Mix interiors 163

Mix Interiors 163

April 2016

Sit. Stand. Move. Repeat.

At Herman Miller we have always believed in the importance of changing your posture throughout the day. The Ratio height-adjustable desk enables a smooth transition between sitting and standing. www.hermanmiller.co.uk/ratio

Mix Interiors 163

Inside 60

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Estée Lauder

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Upfront

Spotlight

The Round Table

Review

12 Seven...

32 The Big Question

Case Studies

22 The month that was

34 The Education Report

25 Forward Thinking 27 Material Matters 28 Desert Island Desks

40 Case Studies

60 Profile 60 HemingwayDesign

50 Swansea University – Bay Campus

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66 Estée Lauder, London 72 CMS, London

80 MIPIM

88 Just an idea

Mix Interiors 163

The cover The logo

We’ve all got used to minimal, monochrome design – it’s logical, it’s acceptable and it’s easy. Whether applied to a building or to an interior or simply to a magazine title – isn’t it time for the romantic, colourful picturesque to tickle our fancy? www.lauriechetwood.com www.chetwoods.com

The cover image Inspired by nature and this month’s roundtable on biophilia, Karndean Designflooring’s cover interprets the 12 new Van Gogh Wood hue designs.

Each replicating the unique look that comes from the transformation of wood over time, the four groups feature French Oaks, American Redwood, Scottish Beech and Mexican Cypress. www.karndean.com

Back issues Contact us to buy back issues: rebecca@mixinteriors.com

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from Mick It struck me, halfway through our recent Round Table discussion on the subject of biophilic design, that it really can be the smallest, simplest things that make the greatest difference.

We were discussing the issue of planting in the workplace and one of our esteemed panel members recalled how her former studio had planted chilli peppers in the office – and how this had led to conversations between people who might not normally speak with one another. In other words, a 20p packet of seeds had helped improve interaction and collaboration.

I still remember planting mustard cress seeds at junior school on a Friday afternoon – and the wide-eyed wonder of actual plants being there the following Monday. We were even given bread so that we could all have a

cress sandwich! So, I’ve decided to do bring a little bit of that wonder to my own working life. As a good deal of my work is done from home, the idea of improving interaction and collaboration is out of the window. However, speaking of windows, what I can do is plant a variety of herbs just outside the bay window.

Through spring and summer (British weather permitting, of course) I’ll be able to fling open the bay window and breathe in the incredible aroma of fresh thyme, rosemary and coriander.

Actually, maybe that’s not such a great idea. Even the thought of those smells has me reaching for takeaway menus. The planting of herbs might well lift my soul, but it’s also likely to lift my cholesterol! When it comes to wellbeing, maybe its the Aladdin and China Garden takeaways that will benefit the most from my biophilic plans!

Get in touch Editor Mick Jordan mick@mixinteriors.com Editorial support Rebecca Bignell rebecca@mixinteriors.com

Address Mix Media Limited 2 Abito 85 Greengate Manchester M3 7NA Telephone 0161 946 6262

Director David Smalley david@mixinteriors.com

e-mail editorial@mixinteriors.com

Designer Rob Jozefowski rob@mixinteriors.com

Website www.mixinteriors.com

Managing director Marcie Incarico marcie@mixinteriors.com Founding publisher Henry Pugh

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Twitter @mixinteriors Contributors Mark Eltringham Steve Gale Mark Sait

Subscriptions To ensure that a regular copy of Mix Interiors reaches your desk, please call 0161 946 6262 or e-mail: sales@mixinteriors.com Annual subscription charges UK single £45.50, UK corporate (up to 5 individuals) £140, Europe £135 (airmail), Outside Europe £165 (airmail).

Printed by S&G Print ISSN 1757-2371

Convenient desktop USB charging Flo Power Hub can be retro-Fit ted to existing cbs monitor arms

info@cbsproducts.co.uk +44 (0)207 940 4266 www.colebrookbossonsaunders.com 3

Mix Interiors 160

As humans we are innately attracted to the natural world. When we are amongst nature we feel less stressed, more focused and creative.

We work with nature to develop products that will help designers and innovators like Oliver Heath to create beautiful, nature-inspired spaces for better health, well-being and productivity.

#BeautifulThinking is creating spaces that inspire and improve well-being.

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Equal Measure EM551, EM552 & EM553 – Park

Oliver Heath Leader in Biophilic Design and Sustainable Architecture

Mix Interiors 160

London Showroom

32 Clerkenwell Road London EC1M 5PS +44 (0) 203 397 4878 uksales@thinking.info thinking.info

okidoki was born from the idea of creating a table with a cheeky, fun design bringing a sense of informality to the chosen environment. okidoki folding table is the perfect product for commercial and educational work environments, that can quickly and easily be tilted, moved and stored.

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Mix Interiors 160

London Showroom 32 Clerkenwell Road London EC1M 5PS +44 (0) 203 397 4878 uksales@thinking.info thinking.info

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Mix Interiors 160

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Mix Interiors 160

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Upfront

CURTAIN MANUFACTURER ENA SHAW MAKES LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE LIST Contract soft furnishings expert Ena Shaw has been named in the 2016 London Stock Exchange’s list of 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain.

The report showcases the UK’s ‘most inspiring and fastest growing SMEs’, with strong revenue growth and out-performing competitors in the same category being the key factors for inclusion.

SPECIAL KKS KKS has been extremely busy of late – not least with its new offices in Westminster. Katrina Kostic Samen (pictured) and the team are celebrating 12 years as a practice and doing some terrific projects including New Ludgate, Aon, Hiscox and CMS (turn to page 72 for the full review).

Meanwhile no less than five of the firm's projects have been shortlisted for this year's BCO awards.

Established in 1929, the family-run group has grown to become one of the country’s largest manufacturers for the contract and domestic soft furnishings industry. The company recorded a 20% increase in revenue during the last financial year, growing from £13.3 to £15.9 million.

Commenting on the company’s stamp of approval from the London Stock Exchange, Ena Shaw’s Managing Director, Richard Potter (pictured), said: 'We’re incredibly thrilled and honoured to be selected for this prestigious list.

'The group has gone from strength to strength and it’s satisfying to see our efforts rewarded.

We’ve developed an excellent level of cohesion between the various arms of the business, ensuring that our entire offering works toward the same end goal and follows a clear strategy.'

Currently never far from the news, Paragon Interiors Group was also listed in the 1,000.

DESIGNING THE FUTURE DesigningFutures@CDW is a new project set up by Jade-Ilke Creative Solutions and supported by Clerkenwell Design Week, Sketch Studios and Milliken. The project has been developed to tackle the issue of access into the design, interiors and construction sectors for young people. The initiative aims to help reduce the barriers for youngsters by creating practical opportunities for them to gain hands-on experience.

The project will include work experience and skills training for up to 25 young people placed in participating showrooms for the three days of Clerkenwell Design Week. There will also be a launch event at the Milliken showroom on 11th May, which will include a panel discussion tackling the issues and raising awareness of access into design and related industries for young people.

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Upfront

BOSSING IT

Following its launch last year, Boss Design’s Coza task chair has scooped multiple awards in the UK and USA. These include; Best of NeoCon Silver Award 2015 at North America’s largest commercial interiors show in Chicago; the Athenaeum Good Design Award 2015; Mixology Product of The Year 2015; and Red Dot Product Design Award 2015.

Boss Design Group MD Brian Murray says: 'We are beyond thrilled to have received these awards, which honour Coza’s pioneering design and engineering prowess. Equally, we are delighted that our ingenuity and manufacturing expertise is being acknowledged on the world stage…Coza is fast becoming an iconic design as it shatters the market’s preconceived expectations about what a task chair should be.'

39 STEPS Harmsen Tilney Shane has completed an innovative scheme for 39 Essex Chambers – a leading London barristers’ chambers with a strong international practice.

The underlying brief demanded the creation of ‘best in class’ chambers, with the ability to be adaptable and flexible for future growth, whilst improving both the client facing facilities and working environment in reflection of the chambers’ existing culture and history.

The design solutions support the barristers, with a range of cellular office accommodation offering natural daylight and excellent privacy. Centralised open-plan clerking and administration areas provide easy access and support to barristers, while modern yet formal meeting rooms provide an impressive facility with flexibility, privacy and fully integrated technology. Above all there is an exemplar client experience, further enhanced by impressive views over the rooftops to Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

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Upfront

UK city parks you must pay a visit to Our friends at BCFA have put a twist on office wellbeing – so take a break and enjoy some time in the park. If we have missed your own favourite, please let us know.

3 BIRKENHEAD PARK Birkenhead was a major influence on Frederick Law Olmsted's design of Central Park, New York. The two parks are closely linked and during a visit to Birkenhead Park, Doug Blomsky, CEO of Central Park Conservancy, referred to it as the 'father’ park to the famous Manhattan green space.

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1 CHELSEA PHYSIC GARDEN London's secret garden tucked away beside the Thames, full of captivating scents, this is the perfect place to relax.

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4 BRISTOL BOTANIC The first new university botanic garden to be created in the United Kingdom for nearly 40 years.

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2 HAMPSTEAD HEATH Hampstead Heath is one of London's most popular open spaces, situated just six kilometres from Trafalgar Square.

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Upfront 5 BUTE PARK, CARDIFF Bute Park offers an extensive area of mature parkland within Cardiff’s city centre, boasting a nationally-significant tree collection.

7 ST JOHN’S GARDENS, MANCHESTER Small but perfectly formed, this is a good spot to go to if you’re over towards the Museum of Science and Industry or the Quay Street end of Manchester. Formerly the site of St John’s Church and graveyard, it is now home to an urban orchard as well as lawns, flower beds and plenty of benches.

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6 HOLYROOD PARK, EDINBURGH This royal park in central Edinburgh is about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs and patches of gorse, providing a remarkably wild piece of highland landscape within its 650-acre (260 ha) area.

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9.00 am

9.05 am

Time is money.

Time is skill. skill mobile tables adapt quickly and easily to the rapidly changing needs of modern communication.

From one-to-one chats to large scale meetings. skill, get the wow factor! wiesner-hager.com

ip A time-saving cl

Upfront

#loveyourworkspace

KI’s portfolio of workplace furniture helps some of the world’s leading organisations to create a happy, healthy, high performing working environment for their people.

The ideal working environment is different for every individual. This is why a better understanding of the relationship between personality types and office landscapes can help enhance productivity & wellbeing.

Find out more: www.kieurope.com/ loveyourworkspace

KI Europe New Fetter Place 8-10 New Fetter Lane London EC4A 1AZ E workplace@kieurope.com W www.kieurope.com/workplace 14

Upfront

THE JUDGES

JASON ADAMS PWC

STEVE EDGE EDGE DESIGN

If we had a quid for every time someone asks us 'Who's doing the judging at Mixology this year?' – we'd be at least a fiver richer. Well, the 2016 wait is over. Here are the fine industry experts who will be deciding where those prestigious Mixology awards will be heading.

Bringing an extensive set of design, engagement and creative skills to the PwC Real Estate team, Jason leads workplace projects from a forward thinking / let’s try something different angle.

KEVIN ARNOLD GARDINER & THEOBOLD

Kevin is an equity partner at Gardiner & Theobald and has worked on commercial office development, retail and residential projects since 1988 for various development companies, multinational corporates and private clients both in the UK and Europe.

MARK SIMPSON BDP

Former Director of Interior Design at HKS Architects, winning the 2011 BCO National Award for Best Fit Out of Workplace for the Avon Cosmetics HQ, Mark returned to BDP to join the 50 strong ID team as Design Director.

LOOSE FURNISHING DEMOUNTABLE PARTITIONS BESPOKE JOINERY

Steve is the Founder and Creative Director of London-based branding agency Edge Design.

He works closely with clients to understand what makes them unique and incorporates this into the big idea behind the design.

BENJAMIN LESSER DERWENT LONDON

Benjamin joined Derwent London in 2010, where he is currently responsible for delivering a number of major office schemes, such as the forward-thinking White Collar Factory.

PROGRESS WORK PLACE SOLUTIONS

info@progressfurnishing.co.uk London 020 7836 3636 HQ 01634 290 988 www.progressfurnishing.co.uk

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Upfront

NEW HOME FOR DESIGNJUNCTION Our favourite UK show of last year is moving home.

With the support of the King’s Cross Development Partnership, designjunction will take over the area for the show during London Design Festival, 22-25 September 2016.

The theme of the 2016 show will be ‘Immersed in Design’, with the move to the larger King’s Cross site marking the next chapter for designjunction and the creation of the King’s Cross Design District at this year’s London Design Festival.

The show's Deborah Spencer said of the move: 'This is an incredibly exciting time for designjunction.

King’s Cross stands at the heart of the design and architectural community, with an inspiring cultural scene, thriving business district and strong industrial heritage,'

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Photography Oliver Perrott

Upfront

www.jennifernewman.com

New showroom

8 ClerkeNwell greeN loNdoN eC1r 0de

CLUB taBLe & BenCh

bamboo surface with legs in any RaL colour

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Upfront

&

[w] www.protocoluk.com

[e] sales@protocoluk.com 18

[t] 0208 591 6770

Upfront

Photography by Bryan Jackson.

LEOPARDS AND RHINOS PLAY FOOTBALL

Who would make a connection between football and endangered African wildlife?

Well, one man, who has long been involved in wildlife conservation and who is well known in the corporate interiors industry, has put them together in an unusual and effective way.

