UNDERSTANDING

ACT V: EBB & FLOW

It’s remarkable to think that, throughout two centuries of rich history at London Dock, our new home, Pennington Street Warehouse, stood almost untouched. Through this time, it witnessed the heyday of sailing ships, survived World War II bombing raids and savage deindustrialisation and stood firm in trade union battles. Now, ever present and full of potential, it is poised to play a new role in fast-moving urban revitalisation, as the city sweeps ever eastwards.

Located on the northernmost edge of what was London Dock, it runs tight along the cobbles of Pennington Street, with barely a pavement to speak of. It is a single-storey brick building with a pitched roof above a semi-basement of vaulted brickwork arches. The ground floor, which is divided into five separate sections, seems curiously elevated above street level, but was devised to accommodate the long-gone quayside level of the docks that once lay to the south. Designed by the Dock’s surveyor, engineer Daniel Alexander, the Grade II-listed building was constructed in several phases between 1804 and 1806 and is one of the largest surviving Georgian warehouses in London.

While simple in form it’s an extraordinary 315 metres in length, with a north façade designed to secure the northern boundary wall of London Dock and therefore devoid of windows. Internally the walls to the north elevation incorporate a structure of arches and inverted arches which were created to provide access during construction, then bricked up on completion.

To the south, the elevation is a little more open, incorporating loading bay openings once used for transporting barrels from the quayside. The elegance of Pennington Street Warehouse is clearly appreciated by author George Courtney Lyttleton:

The quays belonging to this magnificent undertaking [London Dock] are of immense length, with a shed over the front, for covering goods as they may be landed ... On the spacious quay at the north side of the dock, there are five distinct piles of buildings, each containing six divisions of warehouses. The cellars are ten feet high, and compleatly [sic] arched over, with an earthen flooring, beat down to equal the firm substance of brick, which is three feet above the level of the water. From a most minute survey of these magnificent works, it is evident that the ingenious and able architect, has sedulously aimed at blending, and succeeded in the accomplishment of a work which at once unites simplicity and grandeur of appearance, and which may justly be viewed as a chef "d'oeuvre of its kind.

What is overlooked is the uniqueness of the basement vaults, which to this day form part of the longest complex of continuous cellars in the UK. Designed to store barrels of high-value alcohol, they were secure, protected from light and had a cool, stable temperature to aid preservation, with a ventilation system embedded within the thick brick walls that drew fresh air from outside. Large barrels of rum were one of the principal products stored, to the extent that the building became known as ‘The Rum Warehouse’, although ledgers and photographic archives reveal an extensive array of other products including exotic spices.

The excavation of the vast basement vaults created huge volumes of spoil, which was shipped upriver to Pimlico to prepare the low-lying area located there for development. Pennington Street Warehouse itself was also built on marshy, reclaimed ground, with foundations constructed of deep brick walls corbelling out and supported on oak piles. The inverted arches set into the external walls were most likely incorporated to mitigate the settlement and movement that was envisaged in this poor ground. During the News International years, part of Pennington Street Warehouse housed service areas for the printing presses, including ink storage, plant machinery and generators. Other areas housed journalists, with one room famously including a wall covered with The Sun’s most notorious front pages. From 2006 to 2009 the building accommodated the headquarters for News International’s shortlived free daily, The London Paper.

As we began to contemplate how we would go about the design of our new workplace, the refurbishment of Pennington Street Warehouse’s shell and core were already underway. Undertaken by St George with heritage specialists Richard Griffiths Architects, a new entrance lobby incorporating a lift and staircases was created through the removal of four stone pillars. The external façade was being carefully cleaned, and the arches stripped of layers of paint and plaster removed to reveal the beautiful original brickwork.

After a long fifty-year slumber, Pennington Street Warehouse was finally waking up.

ENGAGING

A STUDIO FOR ALL, MADE BY ALL

Can a workplace be all things to all people?

Social activist and urban writer Jane Jacobs often lamented that ‘cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.’ This maxim is utterly and completely relatable to buildings. And we can attest to that.

Ask any of our staff, peers, collaborators or people in neighbourhoods in which we work what makes JTP different from other architects and masterplanners. One word will come up time and again – engagement.

For more than twenty-five years, we have led the way in community engagement, pioneering new techniques that utilise the knowledge and energy of local stakeholders, that underpin Collaborative Placemaking.

Why do we do this? For two very good reasons. Firstly, because no one understands local places better than the people who live there; the history, personalities, collective memories, rituals, problems, delights, quirks and nuances. Secondly, because the potential for success is so much greater with stakeholder engagement.

We’ve seen our processes deepen understanding, engender a sense of shared ownership and facilitate the creation of a collective vision. The results of this Collaborative Placemaking approach dramatically accelerates decisionmaking processes, breaks down barriers, and can turn hostile and adversarial attitudes into more constructive and beneficial forms of dialogue. This is not ‘design by committee’. This is harnessing the ‘wisdom of crowds’.

