard which enables facilities and operations teams to control and report of building health in realtime.

• Meeting room control that enable environment adjustment to lighting, air quality and temperature.

• Operations Dashboard allowing realtime 'on-premise control and reporting from all sub systems within the buildings infrastructure.

• Open, modular infrastructure ready for future technology upgrades and tenant-specific connections.

  
  

The value

By building One Centenary Way’s digital infrastructure on Smart Core, MEPC now operates a smart building that feels effortless to run and highly attractive to global tenants. The integrated platform gives the operational team real‑time visibility across systems, reduces manual intervention, and supports continuous optimisation of energy, comfort, and utilisation.​​

The impact of Smart Core’s integration was evident even before completion. The smart specification already contributed to securing major occupiers such as Arup and Goldman Sachs ahead of full completion, with additional tenants including Mills & Reeve and JLL. The integrator went on to win Best Smart Building for the project at the 2024 Inavation Awards, recognising the strength of One Centenary Way’s building system management.​

In conclusion

From a Smart Core perspective, One Centenary Way demonstrates how a building operating system can transform a complex development into a cohesive, people‑centred smart building. By connecting people, systems, and data through a single platform, Smart Core turns technology from a collection of isolated systems into a strategic asset that supports leasing, operations, and long‑term sustainability.​​

The project shows that when experience leads and technology enables, smart buildings don’t have to feel complex - they can be intuitive to run, easy to adapt, and compelling for tenants and visitors alike.​​