David Back was a safari guide in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park in the 1980s and his love for the country, its people and the environment has only grown. He instigated the three year Horny@50 initiative, assisting with the relocation of 25 rare black rhinos that were reintroduced to North Luangwa National Park from South Africa. There are now 33.

In 2013 David spent three months with his wife and family in North Park and has since created the charitable Back On The Island Foundation.

This set up a conservation football scheme that engages with villagers around the Park. Many of the local people are not involved in tourism and do not recognise the need for conserving wildlife, which competes for space and raids their crops.

However, football is almost a religion in Africa, so the scheme aims to build on this love and encourage local residents to think differently about the animals that live in close proximity.

David’s creation of a football league for each of the chiefdoms that exist just outside the park, with five teams in each, specifically named after the animals in the area, has increased local awareness to the bigger environmental picture.

There are two cup competitions, with participants and winners receiving a range of prizes and benefits. Matches, both home and away, are played in July and August and the winner of each league will compete for the Tafika Cup on 17th September. The final, a week later, is the Samalani Cup where the North Park winner plays the South Park champion. It is an exciting and passionate contest.

Full kit and match balls, a good evening meal for participants and families, help with transport and organisation are provided. Results will be reported locally, on Back On The Island website and here in Mix Interiors. The initiative is proving very popular and aspirations are being realised through protection of the ecosystem and giving something to those who do not directly benefit from the existing conservation structure.

It is an unusual opportunity for corporate social responsibility and requires no organisation on the part of sponsors. For just £3,000, a company can support one of the 10 teams linked to a wildlife species; have opportunities to watch matches in a local village; advertise on shirts; receive photographs for PR purposes and advertise in a publication distributed to the large numbers of the park’s international visitors, many of whom are major UK decision makers. There are also charitable tax benefits.

To date, six teams are sponsored with four more available.

Gary Thomas, MD of Hunters Contracts, says: ‘We are delighted with both the feedback and opportunity this rather unusual initiative presents. It is wonderful to feel part of the development of an outstanding aspiration, which our company fully supports.’

For more information email David at david@backontheisland

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Upfront

ARK INTERIORS CREATES STYLISH NEW OFFICE FOR LEGAL FIRM As Hull becomes UK City of Culture 2017, the 23-partner Hullbased law firm, Rollits LLP, will be celebrating its 176th birthday.

This year Rollits undertook a major relocation with the support of Ark Interiors – putting it in a great position for many years to come.

Ark Interiors (part of The Strata Group) and RFD Interior Architects made sure that Rollits need for confidentiality within client areas as well as 'quiet thinking space' for lawyers was taken into account when redesigning the new offices.

The new, open plan work environment is vastly more contemporary than Rollits' previous office structure. A big consideration, we're told, was the flooring here. Interface carpets were introduced on each of the three floors in a plank form; Karndean Palio Clic flooring was also used throughout, while Desso grain carpet tiles complement other floor surfaces and help designate working areas.

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Upfront

The month that was 2006

Here we take a look back through the Mix Interiors archives 1, 5 and 10 years ago

2011

2015

WHERE

WHERE

WHERE

MOTOROLA, BASINGSTOKE ‘We really went out of our way to make sure that whatever we selected for this facility would add something to the feel here. We addressed the branding that we wanted and also, through this, we’ve been able to give our customers and visitors a really good impression of our operation.’ Motorola’s Tim Tourville. AND NOW Tim is Senior Managing Director, CBRE Greater Atlanta Area.

VICE MAGAZINE, SHOREDITCH ‘If you look closely, there’s no Vice signage or branding here. They have this huge wall of magazines – they speak for themselves. When people are coming into this space, they know who they are coming to see and why. It’s not as if these guys are trying to sell to anyone externally.

They really didn’t want to over-complicate it.’

Richard Bray, Base Interiors. AND NOW In 29 countries. If you haven’t already, do have a read of their great disparaging feature on the Grand National.

THE BRAND UNION, CLERKENWELL ‘The transition between spaces feels unique and bespoke and gives a sense that this working environment is different to where their clients work. The Brand Union’s desire was to have a small agency feel but on a large scale and a celebration of what they do and who they are.’

AND NOW Part of an impressive group (WPP) and impressive figures grow (T/O and profit).

WHO FRONT DESIGN ‘In every project we do, we always sit down together, the four of us, and we simply talk. We talk about anything really – it can be something we’ve seen on the street, it can be a film, it can be anything. That slowly leads into something we want to do – something we are curious about and something we want to discover.’ Front’s Charlotte von der Lancken.

AND NOW Product Designer of Charlotte von der Lancken Design for the last year and a half in Stockholm

WHAT SALONE DEL MOBILE MILANO ‘Attempting to cover Milan single-handed is impossible. You have to be sanguine and understand you won’t see everything. However, even realising this doesn’t stop a mental clock ticking inside your head, nagging away and imploring you to see more stuff, to get to more shows, to make more parties.’ We sent Grant Gibson off to the Salone – single-handed!

WHO BRONTE TURNER, HLW – DESIGN DIRECTOR ‘It was nothing like Summer Heights High – worst luck! We had lurid green uniforms – which didn’t do too much for my style! I didn’t hate the school, but I didn’t particularly like going to school. Arts and graphics were the only things I was really interested in. I had two older sisters who were incredibly academic and that made me want to rebel a little bit.’ AND NOW Bronte is now Managing Director at HLW UK.

WHAT BENE’S R-PLATFORM ‘I think of the office as a living space, as individual as it’s user’s forms of work. Room shaping walls create closed or open areas and determine the structure of the work environment. They shield visually and acoustically, but their transparency encourages teamwork and interaction.’ Designer Johannes Scherr.

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WHO BRIAN MURRAY, BOSS DESIGN GROUP. ‘Having already successfully traded in the USA for several years, the acquisition of the Jack Cartwright brand now presents us with the perfect opportunity to fully take advantage of established routes to market in the USA and to launch the Boss Design portfolio to a lucrative sector – which is currently six times bigger than that in the UK.’ AND NOW Rebranded to become simply ‘Cartwright’.

WHAT LAURA DEBOUT ‘The choice of USM Haller was a way of restoring the building’s original spirit, providing an opportunity to revisit the entire concept of the space using USM Haller to provide library storage. USM’s tubular metal frame is wholly in keeping with the raw elements such as the concrete ceiling and exposed ducts.

The timeless and hardwearing qualities of USM will give the library a real longevity.’

Upfront

styles in carpet tiles

Patchwork 592 I Patchwork 965

PATCHWORK. PIXEL. PATTERN. Three carpet tile collections that crossover in the present and blur the boundaries between the past and future. Incorporating hues of grey, brown, blue and striking red; these collections inspire through imagining a bright and positive futurescape.

More information? www.modulyss.com I 0800 096 2702 23

Upfront

in Concrete

Volume Innovative modular desk system in lightweight concrete designed by Paul Crofts

+44 (0)20 7388 8599

info@isomi.com

Visit our new Clerkenwell showroom 1 Sans Walk, London EC1

www.isomi.com 24

Upfront

Forward Thinking M Moser's Steve Gale, tells us that the desk is dead – long live the desk!

People in offices work at desks, don’t they?

But even a quick glance around most offices reveals an awful lot of empty ones. Observation surveys show desk occupation rates of about 50% on average – it’s never much higher. This holds across all sectors, and the figure includes unoccupied desks where their owners have got up to go somewhere else. Deduct these and actual bums on seats can easily be closer to 35% on average.

So what’s going on?

We know why desks lie fallow. It’s because of maternity and annual leave, sickness, and secondments, and there are short term absentees – meetings, lunch appointments, entertaining visitors, even going to the loo.

You might have empty desks set aside for future growth, or their owners have left the business or been made redundant. Maybe empty desks are an unavoidable consequence of modern business life, like parked cars in a street – owned, but silent and empty.

The thing is, people really like their desks, even though their essential function has withered dramatically. There was a time, not long ago, when there were things you could only do at a desk. Starting with scribing and record keeping, later we made phone calls and shuffled paperwork, cranked 'adding machines' and then came the typewriter – remember them? Desktop computers arrived with screens the size of washing machines and electric cables chained your kit, and you, to a desk, so now we are conditioned to make the desk an essential icon of white collar worklife and, for many people, if you don’t have a desk, you don’t have a job.

Today all that tethered kit is now portable.

The laptop, tablet and mobile phone don’t need a permanent home. Most office workers can pick up everything they need and tuck it under their arm – the desk is a handy place to use them but not the only one. They work equally well at home, on the train, in a hotel or an air terminal. So do we all still need desks?

Facility managers would like fewer of them, as they aim to save space, and try to control costs. Fewer desks means less space, less rent, more savings. Why have twice as many desks

Most office workers can pick up everything they need and tuck it under their arm.

as you need? If everyone and everything is mobile and flexible, let’s walk the talk and save the money.

But once again, people really like their desks – but now their function is different. In an era of mobility, hot-desking is not as common as you might expect. It is still a minority sport.

There’s status – an office worker without their name on a desk can feel unimportant or out of the swim. Practicality – it’s really handy to have a place to throw your stuff, and leave your jacket, and if you are looking for someone

Steve Gale is Head of Business Intelligence at M Moser Associates. SteveG@mmoser.com

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it’s nice to know where they are likely to be, and leave a note if they are away.

Youthful and mobile employees in tech firms from California to Old Street carry their laptops everywhere as they flit from one meeting or client to another, skinny latte in their other hand. But they still have their home base. The simple utility of the desk keeps it centre stage. Tech firms don’t run the risk of alienating people.

They will know that the cost of a desk space, even in the city, is always a fraction of the cost of the person, so why rock the boat?

The unstoppable change is the increasing value placed on human interaction, which is why Yahoo! Oracle and Hewlitt Packard ask their people to come to the office after years of encouraging home working. It is no longer just an argument about cost, there is a visible change in behaviour.

If people do turn their back on desk ownership by choice rather than coercion, because they see better places to be, maybe the money saved could be spent on other things to make us happy and productive?

We just need to decide what they are.

Upfront

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Upfront

Material Matters This month the team at Material Lab compile their favourite products that offer a twist on traditional surface design. www.material-lab.co.uk

Zoe Murphy channels seaside pride into furniture with bright and bold prints Bright, bold pattern and seaside pride are at the heart of the products by Zoe Murphy Design. Utilising second hand furniture creatively, the designer applies original screen-printed graphics whilst restoring pieces both inventively and responsibly.

The hand-drawn patterns and colours, inspired by Formicaclad cafés and neon amusement arcades, specifically draw their inspiration from Zoe’s seaside hometown of Margate. Everything in the hand-printed furniture collection aims to deliver the message ‘love what belongs to you’. www.zoemurphy.com

Concrete LCDA offers a new lightweight approach to concrete wall cladding Concrete LCDA specialises in lightweight concrete wall cladding. Available in a variety of textures and colours, Panbeton comprises a genuine raw concrete front, and ultra-light foam panel at the rear. This season, the company launches 10 new Panbeton designs in collaboration with six established designers and interior architects: Jean-Philippe Nuel, Jean-Marie Massaud, Ora Ïto, Terence Woodgate, Stéphane Parmentier and Victoria Wilmotte. www.concrete-beton.com

Plexwood takes inspiration from repeat pattern and optical illusions for Geometric Geometric is a two-layer wood product that consists of a substrate featuring Plexwood veneer. The graphic patterns are made from natural veneer and are based on classic mathematical principles that are both at the core of Oriental mosaic art and architectural grids. With its repeat patterns, tessellations and M.C. Escher-like optical illusions, Geometric can be applied endlessly, on any scale and in every direction. Depending on the pattern, Geometric comes as one-sided plank, tile and panel, with two veneer thickness. www.plexwood.com

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Acoustic wallcoverings and dramatic architectural textiles

by Anne Kyyrö Quinn Anne Kyyrö Quinn’s sculptural textile creations bring dramatic architectural elements to both public and private spaces.

In terms of appearance, they are more reminiscent of works of art than traditional textiles and have a dynamic vibrant tactile quality. The acoustic textile wallcoverings are handmade using sustainable 100% wool felt, making them an ecologically sound choice. All products are bespoke for each client, offering a variety of pattern structures and colour options. www.annekyyroquinn.com

Upfront

Desert Island Desks 1 VICTORINOX SPARTAN SWISS ARMY KNIFE I got one of these from my grandpa when I was 12, like a rite of passage using it to carve sticks, later spears, tie fishing line and gut the catch.

Practical and robust, the original knife is long since lost or stolen but subsequently replaced and has served me well on many a camping trip or music festival. I’m no Bear Grylls but this basic version has all that you need for my imaginary survival – even the little toothpick for getting all that mango flesh out!

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This month’s desert island castaway is John Prior, Associate at CJCT.

3 TECHNICS 1210’S They represent the pinnacle of turntable design engineering. Reliable, technically refined and robust – is there a theme developing here? I have spent hours and hours playing records on them at home, parties or clubs – even a sandy beach in Norfolk – and they are synonymous with good times. In fact I redesigned my flat to accommodate the vinyl. Dancing is the primordial form of communication and expression. Nobody ever feels the worse for dancing. I would of course require a power source, reams of vinyl, pioneer DJ500 mixer, Sennheiser HD25 headphones and half-decent sound system along with a couple of hundred shipwreckers to really get things going.