How do we do this? We listen and learn, facilitate discussion, challenge norms. We bring people of all ages and backgrounds into the same room and encourage them to exchange ideas and opinions, identify problems and propose their own solutions.

We explore these issues together in design charrettes – intensive workshops in which a range of well-informed minds work together over a concentrated period of time. Then we coordinate these ideas into concise visions and plans of action, using our design skills to then give this consensus a visual and physical form.

So, we have practised what we preach.

Our approach to the design of our new studio needed to evolve out of a collaborative approach, but we could see a problem. Despite decades of experience, could we facilitate our own process?

Would we be able to work with the same degree of objectivity and insight as on our other projects? Or would we be too defensive about our own organisational shortcomings? Turn a blind eye to issues we really needed to address? Ignore nagging doubts about our existing studio or ways of working? In short, how could we circumvent ingrained ideas, entrenched habits and ways of working that might stand in the way of innovative solutions?

It was a huge decision for the practice, but in our hearts we knew. If we wanted institute real change, create a workplace that truly nurtured Collaborative Placemaking, then we needed an external agency to hold a mirror up to the organisation. ENTER SPACELAB

Highly recommended by those we trusted, we commissioned workspace experts Spacelab to provide us with that all-important independent view. Armed with a raft of datadriven analytical techniques and a deep understanding of how organisations behave in space, we knew they could help; understanding not only where we stood at that point, but how our workplace could better support and nuture the way we work in the future.

Immediately they were met with a barrage of questions. How could we improve communication and collaboration? Can we make better use of space? In what way might the design of workspace impact our quality of work? How can we better enable staff to do their job? And, perhaps most probing, were we even ready for change?

But answers to these questions had to wait. First the analysis. There was something strange about having the tables turned, but we acquiesced to Spacelab’s scrutiny. For a week they patiently observed how we worked – measuring, counting, recording and gradually turning our day-to-day activities into streams of data for examination.

After this study came the partner and staff workshops. Then stakeholder interviews. And finally, an anonymous online survey. As the days rolled by, they developed deeper and deeper insights into who we were, what we did, and how we were currently going about it.

EIGHT THINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT OURSELVES

The results were fascinating. We comforted ourselves that some observations confirmed our expectations. But there was much more besides. We couldn't argue with surprising outcomes uncovered by their data-driven approach. Some things about our workplace were simply not how we perceived them to be.

We weren’t working at our desks

Well, we were, but not nearly as much as we thought. We genuinely believed our studio was heaving – with more than 90% of staff in the office present at all times. In reality, Spacelab found that, on average, just 78% of employees were in the office at any given time. What’s more, the workspaces we imagined were occupied 75% of the time were actually empty for more than half the time.

So, lots of desks were unused, which was highly inefficient. And yet, how could we address this when the survey showed 75% of staff thought having their own desk was important?

Storage was wreaking havoc

In our hearts we knew storage space was an issue, but it was worse than we thought. Spacelab calculated this was just over 8% of our Net Internal Area (NIA), which was more than twice their recommended benchmark of 4%. The central filing approach had been designed for a time when paper documents were still critical and located in close proximity to staff.

Over the years, these had never been culled. Cabinets were overloaded and had come to dominate the space. Sightlines were blocked, and as a result project team bays felt like silos.

No space for collaboration & creativity

All the storage and layout inefficiencies were taking a toll elsewhere. Spacelab calculated our workspaces occupied only around a third of the floorplate (35%) when this should’ve been closer to half. So, it was no wonder staff feedback cried out for ‘more room around our desks so that people can come and work alongside us’.

Over time we had gradually become more shoehorned in. There was no space for critical deskside conversations, which felt psychologically uncomfortable and distracted those in adjacent workspaces. Indeed, we were so short of pin-up space and informal meeting areas that it was growing increasingly difficult to function as a design studio.

Not all meeting spaces were made equal

Only one-third of staff felt they were able to get a meeting space when they needed one. Yet average meeting room occupancy was just 50%. Something about this just didn’t make sense. But the interviews offered more insights, with staff suggesting ‘lots of our meetings could take place in much more informal space, with soft seating’ or ‘small charrette areas would be fantastic’.

So, there was our answer. It wasn’t that people couldn’t book a meeting space – it was that they couldn’t get the one they felt was most conducive to the task in hand. We now knew we needed to pay far greater attention to how the character of collaborative workspace could actually influence outcomes, and understand the role of technology, physical attributes, and the atmosphere of a space in facilitating all-important conversations and design activities.

The great divide was ruling

We were disappointed. Spacelab’s report told us that, although knowledge sharing and learning sat at the very heart of the JTP ethos, less than half our employees believed the office design facilitated this. One comment in particular struck at the heart of the issue: ‘The four floors really separate us all. I never see half the people in the practice.’ Quite simply, the physical configuration of our Great Sutton Street studio was acting as a barrier to advancing our thinking, inhibiting face-toface communication and with it, the crosspollination of ideas and innovation.

We prioritised the wrong connections

Before Spacelab undertook their Study of Interaction, we believed that project teams should be at the ‘centre’ of things – as they drove business. We imagined all manner of benefits were created through proximity and interconnection between architectural staff. But while these were important, what we learned was that these links were not as critical as day-to-day interactions between project teams and functions such as community planning, HR, finance, graphics, marketing and administration. So, we needed a fundamental rethink. These key players needed to be together at the heart of the studio, where they were visible, close at hand and ready to assist the project teams.

We had an environmental blind spot

Our Great Sutton Street studio was conceived as a paragon of sustainable design, a ‘practise what we preach’ statement of intent that won an armful of awards. For more than a decade of occupation, we had been diligently monitoring our performance against thirty sustainability measures. But when doing benchmark research for our new workspace, we discovered a completely new area of concern – volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

These chemicals – often found in building materials, furnishings, fabrics, cleaning products, solvents and paint finishes – pose a significant health hazard when encountered in high concentrations over long periods of time. So, when we took our first readings of VOCs prior to moving, to create a benchmark for the new studio, we were dismayed to find these were surprisingly high – well beyond what we felt was acceptable.

We had mixed messages about change

There was a lot of excitement about the new studio and the opportunity it presented to transform our approach to work. But feedback from Spacelab highlighted that this was far from unanimous. At one end of the spectrum were those happy to ‘work anywhere as long as I can log in, have a space to draw and a space to meet my team’. But further work was needed to understand the concerns of 20% of staff who said they were ‘not at all or only a little’ open to more flexible ways of working, and to address the contradiction that 78% of all staff felt having their own permanent desk was important.

So, there it was. The results were in, with lots of important learnings from Spacelab’s work. There were things we were getting right, confirmation of areas we knew we needed to address, and a number of deep insights about our work culture that could only have been revealed to us by others.

What was crystal clear about the Pennington Street project was that it was not simply a design exercise; rather, what we were about to undertake was wholesale organisational change. Sure, it would need to look fantastic, but more fundamentally it needed to better reflect who we were and what we believed in and inspire new working practices that would raise the bar on our Collaborative Placemaking.

Most of all, this was a journey we needed to bring every member of staff on because, without their support and enthusiasm, this was not going to work. What we needed was a process of Change Management. MANAGING CHANGE

The idea of Change Management developed in the 1960s and quickly evolved into a systematic approach to dealing with organisational transformation, purposeful tactics and strategies used for effecting and controlling change, and, perhaps most importantly, helping people adapt to new circumstances.

At JTP, we had long recognised that our Collaborative Placemaking approach was in effect ‘Change Management’ for urban environments. Bringing local people together to understand the problems they faced, and then helping them to accept, shape and then promote the change they needed to see in their neighbourhood. Drawing on this experience, we outlined a series of strategies and tactics we felt could ease the transition from established behaviours at our Great Sutton Street Studio into the new methods of collaborative working, sociability and use of space we wanted to institute at Pennington Street.

I. Shared ownership

Our first Change Management tactic was to involve the whole organisation in setting the brief.

What did we want our move to achieve? Between April and July 2016, a great debate took shape focussed around a partners’ retreat and three staff workshops. By midsummer, thoughts had coalesced, ideas had landed, and a comprehensive vision and plan finally emerged. There was a presentation to the practice. Then further discussion. As a survey was launched to flush out any individual doubts, we knew that concerns still existed, ones which couldn’t be voiced in front of others.

Sure enough, there were concerns the new studio would have ‘too many rules’ and cramp styles. For the technically minded there was a need for more detail on practical matters. For the aesthetes, there were in-depth conversations about specific materials, floor finishes and furniture solutions – which was only to be expected as, after all, practically everyone was an architect.

Finally, for those sensitive about changes to everyday life, there were incidental meetings, heart-to-heart conversations, empathy and encouragement.

II. Seeing is believing

In January 2016, Spacelab presented at our weekly Soundbites session – a lunchtime idea-sharing forum for JTP staff. Together, we learned about the latest ideas in agile working and the future of the office. A month later, we went on a visit to Spacelab’s own office, as well as those of several of their clients, to experience first-hand what change would mean and discuss with those who worked there the pros and cons of this approach.

For some, the impact was immediate. Decluttering began the moment they returned to Great Sutton Street, with desks and pedestals cleared of all files and papers to see how it felt. Others waited until a collective decision was taken to move to an agile desk policy.