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4 APPLE MACBOOK PRO LAPTOP It’s tough to choose a single product from the Apple stable. I bought a Powermac 9600 while at university and since then have always preferred Mac’s over PC’s, as they seem to always have the edge on design and user interface. I’m not one to need the latest piece of technology so I think the Macbook pips the iPod, iPhone and iPad as I use it for everything from mixing music, drawing, presentations, writing and Skyping friends and family overseas. I like the cool touch of the aluminium case and it appears tough and sleek when sitting in the corner of the room, or beach. We'd better throw in a solar charger then!

2 ROBBIE DICK 6’6” SURFBOARD There is something at once beautiful and romantic in the outline of a surfboard, which are all crafted by hand. This is the one I learnt on 22 years ago, and while it’s lost its glassy lustre with UV tarnished lacquer, it still is my favourite and has lasted the distance. It has the perfect combination of buoyancy and grace when the swells aren’t too big! I never tire of surfing and wish I could hit the water more often. It’s a form of meditation, as you really need to cleanse your mind of all thoughts and tune into the rhythm of the ocean and work with her forces. Might even be able to use the board for a spot of fishing too!

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5 VITRA ORGANIC CHAIR Lightweight, comfortable and timelessly elegant. As with many great designs, it’s the result of a competition: ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’, where 'a design can be called organic if, within the object as a whole, there is a harmonious relationship between the individual elements as regards structure, material, and purpose'. I think that description is what we strive for in the work we do. It might not be the top of everyone’s list of design classics, but I think the weight/comfort ratio is unmatched – afterall I’ll need to have a seat that I can easily move to stay in the shade, and it looks a like a manta ray. I hope I look and feel that good when I’m 75 years old.

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6 BIC MATIC 07 PENCIL While I own a rotring, which has a good weight about it, this is the non-flashy pencil which I tend to use all the time. HB lead with eraser. Sketching out your ideas is imperitive if you’re a designer, and being able to illustrate and visualise your ideas by hand is a dying skill in the electronic age. Using a pencil rather than pen gives the marks a softness by comparison to the more definitive lines of a pen. When sitting around a table, coordinating with other team members, the pencil allows people to modify without ending up with layer upon layer of indecipherable scribbles.

I tend to use the HB as it’s a good middle of the road lead, but you can 'up' the hardness if you need a more consistent line.

Of course it’s plastic and I’m a little sickened at the thought of our disposable plastic world, the harm it does and my guilty compliance. So I’m just off to try the iPad pro…

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Tel 01925 850500 Email info@sixteen3.co.uk Web www.sixteen3.co.uk

The Gallery 21-22 Great Sutton St. EC1V 0DY / Project Garden of St. James, EC1R 0EA

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Mix Interiors 163

Spotlight

32 The Big Question

34 The Education Report

40 Case Studies

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50 Swansea University

Spotlight

The Big ? uestion

The Education Report

With research showing that biophilic design can improve student performance, how vital is it that, through design, we encourage students out of the classroom?

Marianne Paulsen Morgan Lovell

Colm Dunphy PM Devereux

Diana Monkhouse SpaceInvader

Nigel Coutts BDP

Jill Parker BDG architecture + design

Claire Wilson KSS Group

Growing up in Norway I remember ‘utetimer’ – outdoor lessons – when the weather was nice. It would be an ad-hoc thing, if the weather was nice and the temperature mild. We would bring our books and pencils to sit outside and listen, learn and get some fresh air at the same time. It was seen as the ultimate reward and kept us focused through the afternoon. Being outdoors is as natural a part of education as pencil sharpening (although now it’s probably more a case of iPad charging) and, on that note, I think it is imperative we don’t let technology bind children and teenagers to the indoors.

Our connection to nature should be an everyday, even all day experience not just a scheduled break or a special event. It can calm us down when we are stressed and uplift us when we are unhappy but to do so it must be on the classroom doorstep or within the room itself. There is no point on trying to utilising its benefits long after the event. A good educational environment is a mixture of settings and spaces not a monoculture – a place where children learn to develop their emotions and sense of self as well their academic abilities. Nature can contribute to all the basic elements of learning.

I believe it is essential that as designers we continually encourage the implementation of biophilia and landscape into education design. All humans possess an innate desire to be part of nature.

However, this instinctive desire is often muted by our lifestyle choice and the environment we inhabit.

Especially for those in cities, who are accustomed to the fast pace of life while encapsulated within a concrete jungle. It’s fundamental we address this innate human trait and integrate it as part of the incentive of promoting the wellbeing of students, staff and society as a whole.

The methodology we apply to workplaces in terms of providing the right environment for the task in hand is not unique to the workplace and educational spaces will also benefit from this approach. Children are all different and respond to their environment, which will inevitably impact in their desire and ability to learn. Just like adults, some need to be on the move, some like to be solitary whilst others thrive in lively dynamic spaces. As children grow and learn, they need to experience all types of spaces, both in the classroom and beyond, to reach their potential.

Clearly the answer must be yes! But what the other side of the question is who maintains and pays for this and what are the costs? Is it to be added to student fees – a sort of student service charge?

As with furniture in this sector, it is changing but I’m not sure to what degree and how far it will be allowed to go. With funding for schools and education expected to see an overall reduction in the next 3-5years, how can this be supported?

To appreciate and experience the relationship between humankind and nature, stepping outside the classroom and blurring the transition between outside and in is a vital initiative designers should be taking. Providing students with a more grounded view of the world we live in can be key basics in learning, particularly within towns and cities. Having grown up in the countryside, this was always a very natural process for me.

Loose Furniture Specialists E: matt@umbrellafurniture.com www.umbrellafurniture.com

THE FURNITURE SPECIALISTS

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Spotlight

A modular system to change the market.

LAUNCHING AT

VISIT MYRIAD.SPACE to reserve your place at Boss Design’s series of exclusive CDW events

London Showroom 7 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PA, United Kingdom T +44 (0) 20 7253 0364 F +44 (0) 20 7608 0160

STYLE YOUR SPACE 33

Spotlight

The

Education Report

Imperial College London

Brian Lightman is someone who may not be familiar to those outside the world of education but someone we suspect you will come to know over the coming months. As the General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Brian was the Head teachers’ boss, a position he

The Education Report

relinquished late last year.

Since he resigned he has been busy compiling a report on the learning environment in schools. Launched just a few days before this issue went to press, the Lightman report, published by Smarter Spaces, found that more than 80% of teachers believe the learning environment has a notable impact on learners’ attainment, behaviour and engagement. No surprise, we hear you say – and yet fewer than 4% of teachers feel schools are in an excellent condition, with widespread concerns being raised about a lack of space, poor layouts and declining durability, particularly in newer builds.

Arizona University

The Lightman report was compiled from responses of 184 teachers across primary and secondary sectors, but there is no doubt this report will be at least referenced by the Government in the coming months as they argue the case for the roll-out of academies.

So whether, as a reader, you provide for the world of education or see a parallel with the commercial office environment, it seems that many issues highlighted in the report should help the continued trend towards better workspaces right across the UK.

Nottingham Trent University

Whether the aim is to learn or to work efficiently, it seems that office and education have many similarities – who’s to say whether the education sector or the commercial office sector does it better?

Have a look at some of the great examples of higher education (HE) and further education (FE) from the last 12 months – we hope it provides some food for thought.

Sheffield University

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Spotlight

Ringing the bell of change Chancellor George Osborne has used his recent budget speech to reveal that all schools in England will become academies and the school day is to be extended.

Massive benefits!!

Privatisation?

The Education Report

Even a vague understanding of modern British history will tell you the two main parties in the British Government have generally been in favour of or against privatisation. As we go to press things are really hotting up on the debate of whether Tata steel should be nationalised.

The other debate (and one that the Government wouldn’t thank us for calling privatisation) is the transformation of all schools into academies.

Some suggest that the Government are so obsessed by an ideological drive to the free market that they are completely missing the needs of our learners and the developing wider crisis in the education system. Whilst key parts of our sector will benefit from the massive development of the academies (see page 48, UTC Sheffield) we felt it was worth noting in a little more detail as part of our focus on the sector.

• Academies are independent, state-funded schools, which receive their funding directly from central Government, rather than through a local authority

• Generally results are positive from the sponsored academies but far from conclusive from converter academies (those that volunteered to change their status)

• All schools in England will either have to convert by 2020 or be committed to converting by 2022, effectively ending the link between local authorities and schools that began in 1902

• Private providers now run large 'chains' of schools. Some have failed to live up to expectations – the Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw criticised seven sizeable academy chains for failing to improve the results of too many pupils in their schools, while paying board members large salaries

• Government plans to remove 17,000 English primaries from state control and make them privately run within six years • Any schools that do not meet these requirements will be forced to do so by the Government using radical new powers to intervene • Academies were introduced to improve failing schools introduced under Labour (sponsored academies)

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• In a letter to a constituent, Graham Brady (Chairman of the 1922 Committee) expressed concerns about accountability and parental involvement and warned that 'instead of more freedom for schools, we might see new and distant bureaucracies'

Spotlight

Education by Numbers

TOTAL HIGHER EDUCATION EXPENDITURE 2013/14

£29,354,528,000

ACADEMY STATUS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS TOTAL HIGHER EDUCATION INCOME 2013/14

£30,685,892,000 1,036

Non-Academy

2,075

Academies

2014/15 NUMBER OF HIGHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS

ACADEMY STATUS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

131

England

19

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Scotland

NI

15,895

10

Wales

5

Number of higher education

14,326

Non-Academy

buildings in the UK

2,440

Academies

THE LONG SHORTLIST The following are some of the great projects that have been shorted in this year’s RICS awards. Spot your own projects below.

Engineering Building Lancaster University, Lancaster Health Futures UTC, West Bromwich Essex Business School, Essex Learning Resource Centre, Culford School, Bury St Edmunds Ogilvie Building, Welcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge Consett Academy and Leisure Centre, Durham North Durham Academy, Durham

The Graduate Building Queens University, Belfast

Cardiff and Vale College, Cardiff

SERC Performing Arts, Computing & Engineering Campus, Bangor

Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea

Lincoln College, Oxford University – restoration of Garden Building/ Conservatory, Oxford Mansfield College, East Range, Oxford The New Jafar Hall, Eton College, Windsor The Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University, Oxford

Sources: Mix research, RICS, Experian Market IQ, Higher Education Statisical Agency.

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The College Merthyr, Merthyr Tydfil MSCP University of Leeds, Leeds Beverley Campus, East Riding College, Beverley Oasis Academy Don Valley, Sheffield

Spotlight

Seating for flexible, dynamic learning environments

The Education Report

The City of Glasgow College’s incredible new Riverside Campus is home to a range of KI’s awardwinning chairs.

Comfortable, durable, versatile and elegant, they are the perfect addition to any learning environment.

KI Europe New Fetter Place 8-10 New Fetter Lane London EC4A 1AZ E education@kieurope.com W www.kieurope.com/education 37

Spotlight

How will the recently announced changes effect energy efficient design?

The Education Report

Mark Sait, CEO of SaveMoneyCutCarbon, discusses what the recent budget means for education.

How we consume utilities like energy and water in our education spaces has a big impact on how we design and upgrade, which is why the recent budget is so significant for the sector.

There is little direct action on energy efficiency in schools, further education (FE) and higher education (HE) but a seismic shift happening with the move of all schools to academies over the next four years.

By 2020, the Government wants all schools to be private organisations, out of local authority control and this acceleration in intention aims 'to create a gold standard education throughout England'.

Time will tell whether academically the move to independence will be better for our young people but one thing is certain – under current frameworks, academy schools will struggle to find funding for energy saving and other improvements.

Tight budgets This means that the thousands of schools currently able to access interest-free funding to improve their learning environments and relieve tight budgets through energy efficiency measures such as the installation of LED lighting will no longer have broad access to state funds.

This is because the main and more comprehensive instrument, Salix Funding, is only available to schools in the public sector.

Academies will need to apply to a narrower Condition Improvement Fund (CIF).

Salix provides 100% interest-free capital to schools (as well as FE and HE) to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

The money is available year-round and covers a full range of technology.

The CIF, managed by the Education Funding Agency, is a fund open only once a year, with the emphasis on high needs, which can often simply

translate into fixing buildings that are decrepit.

While this is laudable, it misses an opportunity to transform school environments, making them brighter, lighter, more cost-effective and more sustainable.

Reduce consumption Given that schools in the UK consume around £400 million a year in energy, the need to reduce consumption is clear.

We have worked with many schools to help them improve their learning spaces, mainly through the retro-fitting of energy-saving lighting. The specification needs careful thought and attention to detail as badly manufactured LED too often provides harsh, low quality light, with a negative effect on learning.

Well manufactured LED lighting, in contrast, can make a remarkable impact on whole-school environments in three ways.

First, lighting can be substantially and sustainably improved – for example by replacing flickering fluorescents with bright, clear, flickerfree LED tubes and panels.

Second, electricity costs are reduced by up to 80% and the long life of LED ensures that maintenance costs are minimal, with additional benefits for health and safety.

Third, the school’s carbon footprint is permanently reduced with associated opportunities to educate pupils on environmental issues.

Extended day Schools we have worked with have benefited by replacing aged and poor-quality lighting from old tubes, bulbs, downlights. Now many schools across the country will face new demands from Government, which wants a quarter of secondary schools to extend the day and provide further extra-curricular activities, such as sport and art.

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While there is new funding allocated, that clearly means additional energy and other utility costs. It may also have wide implications for design as these hundreds of schools will need to respond to needs of 'new customers'.