The entire studio took a trip to Pennington Street Warehouse before construction began to experience the space. This was aided by the creation of a 3D virtual model for viewing on an Oculus Rift headset, which proved very popular, giving employees a more physical and interactive experience of their future workspace than static computer generated images.

III. Testing, testing

As conversations about future workstyles and office design progressed, a research and development phase began. Everything that could be tested in advance was brought under scrutiny. We started with lockers, with one team acting as guinea pigs for trialling our paperless office. Guess what? They were too small. So, we started again and worked with the furniture company to make them bigger.

We bought caddies for personal effects. The first set didn’t even fit in the lockers. The next batch were more carefully targeted. Next up were smart walls – which promised to be both writable and magnetic, but took a while to become either, then finally both. This was all good fun – an ongoing source of debate and conversation in the office, with the intention of not only getting things right, but also building a collective sense of ownership.

We started nudging behavioural change. For more than a decade we’d been minimising waste, but it was time to up the ante. Could we change more habits before we left, to make the transformation easier? Plastic bags were a major problem, so everyone was given a reusable, JTP-branded hessian one. Grumblings were headed off with incentives. Show us you’ve used it every day and we’ll buy you a meal. While it’s true there is ‘no such thing as a free lunch’, giving up plastic bags seemed a small price to pay.

IV. Thankless tasks

Oh, how very easy it was to commit to the idea of a clutter-free, paperless office – and yet so difficult to achieve. The team in charge started by questioning existing behaviours. Did we really need all these paper copies of letters? Wouldn’t those product brochures be more up to date online? Wasn’t it enough to know we had digital copies of old drawings?

With a little ‘gentle persuasion’, new working approaches emerged and stemmed the flow of paper. Then began the huge job of clearing the office. Reams of paper were recycled, but nowhere would take the boxloads of liberated document folders, files and stationery. Schools, colleges and community groups were contacted, and gradually everything found a new home, including old library books which were shipped to Africa by a charity.

How long did this take? Two. Whole. Years. With a month to the move it had all gone, a decade-worth of material. All that was left was a carefully curated library of books, important reference documents and a greatly loved archive of hand-drawn sketches from days of old. Oh yes, and everyone’s personal stuff.

The two-year process of getting rid of project filing proved to be a walk in the park compared with getting rid of the archaeological remains of personal artifacts that had been laid down over more than a decade. Attachment to all manner of old CDs, clothing, pens, magazines, shoes, dead phones, souvenirs, photographs and other variables was fierce. It was getting personal. We were impacting on habits, memories and everyday routines.

The design team sensed timing would be everything and left this painful act of purging to the very last minute. And they were proved right. When staff saw the incredible purity of the new space, opinions changed. What once seemed precious came under question. Ten percent of their ‘treasure’ went home and the rest went in the recycling bin. We could hear the new studio sigh in relief.

V. Collective attachment

In October 2018, as the new studio neared completion and the move to Pennington Street drew closer, it was time to shift mindsets. An office trip was organised to Wapping to start engaging staff with their future neighbourhood.

Teams were tasked with different research themes, and a day-long investigation was undertaken. Streets were walked, pubs and restaurants judged, shopkeepers interviewed, and community facilities uncovered. Everything was captured in photographs, notes and sketches – some were even moved to write poems about what they experienced.

We shared our findings over drinks in the evening. Beside the magnificent, historic pubs perched on the banks of the Thames, we were struck by two things in particular. First, the surprising quantity and range of open spaces, from pocket parks, courtyards, squares and stretches of water to woodlands, lanes, alleyways and even beaches. You just needed to know where to look.

Second, the strong sense of community in Wapping. Talking with owners and employees of independent shops, creative businesses, artists’ communities and cultural organisations, staff were impressed by the sheer positivity, resilience and togetherness they encountered. A powerful bond was formed with our new neighbourhood.

VI. Military operation

Then the move. How should we manage that? First, spare a moment’s thought for the diligent souls whose task was to quantify and measure everything that had passed the harsh audition to join us in the new office – plotters and printers, architectural models, charrette equipment, stationery and kitchen equipment. Everything, right down to the teaspoons, was assessed and then assigned a new home at Pennington Street.

Before they even existed, each and every new cupboard and drawer was mapped out, display space carefully curated, and library shelf space assigned. New computer servers were purchased to ease the transition, all tried and tested before we upped sticks, to minimise disruption.

On the day of the move, excitement mounted and camaraderie formed. Crates were loaded, meticulously labelled. Then a crisis. Late in the day the computer removal crew cancelled and it was then all hands on deck. The IT team at JTP literally worked night and day, and miraculously, two days later, everything was up and running again.

VII: Constant change

So, that’s how we went about Changing Places. A carefully considered management process involving design innovation, logistics and psychology – used to transform JTP from one way of working to another.

Of course this was never going to stop the minute we moved in. A period of ‘settling in’ was always envisaged. Not just to deal with the inevitable teething problems that come with every complex build but, more importantly, to support and nurture new workstyles and behaviours.

First up, the creation of a Facilities Manager role – a dedicated individual (in every sense of the word) tasked with keeping our myriad of new workspaces running smoothly. Someone that loved the idea of running a frictionless environment where sophisticated equipment (interactive displays, video conferencing, data projection) could foster dynamic collaboration and spark new conversations. Then, the introduction of new rituals to bring people together. Like elevenses, or rather, what the Swedish would call ‘fika’ – ostensibly healthy snacks and coffee in the Hub, but in reality, a coordinated mid-morning break for employees to spend a little time with each other.

Indeed, shared moments of eating and drinking throughout the day were instituted to oil the wheels of sociability, knowledge sharing and bonhomie. From the birth of The Breakfast Club, to a willing embrace of communal lunchtimes in the Hub (goodbye ‘al desko’), through to the Friday evening Gin Club created by one of our tenants. All these new moments were the outcome of a purposeful plan, to use the design of Pennington Street Warehouse to strengthen team bonds and operate as an organisation in a way we felt reflected our Collaborative Placemaking beliefs.

CREATING

REALISING OUR VISION

What inspired our design?

We’ve understood all we can find to understand. Engaged with everyone involved, and together created a vision. Now we must bring this to life. What will make this place special? Where is its soul? How do we make this our home? This stage is pure imagination. It’s not just about how things work or fulfil practical needs. It’s dreaming up environments that inspire us, free our minds, excite our thoughts, lift our spirits and nurture our friendships.

FOUR PRINCIPLES

There were a huge number of ideas. An embarrassment of riches. Big strategic moves. Elegant concepts for ‘look and feel’. Practical considerations, technical solutions and a sprinkling of quirky thoughts that made us smile. We fought them into some sort of order, and four principles emerged out of the complexity.

First, we see an Architectural Principle built around respect. We mean this in every sense. Respect for the history and culture of London Dock. Respect for the character of the warehouse itself. Respect for the quality and provenance of everything we add. We had to remember, we are only the building’s present owners. It has existed long before and will outlive us all. How should we care for it on our watch?

Second, is an Organisational Principle centred on collaboration. We know that when we work together we create our very best projects. We’ve also learned more about how the design of different spaces – and their scale, atmosphere, and provision of physical and digital tools – can significantly enhance how we think and interrelate with each other. How should we plan and structure our studio for even better project outcomes?

Third, we see a clear influence of the JTP ‘family spirit’ in calls for a Human Principle centred on heath and well-being. This is not about including faddish ideas, but rather addressing our deeper concerns about the role of the workplace in nurturing healthy and meaningful lives. From the moment we arrive to the moment we stop, we needed to consider one question – how can this place care for us?

Finally, we always knew the studio would be built around a strong Ethical Principle and commitment to sustainability. This is in our DNA. Not just environmental concerns, but also economic and social dimensions. How far could we push this time? What could we achieve beyond the awards and plaudits received for Great Sutton Street?

1.RESPECT: ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLE

London Dock was massively impacted by post-war planning, a time when elegant historic buildings and traditional urbanism were swept away in a bid to modernise the area. Looking at Pennington Street Warehouse today, it is difficult to imagine this mindset.

It is an extraordinary undertaking. An essay in brick engineering, created by unknown hands two centuries ago, and still beautifully intact. Although its context and use may have changed throughout the decades, the building continues to radiate a serene sense of permanence, calmly indifferent to time. What were they thinking?

We all knew this historic fabric should be the starting point for our creative thinking – a sensitive but dynamic adaptation of a Grade II-listed warehouse. Our goal then – to appreciate and work with the idiosyncratic character and spaces of the building, respecting both unique architectural features and the everyday scars of its former life.

We set out knowing that the design must go far beyond aesthetics. We wanted it to question the norm, without having to ‘shout loud’ or be needlessly radical, whilst at the same time reflecting its past, present and future. We wanted to create something that would enrich and enliven the lives of people who are going to use it both now and in years to come.

As with all timeless buildings with ageless architecture, we knew the details were essential without needing to be overtly fashionable. We wanted the renovation work and new interventions to be a secondary feature, allowing the historical beauty of the original building to be the primary focus.