To contain cost increases, schools would need to address lighting (including lighting controls), water use, heating costs and effective pumps, for example.

Schools spend a total of around £70 million a year on water and a large secondary school can spend as much as £20,000 per year on this utility, according to Water Watch.

Effective water management through better design of facilities could save larger schools up to £5,000 a year, for example through deployment of water-saving toilets/urinals, efficient taps and showers.

Energy-efficient design I’ve focused on the compulsory education sector because of the budget bombshell on academies but there are lessons from our work and opportunities for energy-efficient design in FE and HE. Costs in both continue to rise and funding for FE in particular is tight. The combined sectors consume energy with a cost of approximately £400 million annually with CO2 emissions of around 3 million tonnes a year.

The Revolving Green Fund in Higher Education is helping to promote energy efficient design and upgrades while Salix funding is available for energy-efficient projects in FE. For all sectors, budgets will continue to be stretched as numbers and demand rise over the next decade. Schools and FE in particular will need help to improve and even maintain their learning environments. Whether that will be available is uncertain now, given the Chancellor’s announcements.

Spotlight

The Education Report

39

Spotlight

U p

a n d

R u n n i n g

Over the next few pages we have brought together a range of recent education projects, some complete, some not far away, but all fantastic examples of the work being done across the UK. Whilst this collection is not a comprehensive list of work over the last 12 months, it certainly highlights that, when gathered together, the size, quality and scale of this sector is impressive on many levels.

Arizona State University We know that we usually focus our attention within the Kingdom of the United, however, we were kindly sent this project for Arizona State University by our friends at Milliken.

The Education Report

We are regularly seeing great examples of how advances in technology and great design are creating some stunning designs on what is usually a building’s biggest blank canvas – its floor space.

The building in question is the atrium of the university’s Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building, with a floorcovering of approximately 16.5x10 metres. Patricia Rhee, Associate at Ehrlich Architects, commented. ‘Since the atrium served as a focal point that could be viewed from all floors above, it really drove how we designed the ground floor.’

The Milliken designers were tasked to incorporate 3D images of meteor impact craters taken from a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera into the carpet tiles. This theme aimed to bring realistic crater formations to life in the School of Earth & Space Exploration, creating an authentic lunar look by replicating the gradients, scale, shades and colours found in the high-resolution images.

Kip Hodges, School of Earth & Space Exploration Director at Arizona State University, adds: ‘We wanted to offer those who inhabit the space an informal learning centre. In the end, it was a fun challenge to see how we could incorporate beautiful imagery into an environment that would be appreciated, understood and learned by many.’

Nottingham Trent University ‘We’re committed to providing an inspiring teaching, learning, and research environment as well as an excellent student experience’. Taken from the Nottingham Trent University website, this is laudable aim, one that is clearly required in an increasingly competitive world – but as we can see, a terrific result has been achieved, in particular from the pavilion and a fantastic new teaching and learning building, which opened in September last year.

Frem, who were one of the suppliers here, told us that key for the staff and students was the need to focus on some open collaborative working spaces where they can work in small groups.

A number of collaborative spaces, fully-equipped with audio visual equipment to facilitate group study by way of nine purpose built pods, were manufactured and installed by Frem. The colourways of the pods’ upholstery, using Kvadrat Steelcut, were chosen to complement the construction materials of the new buildings, in particular the glazed brickwork to the pavilion pods and timber acoustic balustrading.

Frem also manufactured high level benching, which again is proving extremely popular for both academic and social activities.

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Loughborough University

.

Loughborough University is the East Midlands seat of learning ranked highly for engineering and technology but perhaps better known for its sports-related achievements and courses. Forbo was chosen to provide a variety of coverings, illustrating that clients in this sector are as discerning, if not more so, than in the commercial office environment Key considerations in the three areas were aesthetics, durability and maintenance. Some technical information: Forbo’s Nuway Tuftiguard and Coral integrated entrance flooring systems were also installed to prevent dirt being tracked in to the building from the soles of shoes or wheeled vehicles. Nuway systems reliably tackle intense high point loads, while the Coral lines effectively remove footborne moisture for optimum safety. Surestep Wood safety flooring was installed to separate workstations from seating areas.

The Education Report

University of Bedfordshire Another use of different floorings by Forbo was used at the University of Bedfordshire’s Campus Centre in Luton. Housing a 240-seat lecture theatre, exhibition space, informal learning zones, the Student Union and a variety of places to eat, the building’s multipurpose nature meant a combination of flooring solutions were required to meet the diverse needs of the space.

Products from Forbo’s comprehensive range of carpet tiles formed the main component of the flooring design, which was specified by the University’s Facilities and Estates department. In the corridors, common areas and offices, 3,200 sq m of Tessera Alignment carpet tiles in contrasting shades of black, grey and brown – the Nucleus, Climate and Celcius colourways – were installed in a creative pattern that emphasised the linear design of the tiles.

Spotlight

Centre and Clyde City of Glasgow College’s Riverside Campus, on the banks of the River Clyde, officially opened its doors in August last year. The second instalment, the City Campus based on Cathedral Street, is due to be completed in August this year.

Construction began on the new £228million campus in summer 2013, with the project due for completion in summer 2017 following final demolitions and landscaping.

KI secured 14,000 individual products across 400 different product lines for the City of Glasgow College's staff and students on both Campus sites.

The Intellect Wave seating collection was selected in a colour palette of Tangelo, Grass Green, Sunburst and Warm Grey, along with Maestro and Torsion on the Go!

The Education Report

Imperial College London This multi-site university is battling with the challenge of a much more open and indeed global university marketplace. The desire is to offer some of the best facilities not just in the UK but to a global audience and the refurbishment of the library in South Kensington is another step in the right direction. Willmott Dixon Interiors (WDI) completed the Cat A & B refurbishment of three floors of library in seven weeks within the budget of £3.5m. This fast-paced project was delivered in a live environment during exam time where WDI could only gain access to the project via the 3rd floor. Identifying and managing risk with the PM and QS team made the project run extremely smoothly. At several points in the project, the team amended the design swiftly and without delay, much to the client’s satisfaction.

Seating was sourced by consultants MXQ Solutions to help create dynamic learning spaces for the college in accordance with the overall design brief. Director Ian Johnstone said: ‘The FF&E brief for this project was to source products with a high quality aesthetic for this new learning environment. KI’s educational seating provided the ideal blend of practicality and longevity with a fresh modern colour range perfect in realising the college's vision.’

Tested in a temporary teaching block at the College’s City Campus, KI’s chairs were deemed to be extremely comfortable and featured superior functionality – particularly with the innovative tablet arm on the Learn2 chair.

Iain Marley, City of Glasgow Project Director, said: ‘Phase One of our world class super college at Riverside campus represents the realisation of our vision for an inspiring and innovative working, learning and corporate environment and the FF&E is a fundamental aspect of that. The seating selection was by reference to aesthetic, durability and sustainability criteria and we are delighted that the products rated very highly on each of these.’

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Spotlight

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43

Spotlight

University of Brighton Whilst occupied by 2,600 students and staff, Willmott Dixon Interiors (WDI) delivered a design by Fraser Brown MacKenna for one of the UK’s largest retrofits of a mixed-use academic building. Together, they transformed the Cockcroft Building at the University of Brighton from a dark, cellular and unloved space into a bright, flexible learning and research environment, fit for the information age, with ‘learning labs’ and agile workspace for staff and students.

An innovative approach integrating architectural, building services and structural design has unlocked the environmental potential of the 10,500 sq m building and enhanced this with the latest technology, including an aquifer thermal energy store, realising a 57% reduction in energy demand, 59% reduction in CO2 emissions and fuel savings of £82,000 each year.

The 2½ year programme comprised four phases. WDI were given access to two floors of the building at a time, whilst lectures, teaching and meetings for the users of the building continued around them. Sensitivity to noise, dust and vibration was crucial to maintaining programme and a satisfied client. WDI achieved the Considerate Constructors Scheme’s 2015 ‘Gold’ Award for exemplar performance against their Code of Practice, with consistent scoring of 45/50.

Factory 2050 Here's another story from Sheffield University – with Factory 2050 in the spotlight. Billed as the first reconfigurable assembly and component manufacturing facility for collaborative research in the UK, it is capable of rapidly switching production between high-value components and one-off parts.

The Education Report

Bond Bryan Architects, who will be directing operations with the Universities glass atrium (see page 37) in the coming months, designed the innovative the 6,700 sq m, revolutionary glass-walled, circular factory, at the heart of the University of Sheffield’s new advanced manufacturing campus on Sheffield Business Park.

Challenging the stereotypical, rectilinear architectural solution to industrial buildings, the striking design of the steel-framed circular glass building was designed to act as an international example for automated production facilities for the 21st century.

Solus Ceramics provided their large format (1500 x 700mm) tiles from the Replicate range, which are installed in the central rotunda, breakout spaces and perimeter circular walkways, Jon Rigby, Associate at Bond Bryan Architects, said of the project: ‘A key requirement of the client’s brief was to create a true open plan, well-lit and highly connected working environment and to challenge the literal and symbolic separation that typically occurs between office and production areas.

‘The tiles were cut using a waterjet technique, cut radially to follow the shape of the building.

This process was undertaken in a factory using a cutting company in liaison with ourselves and Solus Ceramics. This process was necessary to ensure accuracy and consistency, and also to reduce site waste and installation time. The outcome is spectacular and the slight tonal difference selected from the range between the circulation and activity areas is fantastic.’

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TM

Coventry University Work on the first phase of a £60m project by Coventry University to transform its health and life sciences faculty has completed. Built in 1971, the Richard Crossman building was named after the political journalist and Labour politician and included a mock hospital ward and operating theatre.

The scheme involved a comprehensive refurbishment over five floors (100,000 sq ft), the current home to a range of health and life science departments including nursing, occupational therapy, paramedics, psychology and student registry services.

Rob Talliss, Director of Estate Development at Coventry University, said: ‘The project has produced a total transformation of Richard Crossman, turning it into a modern and open building which provides the perfect environment for students and staff. The project was so well designed and phased that already it is hard to remember how it was before. It is a building of which the university can be rightly proud.’

Inspired by Innovation

The Education Report

The refurbishment of the building was carried out by principal contractor Overbury and designed by Broadway Malyan.

Construction was undertaken in a number of phases to enable the building to remain operational for teaching throughout. The works included the relocation of student registry services and improved circulation and migration routes around the ground floor, with the introduction of new social spaces and large scale, flexible general teaching facilities. Mark Evans, associate at Broadway Malyan said: ‘We are delighted to be handing over this phase of the scheme, which has delivered the vision set out during the stakeholder engagements and is the next piece of the jigsaw in Coventry University’s aspiration to create world-class health and life science teaching facilities.’

Portfolio, a brand new collection which blends superlative craftsmanship and technology, with a gorgeous array of colours, innovative textures and styles.

Created around four inspirational themed ranges, each door whether from Portfolio’s ‘Natural’, ‘Exotic’, ‘Contemporary’ or ‘Classic’ range - offers real personality.

With inspiration coming from a host of sources Portfolio’s design team took cues from headline interior and catwalk trends - the range offers designers, specifiers and architects luxurious pieces with no compromise on quality.

The Natural range - Scandinavian doors with a luxurious look would suit traditional spas or intimate restaurants.

The Exotic range - Wenge and Ebony, offering fiery shades and tempting textures. Both deliver a dramatic, evocative and exciting twist for any space.

The Contemporary range, with its clean lines and fresh design, takes its inspiration from all things modern. When added to a slick, city apartment or stylish bar, the doors - there are nine styles in the range - really come into their own.

Complementing the design team’s inspiration for classic features, the Classic range comprising of six beautifully-finished doors. From quality materials and rich shades, the collection brings a heritage feel and touch of elegance.

For a copy of our Portfolio brochure, or to request samples, please call 0844 209 0008

Birthwaite Business Park, Huddersfield Rd, Darton, Barnsley, S75 5JS Email: ukmarketing@premdor.com www.premdor.co.uk/portfolio

Real Veneers Consistent Grain Consistent Colour Never Identical

Spotlight

Nottingham Trent University The relatively new name that is New Design Group has been supplying education establishments for some years through its brands Ryan Furniture, Chorus and Cambridge Park. Katie Senior, Nottingham Trent University Facilities Manager was clearly happy to have worked with the Group.

‘An exciting transformation of the Clifton Campus at Nottingham Trent University has created an inspiring teaching, learning and social heart. Alongside our suppliers, Southerns, we selected a range of furnishings and worked closely with the New Design Group in sourcing a mix from their Cambridge Park, Chorus and Ryan brands to complement the bright modern buildings. The result is a stunning dining facility, welcoming social and group study areas and a suite of flexible, fit-for-purpose teaching spaces. In particular, the Group worked with us on the design and manufacture of furniture specifically to support our collaborative teaching methods, enabling us to create an environment widely praised and enjoyed by staff and students.’

Freeman Centre University of Sussex Wilmott Dixon Interiors (WDI) was commissioned to refurbish The Freeman Centre to house the Law, Politics and Sociology Department at the University’s Falmer Campus – just a stone’s throw from one of the greatest sporting upsets ever when 29,000 people watched Japan beat South Africa in last year’s Rugby World Cup This fast-paced refurbishment of a 1960’s building involved a stripout, remodelling and transformation of a currently open plan space, into cellular space. The full refurbishment included new M&E, lift and internal fit-out, providing the university with new offices and teaching accommodation on the ground and first floors. WDI also installed an exact replica of a courtroom for the students to study and learn from.