MEZZANINE

B

THE VAULTS

SECTION B-B

ENTRANCE WEST MEZZANINE ATRIUM

THE HUB EAST MEZZANINE

WEST MEZZANINE

ATRIUM

THE HUB EAST MEZZANINE

THE VAULTS ENTRANCE

SECTION D-D

ATRIUM

THE HUB

C

THE NOOK PROJECT BAY

ENTRANCE THE PROMENADE

THE TERRACE

GROUND FLOOR

ATRIUM

THE SPICE ROOM

THE RUM ROOM

BIKES KITCHEN & SERVERY

THE HUB

LOUNGE

THE VAULTS

PROJECT BAY

PROJECT BAY

NEWS ROOM

NET: 469 SQ M (5050 SQ FT) GROSS: 500 SQ M (5377 SQ FT)

RESTROOMS

THE CHARRETTE ROOM

SHOWER ROOMS

NET: 382 SQ M (4113 SQ FT) GROSS: 510 SQ M (5495 SQ FT)

KITCHEN

WEST MEZZANINE THE BRIDGE

ATRIUM

THE MEZZANINE

EAST MEZZANINE PROJECT BAY

COMMS ROOM

NET: 257 SQ M (2763 SQ FT) GROSS: 371 SQ M (3992 SQ FT)

2. COLLABORATION: ORGANISATIONAL PRINCIPLE

As we collaborate increasingly across studios, projects and disciplines, we wanted a space that enabled this to happen fluidly every day. Our work has become more complex and interconnected, and we spend less time working alone and more time collaborating, learning and socialising.

Delivering a workplace to satisfy the productivity and collaboration needs of different groups, with different workstyles and cultural preferences, was a complex challenge. Throughout the design process, we learned a lot about our own workstyles, habits and behaviours, and also about how the design of different spaces can significantly enhance how we interrelate with each other.

To this end, the design renders the building entirely reconfigurable – with flexible space which can take on different roles at different times. It provides the opportunity to continually trial, test and better understand how we work and, most importantly, how we want to work in future.

Ultimately, it is a space to welcome everyone – employees, our surrounding community and our clients. Offering co-working space, exhibition space and event space, it provides an adaptive environment to accommodate a variety of functions. It’s a space to showcase work, to host, to celebrate and to bring people together.

3. HEALTH & WELL-BEING: HUMAN PRINCIPLE

Since the very start, we’ve been embedding healthy placemaking approaches across all our projects, to ensure whatever we do has a positive impact on the everyday lives of the communities we design for.

So, it was easy to agree that the new studio needed to reflect this ethos. We all spend a great proportion of our lives at the workplace, carrying out complex projects with steady streams of deadlines. Handled poorly, the outcome is stress, which can quickly take a toll on physical health and mental well-being. We needed a space that was good for us in every way imaginable, somewhere to nurture and sustain our minds and bodies, and nudge us towards good habits and healthy behaviours.

Getting here

While urban life can be full of rich experiences, for most, its greatest downside is the commute to work. Squeezing through crowded stations, sitting in traffic jams or dealing with the impact of disrupted public transport are stresses we could all do without. From the start, we saw that one of Pennington Street’s great assets was accessibility, with staff able to choose between the Underground, Overground, DLR and local buses. So, when things go wrong, as they inevitably do, there is always a plan B. But what better than to make the commute your exercise for the day? At Great Sutton Street we had always encouraged cycling and jogging to work – indeed there was a running joke (no pun intended) that we cared so much that the bike store was the best room in the office. At Pennington Street Warehouse, we felt we needed larger, more easily accessible cycle storage as well as luxury showers, lockers and fluffy towels. Then someone mentioned the British weather. So, a dry room was added to the brief to provide somewhere for drying clothes.

Breathing space

In workplace design there is a received wisdom that suggests everything should be close at hand, that we need to keep things efficient to ensure people don’t waste time. But where is this idea coming from? Most likely modernity – the logic of industrial production and the fetishisation of productivity.

In this world, time is money. But we know that knowledge work, like architecture, masterplanning and placemaking, is different. Ideas and inspiration don’t work to a timetable. Progress comes in fits and starts, with long periods of trial and error followed by sudden insights. ‘Aha!’ moments. And, as we thought this through, we had one ourselves. We decided that, to nurture a healthy and active work life, the design of the studio needed to do something completely counterintuitive, and subtly disrupt sedentary desk work to encourage movement and interaction.

Our idea was to create ‘breathing spaces’ within the studio, physical places located away from desks that people would need to visit on a regular basis, that provided opportunities for staff to pause or relax, before deciding what to do next. This meant bringing tea and coffee points to a single central location, grouping all the printers and plotters together elsewhere, and even creating banks of restrooms rather than spreading them around. We sensed that by doing this we would encourage people to keep moving, across and between floors, increasing both physical activity and casual conversations.

Biophilia

Scientists have proved that humans have a deep subconscious affiliation with the natural environment, although even a short walk in the woods can provide enough evidence to see that this is true. Recently though, biophilia – the love of nature – has become an important topic in the well-being debate.