This project was procured via the Scape framework; an increasingly popular route to market for the HE sector who are looking for accelerated public sector procurement routes. The £4.7 million project was delivered in 28 weeks, over 38,000 sq ft. The client was more than satisfied with the results and now WDI is midway through a second project on the Falmer campus.

University of Worcester The University of Worcester sought the expertise of Karndean Designflooring, when replacing a 50 year old real wood parquet floor in its main dining hall. Home to over 10,000 students and 1,000 staff, the university were looking to maintain the traditional look of parquet, but offer a modern and contemporary feel.

Mark Evans, head of estate services at University of Worcester explains “Both our dining room and reception were prone to scuffs and indentations from high heeled shoes, so having our Karndean parquet floor, we’ll be able easily maintain our floor and ensure it retains its beauty for longer.”

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Spotlight

F

u

Universities to showcase £1bn pipeline Confidence appears to be returning to the property jamboree MIPIM, (see page 80) but it’s not just commercial property aiming to make the requisite noises. The University of Warwick and Coventry University are investing in a range of academic, commercial and accommodation buildings over the next five years to the tune of £1bn.

The Education Report

Over the next 18 months, a number of major projects are due to be completed, including the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC), Bishop Gate student accommodation scheme in Coventry and a new conference centre at the University of Warwick.

t

u

r

e

Sheffield University undulating glass atrium Planning agreement has been given to link Sheffield University’s two oldest buildings with a glass atrium, connecting the Grade II listed Mappin Building with the 1855 Central Wing.

Sheffield-based architect Bond Bryan has led the design of the Faculty of Engineering and a contractor will be appointed for the £10m project in the summer, with work expected to start in 2017 and completed in 2018. Additionally, both the Mappin Building and Central Wing will also undergo a complete refurbishment under the future plans.

Les Ratcliffe, Chairman of the Coventry and Warwickshire Place board and a member of the Coventry and Warwickshire MIPIM Partnership, said: ‘Both Coventry and Warwick are outstanding examples of how universities have not only strived to improve on an academic front, but have shown great ambition for their respective campuses and have continued to set the standard in forging links with industry.’

Second UTC for Sheffield As one door closes (mass steel production and World Student Games) for Sheffield Don Valley, another one opens as a University Technical College (UTC) is due to be created by BAM as part of a £9.3m project The four-storey UTC 2 Sheffield will be sited on the Olympic Legacy Park in Don Valley, whilst currently underway is the Oasis Academy Don Valley – also by BAM. It is due to open in September 2016, and hold 600 pupils aged 14-19.

Design Insider and The British Contract Furnishing Association (BCFA) are putting together a guide to celebrate fresh design in the UK. The guide will include all Higher Education institutions with courses in the design sector and will provide information on their summer exhibitions. Please register your interest at www.thebcfa.com/education to receive your free copy.

Four-storey atrium space will house laboratories, offices and a café

Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) Manchester University will get its second world-class centre, helping create applications for the super thin, strong and conductive Graphene. The £60m GEIC is due for completion in 2017.

We are told that over 200 experts are working on economically viable applications, exploring the potential for bendy phones, tablets and TV’s made from Graphene.

They say the material could revolutionise the manufacturing of electronic devices.

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RELAYPLUS

the latest addition to the Relay system with sliding tops for easy connectivity

The Education Report

SHOWROOM AT THE GALLERY, CLERKENWELL THEGALLERYCLERKENWELL.CO.UK 21-22 GREAT SUTTON STREET, LONDON EC1V 0DY

T 0844 800 1904 INFO@TANGENTFURNITURE.CO.UK WWW.TANGENTFURNITURE.CO.UK

Spotlight

The Education Report

Bay Window We’ve come to the south of Wales – an area very much in the spotlight right now – to visit a facility that offers a much-needed economic boost and positive headlines.

Swansea University’s Bay Campus is situated on a 65-acre former BP Transit site in Neath Port Talbot on the eastern approach into Swansea and has the distinction of being one of the few global universities with direct access onto a beach and its own seafront promenade.

The Campus provides academic, student accommodation and research space, the latter being in a series of agreements with international and national companies.

Whilst development work will continue up until 2020, the majority of the works was completed during this first phase of construction, that first phase being opened in September 2015.

Colleges based at the Bay Campus include the College of Engineering and the School of Management. Facilities here include the Tower Information Centre, home to central

support services for students, a state-of-the-art Bay Library, contemporary Students’ Union, facilities and meeting rooms and an impressive Great Hall, which houses an auditorium for 700 people, lecture theatres and a café offering magnificent views across the Swansea Bay, towards Gower and Baglan Bay. There is an extensive catering provision throughout the campus including vibrant cafés, bars and a restaurant, retail units include a mini market, a launderette and cash points. All of this is in addition to recreational sporting facilities and, of course, a beach for students to enjoy.

We meet with Buro Four Associate Director Judith Richards and BOF Design and Project Manager Simon Narbeth, who worked closely throughout this fantastic and groundbreaking undertaking to ensure the furniture and fittings selected throughout the campus would work for students and staff alike. And when we say work, we mean that they had to be flexible, adaptable, robust, and stylish and be able to provide agile and multifunctional settings. No small ask!

Simon tells us that this was BOF’s largest project to date. BOF was awarded the

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Spotlight

Client Swansea University – Science and Innovation Bay Campus Build Cost £450 million Scale 29,000 furniture items across 10 buildings Approx Numbers of Students/Staff at the Campus 5,000/1,000 Project Management Buro Four Furniture Supply BOF Furniture Orangebox, Boss, Brunner, BOF, Vitra, James Burleigh, KI, Connection, Bisley

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The Education Report

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"They’ve got a real can-do attitude here – which was really refreshing. The faculties who are here are very international." least a five-year warranty – this was a once-ina-lifetime opportunity and I think they really seized that opportunity.

‘It was also important that we helped change the mindset when it came to how the students work, so we have introduced an awful lot of breakout facilities where they can work and relax and interact away from formal teaching spaces.’

Judith tells us that one of the greatest challenges here was looking after the requirements of the academics themselves.

‘I think academics traditionally like to surround themselves with walls,’ she tells us. ‘The academics here are in offices but they are dualpurpose as all the tutorials are held in these offices as well. The offices were designed to be big enough to accommodate this and furniture solutions allowed this to happen. Researchers are in open plan Research Hubs adjacent to the academic offices. Having moved out of much smaller offices, the challenge was to create furniture solutions that provided the right amount of privacy and collaborative spaces in the open plan environment. We did a lot of work with the University team to make sure they

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The Education Report

contract for provision of furniture and soft seating for the University of Swansea Bay Campus. The project involved extensive input from BOF’s project team and involved managing the supply and delivery of over 29,000 furniture items across the campus.

Bay Campus is an extension of the existing Singleton Park, just five miles down the coast, expanding the University to become a worldclass facility situated directly on the beach.

With over 5,000 students and 1,000 staff at the Bay Campus alone, the needs of both students and staff were of course a major consideration throughout the project.

‘The entire project was a real challenge,’ Judith tells us. ‘They opened in September, with nine buildings coming on line. They’ve got a real can-do attitude here – which was really refreshing. The faculties who are here are very international. We’ve done a lot of big jobs, but the scale of this was pretty incredible.’

In order to deliver the project on time and on budget a smart methodology was required – together with a good dose of common sense – which Judith and the team quickly developed.

‘There are only three different types of teaching classrooms across the entire Campus – three different chairs and three different tables. We did a great deal of preliminary work over at the Singleton Campus, working with the University team, where we tested the products to see what would stand the test of time and meet teaching requirements and, from there, we were able to standardise the choice of products. We also standardised the academic offices – where the only choices were the shape of the table, the style of chair and a palette of finishes. Everything we have chosen is incredibly flexible and on at

The Education Report

Spotlight

had the right space and furniture solutions.

‘I worked closely with the University Procurement Team here. Most of the furniture was procured through European Call for Competition. Costs came in extremely competitively and allowed us to design effectively. We managed Stakeholder engagement throughout the whole process, focusing on quality, functionality and design for elements such as the task chairs and the workstations. We put forward the proposals we believed would provide the correct solution, and immediately got sign-off on that.

‘We brought in some really nice soft seating elements and also the Eames plastic chair – which I feel is an important link back to the Singleton Campus, because that chair was used throughout the original campus.

‘I don’t think it’s rocket science to buy the right furniture but it did need careful consideration – and we were also able to take advantage of the size and the scale of the project.

It was an awful lot of furniture – but I think we were able to get all that down to just 30 or so different manufacturers. We looked closely at continuity of supply because we want this to be able to work for the university for the next 10 years.’

The impressive (although, as Judith says, not massively extensive) selection of furniture now adorns classrooms, atriums, laboratories, libraries, staff offices and dining halls – with every piece carefully considered and providing multiple functions.

The academic buildings feature cool boulevards, complete with coffee shops and chic Parisian-style coffee vans. Moving further inside, we find a simple yet extremely effective monotone scheme throughout the classrooms and offices, coupled with those smart furniture solutions. We can immediately see how the flexible solutions can be rearranged to provide different working and teaching settings, while we also can’t help noticing that the rooms are immaculate – surely a big compliment to the campus staff and the robust yet stylish selection of products specified for the space.

In the heart of the Bay Campus lies the Bay Library. ‘When working on the library it was clear that we needed to support the vision of the Library Team and provide the students with as many different way of working as possible,’ Simon tells us, ‘from open collaboration spaces, to meeting pods, to casual softer seating. Our aim was to facilitate the students and provide them with the opportunity to work in whichever way works for them.

‘Using furniture from Orangebox, Boss Design and Connection, we were able to create a relaxed environment where students can feel comfortable while they focus on their studies.’

"When working on the library it was clear that we needed to provide the students with as many different way of working as possible."

Indeed, as we walk through the library we can’t count the number of cool settings available for students. The sunken centre of the space looks out across the bay, providing a brilliant, relaxed facility for the students, who appear to be using each and every one of the settings provided. Maybe, we consider, commercial workplaces could learn something from the use of space here.

Another standout facility is the Great Hall, which not only provides an awesome auditorium space, but also offers an accompanying elegant bar and dining solution that can be hired and will provide welcome added revenue for the university. With amazing views out over the bay and chic Brunner seating, this is a long, long way from the university facilities we ‘fondly’ remember from our pasts.

We often finish articles by saying how we wish we had more time and space. Believe us when we say we feel we’ve hardly scratched the surface when it comes to this remarkable campus by the sea.

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Leading UK furniture manufacturer

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t 01685 352260 / sales@triumphfurniture.com / www.triumphfurniture.com 55

Colm Dunphy PM Devereux

u o n R

Ian Drummond Indoor Garden Design

Richard Strong Karndean Designflooring

In our latest Round Table we explore how clients, though their desire to

Diana Monkhouse SpaceInvader

d tabl

The

Marianne Paulsen Morgan Lovell

recruit and retain the best staff, are looking to ‘bring the outside indoors’.

e

Pernille Stafford Resonate Interiors

Jonathan Goldsmith Karndean Designflooring

Claire Wilson KSS Group

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Nigel Coutts BDP

The Round Table

Wellbeing in the workplace has jumped up the list of priorities for clients and designers, so where on the wellbeing list does biophilic design sit?

Nigel: Well, I’ve got one client where it’s a high priority – but for the rest it’s nowhere to be seen. So for one client it means a great deal, but it’s not something that we generally consider highly when it comes to putting together a workplace package.

Pernille: I’d agree with that. It’s generally not at the top of clients’ lists. I think it’s still for us to implement to our clients, not the other way around – they don’t know about this stuff. It down to us to talk about a more natural environment, a healthier environment, and how that can benefit – other than very intelligent clients, who know what they are doing, have been through this process many times before and understand wellbeing in the workplace.

Marianne: We have a few clients who are very knowledgeable but I’d say that they are the discerning ones and there aren’t too many of them. You will get clients who say ‘Oh, let’s put some plants in’ – but that’s it. That’s their solution to health and wellbeing.

Pernille: That’s often more about the dressing of the space than wellbeing.

Nigel: I hear a lot of wellbeing talked about.

I think it’s the latest craze. Wellbeing’s definitely on the agenda, but seeing it in a more holistic, environmental way is a different discussion.

Marianne: I’ve actually had a request to not put any plants in a project because they have been scarred by bad office planting. In the same way that clients will often ask you to put some plants in, they asked us not to! They would go for artificial plants though!

First of all, we need to educate ourselves on the subject.

The main thing then is to start educating our clients.

Colm Dunphy

Pernille: Lots of clients will go for artificial plants – but I’m afraid, sadly, that tends to be for decoration alone, it’s no more than that. There are also clients who will place artificial plants on top of storage cabinets so that people don’t dump files there. There’s a reason for it – but it has nothing to do with wellbeing.

Colm: I think this is why it’s great to have these discussions. First of all, we need to educate ourselves on the subject. The main thing then is to start educating our clients. The subject of biophilia and planting is one that can terrify any designer, never mind our clients. Therefore, as a starting point it’s great that designers do get together and develop and swap ideas.

Going back to the subject of artificial plants, we argue that research shows that they do actually have wellbeing benefits.

Marianne: I wonder if that’s because a room that looks lush will look good to us?

Pernille: …and we’re not having to look at dead plants!

Claire: What is better for you – a wilted real plant or a lush, green artificial plant? It comes down to psychology.