Incorporating nature into the workplace delivers significant benefits – cleaner air, lowering of stress and enhanced mental health. This improved state of mind brings with it increased concentration, creativity and even a reduction in absenteeism. What’s not to like? A plan was hatched to incorporate large-scale planting through the studio in key locations, where staff could easily see or be close to greenery. However, not all nature is made equal. Or at least not in our eyes. So, for intensively used surfaces such as the kitchen servery worktop and reception desk we proposed to use anti-microbial products, to stop the spread of micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi and mould.

Banishing VOCs

Sick building syndrome. If it sounds bad, the reality is worse. Imagine a workplace full of materials, finishes, furniture and fabrics that are slowly emitting formaldehyde and a host of other unwholesome chemicals that cause irritation, breathing and skin problems, headaches, fatigue and nausea – because that’s what is happening in most offices. If a something smells ‘new’, it’s most likely a VOC. Even in our former studio at Great Sutton Street, which had great natural ventilation, we found levels far higher than anticipated.

We decided that at Pennington Street Warehouse things would be different. It was going to be tough, but we set the ambition to be a VOC-free studio environment. In design, construction and occupation we would be vigilant in our specification of materials and finishes. The VOC police were formed, and every paint, timber, fabric, item of furniture and cleaning product placed under the microscope.

4. SUSTAINABILITY: ETHICAL PRINCIPLE

You. Yes you. We’re talking to you. You’re reading this but already glazing over. We can sense it. And that’s the problem with the issue of sustainability in architectural projects. It’s just not as sexy as design. But really, we shouldn’t even be writing about it; it should just be happening. Forget legislation. We are in a state of climate emergency and now, more than ever before, we should be doubling down on sustainability and taking responsibility for our own impact on the world.

At our previous studio, sustainability had been front and centre of all our design decisionmaking. So, Pennington Street Warehouse presented an opportunity to build on past experience, push ourselves harder, explore what is possible within a listed historic building, and minimise our energy consumption, carbon emissions in construction and occupation, waste, and just about everything else. Here’s the roadmap we chose.

BREEAM

The BREEAM methodology allows for comparable assessment of sustainability strategies and examines performance across the whole built environment life cycle from construction to building-in-use to refurbishment. The criteria examine a wide range of factors including energy and carbon, transport, use of water, nature of materials, approaches to waste, pollution and building management. While listed building status places constraints around the use of more advanced and exacting sustainability strategies, we set ourselves a minimum of ‘Very Good’ for our BREEAM target rating. One year after occupancy, we achieved exactly this.

Energy consumption and carbon emissions

For this we decided on three clear strategies: minimise, minimise and minimise. For our regulated energy use we knew this meant finding innovative ways to overcome the ventilation and lighting challenges of the bonded warehouse to restrict energy consumption in heating, cooling, lighting and hot water requirements. So, we selected mechanical and electrical system experts XCO2 in our search for the right answers. For our unregulated energy use, in computers and appliances like dishwashers and fridges, and studio lamps, we decided only straight AA rating would pass our test.

Circular principles

We agreed we should be tough on ourselves on materials and products. So, everything specified throughout the studio would need cradle-to-grave accreditation.

This methodology evaluates the environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle, from raw material to disposal. We thought it was important to know where everything was coming from, and what exactly would happen to it when it was done. Just to keep everyone on their toes, we also made a rule that, where possible, materials and products would be sourced locally, and that we would reutilise the majority of our existing furniture from our former studio.

Embodied carbon

The adaptive reuse of Pennington Street Warehouse played well into our sustainability strategy for the studio but, in addition, we made a commitment to maximise use of timber throughout. One of the most environmentally friendly materials currently available, it acts as a natural carbon sink, is truly renewable and has a biophilic impact on well-being.

Future flexibility

Who knows what the future may bring? When JTP started twenty-five years ago, there was no internet.

Now, we were considering a practically paper-free office. A clear ambition for the new studio was to futureproof the space and design for flexibility – minimising fixed partitions and furniture. To enable possible changes to power and data supplies in the future, we ensured a raised floor throughout the studio.

SNAPSHOTS

LIVING THE REALITY

How does our new home feel?

That was the theory. Four principles devised to ensure the design of the studio achieved our goal to respect the building, nurture collaboration, look after our well-being and tread lightly on the planet. But this of course is not how places are actually experienced. The reality of architecture is that, to succeed, these concepts need to come together in an economical way that is elegantly structured and brings joy to the lives of those who inhabit it. Commodity, firmness and delight. Even two thousand years after Vitruvius, this definition still rings true.

What follows are snapshots of day-to-day life in the studio – the way different spaces are encountered, how they feel, the messages they communicate and how these effects are achieved. But don’t just take our word for it. Come and visit. Spend time with us and see if you agree.