Marianne: We’ve got lots of call for big images of natural landscapes or seascapes – things that people find calming. Whether they link that to wellbeing, I don’t know, but there is certainly a great demand for natural elements throughout the workplace.

Richard: When it comes to our wood products, we specialise in replicating nature to the highest degree possible and I think

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The Round Table

what we’re now seeing is designers and clients starting to take a step away from carpet tiles and be brave enough to go the whole way through the office with plank effect products. Again, the products that are really popular right now are the stripped back, weathered, natural effects – as opposed to the overtly refined ones.

Jonathan: Being inspired by nature, all our luxury vinyl wood and stone designs tell a story.

We’re certainly noticing more interest from the design community on what type of knots, grains and textures our designs offer, and importantly how they were inspired. It could be said biophilic design is also about telling a story in order for the user to feel at ease or productive. We always work with designers and end users to introduce new laying patterns using our individual plank and tile designs. Our luxury vinyl wood and stone designs are known for their authentic design, and can be laid in a harmonised way for realism.

Ian: I come from the landscaping side of things – and industry that has a poor reputation, as we’ve already heard! That’s because, for years and years, no design input went into these schemes. Lots of people still have that perception, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

That’s not what we do. We now have to get that message across.

Nigel: People still think about that lone pot plant by the column. It was a suite of pot plants once upon a time and now it’s the last one standing.

Ian: There were companies that provided really, really cheap services – they also often provided other services as well, so didn’t have the expertise. In saying all that, we are currently pitching for two of the biggest projects we’ve

ever worked on – and both are influenced heavily by wellbeing. We have got involved at a much earlier stage – and we’re looking at between 1,500 and 2,000 units for each of these projects.

We’ve worked with Exeter University to look at how a lush, green environment affected people.

The most interesting thing we found was that results improved once you gave people a choice of what plants they had around them. Of course, this is something that needs to be controlled – we offered a choice of three plants to people – but the results from this were extremely positive.

Claire: We did a project last year where they had a ‘field’ in the middle of the office and, around the edges, we did an adopt a plant scheme. People could choose from 20 different types of plants. It was a little bit gimmicky – but they absolutely love it. They were looking after their own plants, Tweeting about them, taking selfies with them – and it really added to the office banter. Similarly, in a studio I was working in a while back, we planted chillis and watched them grow – it became a real topic of conversation.

Marianne: I think it’s great to see that flow of nature – to see things change, to see nature really happening.

Ian: People will see something that is not 100% right with a plant and immediately want it removed. It’s a shame. If they gave it a few weeks they would see that this is nature and it will continue to change. It is nice to see change.

Nigel: I think you can often come up with good ideas but people don’t need know how to use these spaces. People do have an affinity with the outside world though. If you ask people where they want to be, the last place they’d say would be an office! I often think that’s one of the

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The Round Table

failures of us as office designers. Biophilic design is all about that human instinct. It’s about how we can harness some of those natural elements and bring them back in and create that balance.

It’s also quite a personal experience – and that’s the difficulty of it all.

Ian: It also works for certain sectors more than others. Wellbeing increases productivity and creativity – and will have more impact on, say, a media company than a legal firm.

Richard: We’re definitely aware of wellbeing being linked to spaces and more often in office and healthcare sectors. There’s a big trend at the moment for bringing the outside in, and Regatta recently demonstrated this with their ‘outdoors in’ theme when using our Karndean LooseLay to create individual neighbourhoods.

Colm: I’ve recently come back from Kuwait – which is literally a desert – and there is absolute hunger for landscapes, for a human connection with the landscape. There is a huge drive for this green environment in the desert – and there appears to be less of that here currently. Maybe that’s due to the fact that people can simply walk outside and be surrounded by nature. Similarly, in Scandinavia they tend to emphasise natural light because they get so little of it in winter months.

I think it’s great to see that flow of nature – to see things change, to see nature really happening.

Marianne Paulsen

factories simply couldn’t support the growth of plants, and then we came forward to the 70’s and 80’s where it becomes the trend once again – and I wonder how much of the current trend comes from this retro movement?

Ian: We always try to put a contemporary twist on things, but there is a lot of retro planting right now.

Diana: We now also have the technology to support the growth of plants in the office – we can now create living walls in the office, for example. Maybe this is helping to boost the trend. Just as technology and agile working are working in parallel, so is technology and planting. I recently saw a German project where they have planted an indoor roof – maybe this is the next level.

Conclusion

With wellbeing being high on the agenda, planting and biophilic design will continue to increase and improve.

First and foremost, however, clients need to be educated about the benefits this can bring – and not be afraid of the constantly changing ‘nature’ of nature.

We consider biophilic design as a relatively modern thing, but apparently this isn’t the case.

Diana: The whole concept of planting in interiors dates back to the 1700’s. We started to go around the world and brought back exotic plants, which needed to be placed inside because they’d die outside. There was a big hiatus in the Victorian period, where our homes and our

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Profile

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Profile

T he Works of Hemingway

In Short 1981 Wayne and Gerardine meet at Angels Disco, Burnley 1983 Debut Red or Dead collection 1986 Jack born 1987 Tilly born 2000 HemingwayDesign founded

A good few years ago we were fortunate enough to be invited to the Wembley home/studio of Red or Dead

founders and influential designers Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway. We’ve been wracking our brains to recall

whether we met the couple’s then infant children that day.

Over a decade later we’ve come to Clerkenwell’s über cool Zetter Townhouse to (once again?) meet with Jack and Tilly Hemingway – to chat about the next generation’s influence on the family business, HemingwayDesign.

The firm has come a long way in that time, moving away from the world of fashion and into the wider design spectrum, as a mere glimpse at the website will confirm. ‘We design things. As a multi-disciplinary team, our diverse and high-profile client list reflects the strength of talent behind the young creative team of urban designers, planners, product and graphic designers. Over 30 years'

experience has seen us collaborate with the likes of Sainsbury's, John Lewis, Coca-Cola, The National Trust, B&Q, eBay, Southbank Centre and Royal Mail, to name a few.’

Now, led by Jack and Tilly, HemingwayDesign has collaborated with renowned flooring company Forbo Flooring Systems to create an innovative, exciting and cohesive new approach to the design of flooring materials.

We begin by recalling our visit to Wembley all those years back. ‘It must have been a long time ago,’ Jack grins. ‘It used to be the family home but that’s now on the south coast. It’s changed a lot since then.’

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We ask the pair to tell us more about the HemingwayDesign of today. ‘We are multidisciplinary, so we have designers who have come from a fashion background, designers who have an architectural background and people from an illustrative background,’ Jack explains. ‘I think that gives us a base to be able to work in all these different sectors and also, as creative people with ideas who have good taste – which we do – and are good designers – which we are – then there’s no reason why we can’t work across all these sectors. That’s one of our key strengths and was key to this new project for Forbo – we used our creative and

Profile

illustrative strengths to create a canvas on the floor, to create a graphic design by utilising existing products and reimagining them and laying them down in different ways. The core of our business is regeneration and urban design, but product design often comes hand-in-hand with our other work.

‘We don’t necessarily have a house style – we talk about whether we should, but then we don’t want to become the same as everyone else. We like to be a little shocking!’

Jack tells us that HemingwayDesign has something of a history with flooring, having designed products for a leading carpet manufacturer and a rubber flooring company in

the past. ‘We’ve also worked with other interior products, such as wallpaper for Graham & Brown and furniture for G-Plan,’ Jack adds.

We move on to talk about the aforementioned new collaboration, HemingwayDesign X Forbo. This is a forward thinking reinvention of Forbo’s products into various distinctive, graphic compendiums of fun designs, inspirational for all sectors.

‘We first met with Forbo three years ago,’ Tilly recalls. ‘We had done a rebrand for Unite Students – the student accommodation provider – to start with it was just the branding and identity. We gave them a fresh logo and look.’

We don’t necessarily have a house style – we talk about whether we should...

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‘It was quite easy to confuse them with the trade union at the time and their identity wasn’t right for them and what they did,’ Jack continues. ‘That then filtered through to the design of the communal spaces, the reception areas and the external areas. As part of that we started to specify new products – and a lot of Unite’s properties are quite old. On a very small budget we looked to add light-touch enhancements and this involved specifying the floor – which is how we met Forbo.

‘We worked with their existing products to create something bespoke for Unite,’ Tilly explains. ‘We used Westbond carpet tiles – within that brand there is a palette of

Profile

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Profile primary colours and we used these to create a kind of graphic carpet pattern that reflected the Unite Students' brand colour palette and incorporated elements of the graphic devide we had developed as part of the rebrand. We wanted to create a flexible colour palette within the identity.

‘We ending up using the Westbond carpet, Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) Allura wood and Marmoleum – so we used different materials to create something quite bespoke with our own stamp on it.’

Having worked in fields ranging from urban regeneration through to bespoke chinaware, flooring design must sit nicely in the middle in terms of scale?

‘Yeah, it does,’ Tilly considers. ‘Because we have worked in so many different areas it did feel a very natural process.

We went through quite a long process of testing with Forbo to get the colours right and to see how they wear with the printed products. I think we went through five samples before we found the right pink, for example.’

‘One of the biggest challenges was working on the pattern repeat. That was quite difficult because there are some pretty complex patterns.’

‘It was quite difficult to get the alignment spot on,’ Jack adds. ‘It took a real understanding of the manufacturing process before we really got to the results we were looking for.

‘There was really no brief at all. We just said, ‘We like your product, we like you, can we have a go?’ They said yes – they looked at our work and then sat down to work out what could work and what ideas our design team had for the project. We didn’t consider colours or patterns, we thought about the floor first and how we could utilise the existing materials – it all came from there really.’

As Jack said a little earlier, HemingwayDesign X Forbo plays with pattern and shape, placing an emphasis on the floor as a surface for graphic art and geometric design. The result is eight stunning and carefully considered design options encompassing Tessera carpet tiles, bespoke vinyl, Marmoleum and Forbo’s flocked Flotex.

Additionally, there is an exciting bespoke design service by HemingwayDesign – the brilliantly titled Marmolaid – which offers a variety of colour and aesthetic options.

Mid Century Weave – a subtly flecked carpet tile – has a timeless Modernist

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Profile

There was really no brief at all.

We just said, ‘We like your product, we like you, can we have a go?

aesthetic, bringing the sophistication of upholstery and textile fabric to flooring.

Available in three complementary colours: Sunbeam Yellow, Lagoon Blue and Dawn Grey that all work beautifully together in an array of original combinations for use in a wide variety of interior spaces.

Snakes and Ladders, Lizards and Ladders and The Slide all use elements from the Marmoleum Modular Shade collection.

The designs feature oversized geometric graphic grids using cool and warm greys, monochromatic and rusty orange shades. The tiles are available in up to four different sizes.

Meanwhile, the extent of Forbo’s digital printing capabilities has led to an exciting set of designs available across digitally printed Flotex and vinyl sheet products.

Hopscotch, a hand painted monochrome checkerboard recreated as printed flooring; Fresh Cut Graph, a subtle yet striking cut up grid graphic repeat – ‘Op Art’ for the floor; Mix & Match, a selection of bold geometric graphic patterns printed in pastel tones and HemingwayDesign’s exclusive take on a traditional herringbone parquet floor, Hemingbone, complete the inventive collection.

Before we take our leave, dad himself – Wayne Hemingway MBE – joins us. Although Jack and Tilly led the project with Forbo, this was very much a team effort – and that includes the client. We’ll leave the final words to Wayne. ‘The great thing about Forbo is that the team clearly embrace new ideas – plus there are so many different options in terms of flooring and materials to experiment with.

Hopefully this collection pushes floor design in a different direction and people will see something in this that they haven’t seen in recent times.’

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Case Study

Make Over Every now and again we start hearing murmurs of

a new workplace scheme that sets new benchmarks in terms of innovation, flexibility and integration

of technology. The Estée Lauder Companies’ new London home at One Fitzroy is undoubtedly the latest to fit this bill.

We’ve heard that there are incredibly innovative, intelligent meeting spaces, for example. There are also fantastic training facilities, apparently. Well, today we have the opportunity to take a look around this muchvaunted project and see for ourselves why The Estée Lauder Companies is the name on the lips of so many people in this sector right now.

Even before we’ve entered One Fitzroy we’re aware that we’re about to experience something quite unique. As we wander through Fitzroy Place, past smart new eateries and bars, we can see activity on the first floor – in the shape of someone getting a haircut.

Walking into the open and incredibly generous reception space, we find three girls ahead of us who show QR codes to the

ladies behind the sleek reception desk and are immediately guided to the far end of the space.

Our first glimpse of the advanced integrated technology we were expecting to see here.

We meet with MCM Architecture’s Creative Director Paul Scrivener and an Estée Lauder Companies representative. Unlike the three girls in front of us a minute ago, we head to the main lift shafts immediately in front of us.

The reasoning behind this will be explained to us a little later.

Our hosts smile ironically at one another as our lift arrives to take us to the top of the building. Although as beautifully finished as any lift we’ve seen, the sustainable design of the lift system means we have been allocated a rear lift without the amazing views

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Case Study

Essentials Client Estée Lauder Brands include Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, MAC, Bobbi Brown, Aveda, Jo Malone, Smashbox, Tom Ford Beauty, Michael Kors, Origins, Donna Karan Cosmetics Founded 1946 in New York

by Estée and Joseph Lauder Interior Design MCM Main Contractor BW Furniture Supply Umbrella Joinery Specialist Joinery Group

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Case Study afforded by the other glass lifts here. Not that we feel too short-changed; as soon as we disembark onto the 8th floor we can see out across the spectacular atrium, where we get a glimpse of several of the floors below us.

We move through to the equally spectacular barista bar space, where we sit and chat over a coffee. ‘When we started working with The Estée Lauder Companies we were looking at this building and also another site,’ Paul recalls. ‘We did some initial test plans on this building and, looking back at those designs; they are remarkably close to what we’ve done here. The company was in four or five buildings across the West End – they were really lovely townhouses but didn’t support the collaborative working ethic very effectively.

One Fitzroy brings over 25 brands together under one roof. They are all premium brands but with their own distinct personalities and positioning,’ Paul continues, ‘but this is an Estée Lauder Companies’ headquarters building, so the challenge was to come up with a scheme that would also allow each of the brands to express their own unique identities

One Fitzroy brings over 25 brands together under one roof.

They are all premium brands but with their own distinct personalities and positioning. against a backdrop for The Estée Lauder Companies. We solved this with concept of the ‘brand hubs’ – dedicated brand spaces where the essence of each of the brands is brought to life.

‘Branding of the shared meeting and training rooms was also a consideration.

If you’re training for Aveda, for example, you need an Aveda branded training room.

We therefore had to come up with a way in which these shared spaces could be rebranded at the touch of a button. The technology is incredible. The flexibility of the shared spaces is maximized with concealed cupboards which slide across to reveal a different brand’s product displays and digital signage that enable the space to transform from one brand to another.’

‘All these details have made such a difference,’ we are told by our hosts. ‘Before, we often needed to outsource our training

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Case Study

VISITING CLERKENWELL DESIGN WEEK? Looking to plan your visit and justify your time out of the office?

In the usual Mix manner we are here to help, our CDW preview in the May issue will give you a detailed guide to the annual design Jamboree.

Contact us if you don’t get your very own copy. rebecca@mixinteriors.com 0161 946 6262

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Case Study

The 8th floor really does provide a beautiful and collaborative workspace where people can either sit back with a coffee, or hold informal meetings...

to a hotel, but now all colleagues at the Point of Sale – those people who face customers every day – have got their own dedicated training facilities on the 1st and 2nd floors.

‘They also have their own dedicated entrance, up through the amazing brass staircase.’ It is now clear why those aforementioned girls headed in a different direction earlier, QR codes in hand. ‘They now have two floors that they can call home.

‘The lower ground has the café, the employee store and the hair and nail bar,’ Paul tells us. ‘Then we get to 6th and 8th floors, which both have these wonderful terraces, which wrap right around the building – they

are going to be great in the summer. You get amazing views out across London.’

‘It is such a different space for everyone,’ we are told. ‘The 8th floor really does provide a beautiful and collaborative workspace where people can either sit back with a coffee, or hold informal meetings – or even take a yoga or Pilates class. It’s always bustling with people.’

Indeed, as we walk back through to the heart of the building, we can see people meeting and working in a variety of informal breakout spaces. As we move through, Paul points out another important element of the scheme. ‘The family and the heritage are still very important to the company – Mrs Estée

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Case Study

Lauder is still an incredible presence,’ he explains. ‘There are several fantastic photos of her throughout the building, and we also have this room that looks slightly different from the rest. It’s called the Blue Room, which is a real homage to Mrs Estée Lauder herself.’

Now let in its entirety to The Estée Lauder Companies, One Fitzroy offers 140,000 sq ft of office space, plus the impressive 4,000 sq ft reception. The incredibly efficient floorplates are approximately 18,000 sq ft each, with those middle floors featuring a vast variety of working and meeting facilities, including generous breakout space, smart open plan office space, brand hubs and those hi-tech, flexible meeting rooms. As Paul told us a little earlier, one touch of a button and one brand is instantly transformed into another.

The building is now home to some 450 Estée Lauder Companies staff members, the majority of whom – not surprisingly given the nature of the business – are female. Did this fact impact on the design of the space at all?

‘It does feel softer here,’ Paul says. ‘It helped that our own team was predominantly female – it was important that we put together the right team to deliver the right solution. It definitely has a more feminine feel to it. The UK team here at Estée Lauder Companies was wonderful to work with and I think, together, we’ve managed to create something that everyone’s happy with.’

The backdrop Paul spoke of a little earlier features elegant, immaculate finishes and product and material selections, which allow the brands and the products themselves to become an integral part of the décor.

The lower ground floor is less café in look and feel than it is chic restaurant/ diner, complete with comprehensive, healthconscious menu, elegant banquette seating and calming mood lighting. Opposite we find the shop, which resembles a high-end duty free store, where staff can come in and pick up subsidised Estée Lauder Companies’ products, and the equally impressive hair and nail bar, where they can, well, get a blow dry done over lunch or before a night out.

The staff here are clearly made up – in more ways than one!

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Essentials Client CMS Offices 60 worldwide Top 10 Global law firm Interior Design KKS Main Contractor ISG M&E Consultants Chapman BDSP Project Manager Gardiner & Theobold Furniture Modus Flooring Solus Ceramics Feature Staircase EE Stairs

Law of Attraction By our calculations it has to be the best part of four years since we last took a look

around a major City-based law firm – in Mix terms, that’s a long, long time. It’s also around that long since we last met with KKS’ Katrina Kostic Samen, so when the

opportunity arose to look around Katrina’s new scheme for leading law firm CMS we weren’t going to say no!

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Situated above Cannon Street station, the new CMS home is reached via a long and impressive escalator, which takes you up the building’s first floor shared reception to the left, while the CMS entrance is opposite. We’re pleasantly surprised that there are no over-complicated security card systems, nor a lengthy signingin procedure. Instead, we simply head to the shared reception desk, state there son for our visit and then are directed towards the bright and brilliant CMS entrance, where we are met by a delightful lady who – so Katrina later informs us – already knows who we are, why we’re here and who we are due to meet via comms from the receptionist outside. It all feels both slick and beautifully personable.

There is a genuine buzz to the space, with clients constantly being greeted, seated and then led into the client meeting suites. Katrina joins us and takes us through to the cool technology hub where we can have a quick catch-up over a coffee. Before talking about all things CMA we ask, naturally, about KKS – well,

it has been a while. ‘Over the last three years I’ve been quietly building my interiors team and growing the practice – winning key projects that are good for us. We’ve now got five projects shortlisted for the BCO awards, and they are all really different. They are in multiple sectors and show a variety of skills that we’ve contributed.’

One of those five, of course, is here at Cannon Street. ‘For me this was the dream project,’ Katrina smiles. ‘We designed absolutely everything in te client suite , alongside CMS Head of Comms, Victoria Sabin – right down to the coffee mugs and the integrated branding. We did the flowers – there are only certain colours they can use – we informed the uniforms. We contribute to pretty much everything in here!

So now we understand why the space looks so pristine. Not that pristine means clinical or impersonal – anything but. Without wishing to use too many design journalist clichés, there is a genuine sense of movement and energy throughout the floor.

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We ask Katrina to tell us about the origins of the project. ‘CMS moved here in July last year,’ she tells us. ‘They were previously in Aldersgate Street and they’re lease was expiring at the end of 2015. Seven years prior to that, Duncan Weston, Managing Partner, started looking for sites around London. Initially they weren’t sure whether they should move or not, although they were quite keen on a few buildings, but Duncan decided to ride out the downturn in the market and eventually signed a lease in 2012 for 145,000 sq ft at Cannon Place. Duncan really drove the decision for something much more dynamic for a law firm and was convinced by the collaborative nature of open plan. This was back in 2008!

‘So we started looking at buildings with a view to securing a pre-let. We had a long-stop date to move by 2015 – so we did have a bit of a margin. There were some big buildings available back then, but this was when the market had collapsed. Duncan – rightly so – wanted to see what was going to happen. When Cannon

Case Study

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Place became a contender, the partnership agreed that it was perfect as it centred on a major transport hub; CMS has 59 offices around the world, they are a global player in law & tax, based here in the UK. Penelope Warne, Senior Partner, wanted to further expand their global presence, so transport links were vital.

‘This building was vacant for two years before it was signed and Hines were keen to do a deal on the space. ‘To start with, it was somewhat shocking, to think that a law firm would be on a 50,000sq ft floorplate – that’s just something you wouldn’t normally choose – but Duncan’s vision was to re-define his lawyers into sector-based teams, not by traditional departments.

He also decided that he wanted a real ‘wow’ factor for the client spaces, so KKS was brought on board to work alongside MCM – who designed the workspaces on levels two and three. It was a great relationship. We worked

To start with, it was somewhat shocking to think that a law firm would be on a 50,000 sq ft floorplate...

really well hand-in-hand. I think what could have been an awkward situation turned into a great collaboration. Everyone really rallied to give Duncan and Penelope their vision.’

Incidentally, we are planning to look at floors two and three with MCM in the very near future, but for now we have plenty to see here on the first floor. We move back to the entrance where Katrina explains a little more about the client’s vision and how it has been realised by KKS. ‘The goal was that when you saw CMS from outside in the main reception you would think ‘Wow – what is that? Who works there?’

We didn’t want it to feel like another law firm.

We really wanted it to stand out. We designed the space to leave a dramatic impression.

Winding down the length of the large business lounge area is a sculptural, complex wave of curves, dividing the space and providing seating along both sides of its length. Manufactured by a Corian specialist, it also disguises the power point for devices as well as concealing a servery and print/copy facilities.

‘We wanted to marry the dark wood of the main reception with the white, bright, funkier feel which is taken from the ground floor. There

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is a vocabulary that comes from that journey into the space. We also took hints of orange (even the jelly beans are colour coordinated) and curves and circles – all of this has been translated so that it feels as though this is different, this is CMS, but it is still connected to the base build journey.’

We ask Katrina to tell us a little more about the welcome experience. ‘We worked really hard on the arrival experience and technology integration with both CMS Head of Operations Barbara Mendler and Head of IT Razvan Cretu,’ she continues. ‘We did not want to have a traditional reception desk. When you are checked in at the main reception desk, you are automatically fed into the system here. Both Hines and CMS have terrific front-of-house service teams. We worked closely with the CMS operations group to make sure everything is connected – from the printing through to the wireless network. There are all kinds of goodies here – iPads for visitors to use, charging stations built in to everything, and we have UK, European and US power.

'We also designed an interactive table, which is amazing. Duncan’s view was ‘Give

Case Study

me something I’ve never seen’. I hope we’ve achieved that.’

Katrina patiently allows us to play with the aforementioned interactive table, where we catch-up on the latest news, sports, views on the European referendum and even check out a couple of social media sites (we so want one of these!), before guiding us through to the first of the meeting suites. ‘We used the moving global art piece in the entrance area to reflect the light – remember this is a first floor space above a railway station with very little light, so we designed with a lot of reflective materials.

‘Everything we put in had to be weighttested because of the train station below. We couldn’t go up and we couldn’t go down, so it was a really complicated build for us. There were a lot of restrictions.

‘When it came to the stairs, for example, there were only two structural columns, one at each end of the floor, that we were allowed to take down onto the platform of the station below – and that really set the whole ethos of the design. We used a mirrored wall to shield the stair and it also became the back wall to the technology hub. That left us with a very narrow space, so we added the curve to throw your eye off and made sure you’re constantly looking elsewhere – further into the space, at a variety of views.’

Another key consideration was the meeting facilities. ‘KKS prepared a comprehensive analysis on the number, size and location of all meeting rooms and support spaces,’ Katrina

Essentially we’ve created four hubs – which are like neighbourhoods.

Each has its own identity...

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bespoke STAIRS & BALUSTRADES

We Are At CDW 2016

continues. ‘We tried really hard to locate all meeting rooms alongside the windows. The space-planning was really the backbone of what this floor is all about – to ensure the client feels welcome, special and well-taken care of – true customer service.

‘Essentially we’ve created four hubs – which are like neighbourhoods. Each has its own identity, but we wanted every space to be incredibly flexible and work at least twice as hard as what it was originally designed for.’

To illustrate this fact, Katrina shows us an amazing credenza which can be pulled away from the wall to form an instant bar, while the impressive row of meeting rooms in this hub can be opened-up to create a 100-person function suite.

Moving back past the entrance to the other end of the floor, we can’t help but notice the brilliant artwork, finishes, rugs, joinery and furniture throughout each of the hubs.

The detailing here is immaculate, with clever touches everywhere we look.

It is only as we continue to tour each of the meeting hubs that the true scale of the floor becomes evident. Indeed, it is only having walked through the (once again) perfectly curated client meeting suite and impressive training facilities (to seat 200) that we first notice the incredible staff restaurant. Yet again, there is a real buzz here, with staff using it as impromptu meeting and breakout space.

Things have certainly come a long way in four short years for both lawyers and KKS.

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MATERIALS & ARCHITECTURE COVERED Join the celebration in London’s creative heart. See the best in furniture, product and lighting design from across the globe.

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On Tuesday the 15th March 2016, 23,500 (and those are only the recorded figures) property professionals descended on the Cannes, filling the Palais, bars and restaurants for the annual pilgrimage that is MIPIM.

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This leading international property exhibition brings together no less than 39 countries, with city representative stands such as Liverpool, Lyon, Manchester, Montreal, Prague, Tokyo and Warsaw present, alongside regional pavilions, all showcasing their plans for the gathering private and public stakeholders.