ARRIVAL

Dawn. Warm light floods through the arch into the blue-grey beginnings of day. A rattle, a clatter, a large gate slides open. The echo of footsteps. The day has begun. Entering Pennington Street Warehouse is a piece of theatre. The great arch, opened up after two centuries, feels symbolically welcoming, a wide, appealing invitation to step through. The timber truss roof with a glazed lantern creates a warm, light and beautifully spacious foyer, that also serves as a pedestrian route through from Pennington Street to the Quayside to the south. The floor is made of glass. It’s clear that this is no ordinary place.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. In all our work, we endeavour to make welcoming environments, public spaces that invite people in from all walks of life and then provide good reasons to stay. So, it was important that the entrance to our new studio epitomised this. To start, a lofty foyer carved into the building, with two grand staircases wrapped around the lift, providing a route from the street down to the vaults or up to the ground-floor level.

Then, your first impression of JTP. Transparency. Come in, we’re open to all. A huge glazed wall – our shop window – behind which is an exhibition space where we start our conversation with visitors and passers-by.

Through the entrance doors, reception is a welcome point. Concierge not security. The desk is made from recycled newspaper – the first of many nods to the building’s past – pulped and combined with resin to create Richlite – a durable and hard-wearing finish, warm to the touch. The rich black contrasts with the light oak floor. The LED lights embedded in the plinth give the impression the whole desk is floating. And a touch of luxury in the front panel – Vitramesh, a latticed bronze set in glass.

But in truth, the visitor’s attention is probably not here, in the carefully crafted architectural details, but rather on the vast panorama across the whole studio.

THE PROMENADE

You’ve been greeted at reception. The space ahead draws you forward, and you’ll quickly move to The Atrium, where the natural inclination is to pause, because there is so much to take in. Heads dart up and down, side to side, smiles form. You have people working all around. Across The Atrium you see the work pinned up in the Project Bay. Then below, down into the cavernous space, is The Hub, plus glimpses of meeting rooms and The Vaults. Everything is connected.

Reception is just a short pitstop, not a place to dwell. Instead you’re drawn forwards through the building along The Promenade with its large trees, which are daylit by the huge warehouse openings that once gave onto the quayside.

On this floor, workspace neighbourhoods are laid out on two large square areas of carpet. These work hard, absorbing both sound and the wear and tear that would come from the constant movement of chairs. But from time to time, a nostalgic person might want to imagine that these dark pools are the basins of the former London Dock.

Suddenly, you’re at The Atrium, where three storeys of drama unfold. Up above, The Mezzanine. Down below, The Vaults.

THE ATRIUM

The Atrium is key, bringing light flooding into the studio. It allows us to see each other, to feel that we’re connected, that we belong to something. It creates a sense of drama.

Creating The Atrium was critical to the reimagining of Pennington Street Warehouse. Built to store luxury goods in cool, dark conditions, the historic structure needed to yield to take on its new life as a 21st-century workspace. But driving a void through the brick-vaulted arches to bring daylight to the deepest recesses of the building was more complex than even we had imagined.

To create the 14-metre-high atrium, four stone columns and a section of vaulted arches needed to be removed.

But such was the ingeniously self-supporting nature of the original design that eliminating these elements risked lateral collapse. Some highly creative structural engineering was in order. An elegant reinforced concrete ring beam was instated to resist forces, with concealed brackets and diagonal ties used to secure the floating arch. The construction phase was remarkable. Maintaining stability of the arches required extensive temporary propping, as well as hundreds of steel pins to hold up the vaults.

Today, it’s easy to forget this delicate surgery. The concrete beam is a delight, fitting naturally into the structural language of the building, gently arched in its support. Within the atrium, pendant lighting is hung from an oak lantern, which in turn is suspended from the steel trusses. The lights sit deep into the atrium, breaking up the planes and accentuating the volume. Here too, the design is influenced by the past. As a bonded warehouse, large weighing scales dangled from the roof to measure incoming goods. Now, this was a place where ideas were to be weighed.

The staircases are designed as a family, with different designs according to location and function. Designed to require no intermediate support, they create space beneath them and eliminate visual clutter. The treads are open, maximising penetration of daylight from above. LED lighting at their edges brings a little energy to this change between levels. The stairs are about nurturing collaboration also. How so? By being wide enough to walk them together without breaking your conversation, or to stop and chat comfortably, with plenty of room for others to pass.

An oak handrail, tactile and warm in contrast to the cold and utilitarian feel of steelwork, is provided around the atrium at ground floor, and on the mezzanine bridge. The timber handrail is a leaner’s delight, angled away from the atrium to accommodate forearms. It’s a place to pause, a place to chat and to observe. Oak handrails also feature on the staircases.

Those who enjoy links to the past will welcome the choice of oak, which references the countless barrels that were rolled in and stored here, and indeed to the ships that brought them to the warehouse.