Before setting off to the conference it is best not to leave your copy of Private Eye lying around the house for a partner to see when it describes MIPIM as a 'booze and hooker fest’.

We’re sure there was a time, pre-banking crisis, pre-worst recession the world has ever seen and pre-women in top positions, when this may have been a well-deserved description. However, this is 2016. Thank goodness for progress, because things have moved on!

MIPIM is enormous fun but there are far more pressing matters on the agenda; we have sustainable cities to develop, infrastructures to build, regeneration projects to kick start, places for people to live and workspaces to inspire creativity. Crucially this doesn’t only need to happen here in the UK, it needs to happen everywhere, and MIPIM allows visitors to peruse the opportunities a global economy presents as Gill Parker, CEO of BDG architecture + design explains: ‘We are firmly a UK-based practice but have experience with projects across the globe, so to be able to visit the international city stands and understand the emerging cities and countries is vital to the way we grow and innovate as a business and, on a broader scale, as an industry.’

This view is further expounded by David Clements, Managing Director of FUTURE Designs, and MIPIM veteran of 17 years. He explains why the event remains so relevant and crucial for his business: ‘MIPIM captures our marketplace in its entirety, attracting the entire property community – from occupiers to developers, architects and designers and building consultants on a global scale. Europe is always well represented, as is the UAE, which are two key markets for us and to be able to cover two regions in three days is quite something. We exhibit on the fabulous London Stand, which enables further opportunity to meet with our diverse client base’

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GLOBAL To get a sense of the diversity, range and span of topics discussed one only needs to open the first few pages of MIPIM News (the show has its own 80-page daily newspaper). The first news items sitting side by side are about the further development of Dubai in its quest to realise its vision for the 21st century as a world-class centre for living, business and tourism, sitting unashamedly next to the latest news from Silvertown – a once ‘no-go’ part of London’s east end where a mixed use project of 7 million sq ft is planned (due for completion in 2018 by The Silvertown Partnership, a JV between First-Base, Chelsfield Properties and Macquaries Capital).

TOP SPOTS A top property hotspot for 2016 was Poland, accounting for 45% of closed deals in Central and Eastern Europe (including Russia) in 2015, with a record high volume of transactions in the country at a mind boggling €4,18bn, up from €3.1bn in 2014, as reported by Collier International.

Japan was also presenting a strong economic outlook, clearly enjoying an economic boom after many years of austerity, with Tokyo looking forward to hosting the Olympics in 2020.

Turkey – the gateway between East and West – had a record breaking 250 companies taking part this year. Their profile no doubt further boosted by TURKISH CERAMICS, which represents 30 manufacturers, sponsoring the MIPIM Awards 2016.

Closer to home, commercial real estate is having a good run this year and is expected to outperform other assets according to CBRE’s 2016 European Outlook report. Across Europe in 2015 office leasing increased by more than 15%, the best figures since 2010, after the fastest falling vacancy rates of 2007.

London Markets Analysis, a new report from Levy Real Estate and MSCI, illustrated that London is still an incredibly dominant force on the global property stage and this shows no sign of changing, showing the strongest growth in Camden and King’s Cross, with Mayfair remaining the most keenly priced. According to the report, growth in commercial property rents across London fuelled an average total of 18.1% from investments in the UK capital in 2015 – a pretty good payback by anyone’s standards!

It is not all about London of course, with other key cities around the UK putting on impressive showcases of their plans. Birmingham in particular has unlocked the UK’s largest ever speculative office development outside London.

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M&G Real Estate has agreed to fund the construction of Ballymore’s Three Snowhill, a 39,000 sq m development, in a deal facilitated by the government’s Regeneration Investment Organisation to make the Midlands Britain’s engine for growth.

CONNECTIVITY The excitement around the seismic shift in London’s transport infrastructure did not go unnoticed. The arrival of Crossrail in 2019 and the possibility of Crossrail 2 in 2030, means that London will remain the land of opportunity for investment and construction. Alongside connecting London with 11 new stations, Crossrail presents 280,000 sq ft of office,

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and sitting alongside development partner McLaren, it aims to deliver an integrated, long-term approach to the building of social and key worker housing, alongside the creation of new communities. The Legacy Foundation is a charity set up by Rio Ferdinand, Mark Noble, captain of West Ham United, and ex-England International footballer Bobby Zamora.

retail and residential projects as well as 185,000 sq ft of new and improved public space. The implications for places like Whitechapel are truly remarkable. And if Crossrail 2 happens, the London Borough of Haringey will be the main benefactor, with places such a Tottenham and Wood Green being reinvigorated and reinvented.

TRENDS Beyond what and where things are happening, various forums addressed ‘how’ we were doing them, amongst the topics being discussed were:

NETWORKING Never knowingly under-rated at MIPIM are the all important opportunities for networking, whether that is an elegant breakfast at Armani café (hosted by Informare and BDG architecture + design), coffee at the jam-packed Café Roma, lunch on the beach, a cocktail party at one of the glamorous hotels or, if you are particularly fortunate, champagne on a yacht. We need not be modest about this. As Anthony Brown, Sales & Marketing Director of BW, outlines its importance: ‘MIPIM is largely about playing an active part in our industry, from meeting old some old friends and making some new business contacts, it is a vital part of the networking calendar and we all pick up on the issues; there was a distinct note of caution with lots of discussion about the In-Out referendum, the London Mayoral election and the US Presidential election; no sense of crisis but some uncertainties that will all be resolved to some degree before we all return to Cannes next March.’

PROPERTY TECH Leading French architectural firm PCA’s Chief Executive Philippe Chiambretti, hailed a third Industrial Revolution, where new technologies were enabling a new ‘lexus’ of thinking amongst developers and occupiers, with globalisation and a digital economy combining to change everything.

An example of this impact is the emergence of crowd funding, which could challenge, disrupt and provide opportunity for the Institutional Investors.

TECH WORKSPACES The issues of where and how best to accommodate and design for start-ups, as well as the established companies in the Tech sector, is an enduring theme with businesses in this arena still anticipated to develop and drive much of the business economy. This is not just an issue for London’s Shoreditch but in many other similar neighbourhoods, such as Sentier in Paris.

WELLNESS If the holy grail 10 years ago was ‘Productivity’, there is no doubt that this has been replaced by ‘Wellness’, and the responsibility of employers to actively demonstrate care for their employees’ health and happiness (which of course leads to greater productivity!).

Other topics on the agenda of particular relevance to the workplace sector included creating value in architecture through art and design; improving workplaces and quality of life by intermingling them with housing and R&D premises; co-working and its potential for a high return on creative investment and why the next generation matter in terms of real estate talent.

GLAMOUR With Boris Johnson (always a crowd pleaser at MIPIM) notably absent, it was left to Former England footballer Rio Ferdinand to sprinkle some showbiz stardust. Rio was announcing the launch of a new development firm aimed at tackling social housing through a new innovative approach. Named The Legacy Foundation 85

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Knauf AMF INSEEC has recently expanded its central London campus, and designer Catherine White was commissioned to design a professional and welcoming interior. To help realise the school’s ambition, Catherine selected Heradesign high-performance acoustic ceilings from Knauf AMF for the campus entrance, reception and meeting rooms. Heradesign is an innovative range of ceiling tiles and wall panels manufactured from sustainably sourced wood-wool. Its distinctive textured surface can be matched to a colour of your choice to create truly unique interiors. INSEEC chose two colours to reinforce its corporate identity. www.amfceilings/heradesign

Antron Inspiring carpets made from high performance Antron carpet fibre by Christy Carpets have allowed the latest serviced office of Office Space in Town to set sail in a nautical theme inspired by some of London’s most glorious riverside views. Sam Kopsch Studio opted for Christy Carpets’ Bergere and Tram carpets in communal areas. Shades of blue define seating and working areas, surrounded by wood-effect vinyl flooring reminiscent of yacht decks. Then, in board and meeting rooms, Sam Kopsch Studio added texture and a sense of luxury with Christy’s linear multi-loop Spice Route in a range of colourways. www.antron.eu Forbo Flooring Systems Forbo Flooring Systems has launched a new low-level loop Tessera carpet tile collection, consisting of two ranges: Layout and Outline.

With the light to dark colour palette of Layout and the clean lines of Outline, specifiers can combine the ranges seamlessly to create striking transitional designs, or use them separately to highlight a variety of workspaces. To complement the new directional colourways in Layout, Outline has a portfolio of eight organic linear designs, which have an obvious orientation rather than bold, definitive stripes. www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/layoutandoutline

Granorte Embracing the latest in direct to substrate digital printing, Granorte has launched Vita Décor, imaging wood and tile effects straight onto cork for a look that is completely unique.

With the familiar and warming aesthetic of cork gently radiating through the printed image, the look achieved is distinct and completely exclusive to cork. Intricate parquet effects join some beautiful tile designs with Middle Eastern and French artisanal references for a collection that is as beautiful as it is clever. Using cork to create a unique aesthetic, Vita Décor also benefits from the acoustic, comfort and thermal benefits of the sustainable natural material. www.granorte.co.uk

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Moduleo Leading digital media company Ziff Davis has fitted Country Oak from luxury vinyl flooring manufacturer Moduleo, in the recent renovation of its London office. Workplace interior design company The Jones London completed the project and opted for Country Oak from Moduleo’s Impress collection, as the colour and finish of the product perfectly complemented their design vision. Moduleo’s Impress collection boasts five wood designs and 22 colour options, all with registered emboss to create an accurate wood-effect finish that is the epitome of realistic design. www.moduleo.co.uk

Washroom Washroom Innovative washroom designer and manufacturer Washroom Washroom has launched a new WC cubicle, manufactured using the latest nanotechnology for a high performance, design-led finish. The new Alto FENIX WC cubicle, which is based on its already popular Alto range of full height cubicles, has been designed to provide a unique super matt surface, while the rebated edges which characterise the Alto range, create an attractive, virtually seamless façade for the ultimate design statement. Available in 15 colours, the new cubicle is designed specifically for projects demanding exacting aesthetic and performance standards. www.washroom.co.uk

Ecophon Designed to reduce echoes, enhance speech clarity and improve acoustic performance, Ecophon has expanded its vertical acoustics offer with the launch of Akusto One. Forming part of the Akusto family, this new addition of vertical independent sound absorbers in design-friendly smaller dimensions is available in different sizes, shapes and colours. Easy to install, the absorbers are ideal for creating spaces where both exceptional acoustics and aesthetics are required cost-effectively. The Akusto One panels are available in circular, rectangular and square-shaped panels of various sizes. All are 40mm in depth and complemented with white or grey painted edges. www.ecophon.co.uk

modulyss With a focus on rediscovering the past, fused with a sleek and bold future, modulyss introduces Pixel, Patchwork and Pattern; brand new carpet tile designs that cross-over in the present and blur the boundaries between past and future. Brand new for spring 2016 the three new carpet tile designs can be used solo, or worked together to create striking themes that relax in recalling times past and inspire through imagining a bright and positive futurescape. www.modulyss.com

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If there's one law everybody seems to think they're above, it's the law of unintended consequences, writes Mark Eltringham. But the world would be a boring place if people didn't routinely subvert the things sent to influence their behaviour.

The story goes that, when Rem Koolhaas was appointed to design the McCormick Tribune Campus Center at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2003, the legendary architect noticed how students had created their own pathways between the buildings on the site.

The site of the new building included a field on which their footprints had worn down the grass to such an extent that distinct grooves had been carved out that reflected their movements. Given that his brief was to create a new building that serves as a central hub for student life and that he had already been offered an organic design blueprint for the way students used the campus, he decided to reflect this in the layout of the new building.

The result is an irregular floor plan with diagonal corridors of differing widths linking the parts of the interior in a way that reflects the number of students who use the paths they create.

This tale could be interpreted in a number of ways. About how Koolhaas was able to use his powers of observation to look at a problem in a new way. About how lazy some people are when getting from A to B. About the need to create organic designs that reflect how people move around. But also about how people are

likely to subvert the intentions of designers and all of those who think they can influence their behaviour.

The law of unintended consequences seems to be one of those laws from which everybody thinks they might be exempt. Yet barely a day goes by when some endeavour, idea or piece of

...within 16 hours the good people of Twitter had taught Tay to be a misogynistic, racist, genocidal bigot...

legislation isn't subjected to the free thinking, preferences, whims, idiosyncracies and mischievousness of human beings. In recent weeks these include Microsoft's attempt to introduce the world to a Twittterbot called Tay as a way of showcasing the latest

developments in artificial intelligence.

Launched on March 23, within 16 hours the good people of Twitter had taught Tay to be a misogynistic, racist, genocidal bigot, prompting Microsoft to send Tay to bed for an early night and a long think about her new friends.

Then, last week, we found out that in the 12 months since British men acquired shared parental leave rights, just 1% had taken up the chance offered them by the new legislation.

It's true that the research included all men and women rather than just parents, but there was a great deal of devil in the detail of the report, including the fact that the majority of women were not generally keen on sharing their parental leave rights and that, in any case, parents made decisions on the basis of a range of practical considerations, including career opportunities, personal preferences and financial considerations.

This kind of thing is worth bearing in mind whenever you hear anybody suggesting that they understand the links between cause and effect before a human being is added to the mix. This is the tiger in the rough; the capricious, unpredictable, limiting factor that makes everything so fascinating and every idea so nebulous.

Mark Eltringham is the publisher of workplace design and management website Office Insight. mark@officeinsight.org

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