Mix Interiors 207
November 2020
STRENGTH & SIMPLICITY
DESIGNERS & MANUFACTURERS OF WORKSPACE FURNITURE
www.gof.co.uk
Contents INSIGHT 14 UPFRONT 18 SEVEN 20
STEVE GALE
22 PERSPECTIVE Lee Penson, Penson 26
MATERIAL MATTERS Antibacterial Materials
28
DESERT ISLAND DESKS Chloe Bullock, Materialise Interiors
30
ROUNDTABLE 30 HOW TO GET THE INTERIORS SECTOR ON THE ROAD TO SUSTAINABILITY
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58
WORK 38
THE BIG QUESTION Six industry experts give us their highs, lows and learnings from 2020
40 PROPERTY Warehouses: the offices of the future 46
CASE STUDY: BODEN BY SPACELAB
52 PROPERTY More property tech – and more interventionist landlords – will mean big changes for the way office floorspace works post-COVID 54
NET-ZERO DESIGN We speak to Perkins&Will about the firm’s recent net-zero pledge for office interiors
58
CASE STUDY: BUBBLEHUB BY ALIGN
64
CASE STUDY: ROLLING STOCK YARD BY SQUIRE & PARTNERS
70 VIEWPOINT A day in the (working) life from CBRE’s Muriel Altunaga Aguirre
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HOSPITALITY 76
CASE STUDY: VILLA COPENHAGEN BY UNIVERSAL DESIGN STUDIO AND GODDARD LITTLEFAIR
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CASE STUDY: MAISON FRANÇOIS BY JOHN WHELAN AND GSL
LIVING 88 PROPERTY When the living is easy? 92
CASE STUDY: GREENFORD QUAY BY HTA DESIGN
96
THE FINAL WORD Criteo’s Mike Walley Mix 207 November 2020 | 1
WELCOME
A word from Mick
Get in touch
As this in the final issue of the ‘annus horribilis’ that is 2020 (surely surpassing 1992 by some distance in terms of horribilis-ness?), I’d like to look back at some of the rare brighter moments of the past year. Although it sometimes doesn’t feel like it, there have been some highlights (and no, I’m not going to mention the US election or Liverpool winning the Premier League!) and the vast majority of mine, at least when it comes to Mix, are all about the continued support we’ve received from our industry friends, contributors and (very much not least) advertisers. When it became clear that 2020 would be a Mixology-free year, we immediately focused on ensuring that both Mix Interiors and our online presence could and would continue to represent, educate and entertain. Of course, in order for us to do that, we required that aforementioned support. And support us so many of you did! Thank you all. I also want to reiterate that we, in turn, are here for you and your businesses. It is these amazing working relationships that keep us going – and I don’t just mean financially! Later in this issue, Lee Penson talks about maintaining and improving relationships, and looking out for each other. I couldn’t agree more with him. This is how we get through this! I hope you all stay safe and are able to enjoy the festive break. Let’s hope for a brighter, happier 2021.
EDITOR Mick Jordan mick@mixinteriors.com MANAGING DIRECTOR Martin Mongan martin@mixinteriors.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Kate Borastero kate@mixinteriors.com
The cover
EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE Chloe Petersen Snell chloe@mixinteriors.com
THE LOGO
HEAD OF OPERATIONS Lisa Jackson lisa@mixinteriors.com
Modus Workspace. created a bright, lively cover to mark the end of the year and evoke a mood of positivity moving into 2021. ‘We were inspired by the intensity of the autumn colours of this month’s cover,’ explains Madyson Laurent, head of the company’s industry recognised graphic design team. ‘The logo was formed through an experimentation with collages to create a playful, fun finish.’ WWW.MODUS.SPACE
DESIGNER Tammi Bell tamzin@tamzinrosedesigns.com FOUNDING PUBLISHER Henry Pugh CONTRIBUTORS Steve Gale, David Thame Mike Walley
THE COVER IMAGE
Edge Lit is a bold new carpet tile and plank collection inspired by the transformational and delineating attributes of light. Offered in 12 radiant colours, ranging from vivid brights to rich neutrals, this new collection from Milliken injects a rush of colour and burst of energy into any interior scheme. COURTESY OF MILLIKEN
ADDRESS 85 Greengate, Manchester M3 7NA TELEPHONE 0161 519 4850 EMAIL editorial@mixinteriors.com WEBSITE www.mixinteriors.com TWITTER @mixinteriors INSTAGRAM @mix.interiors LINKEDIN Mix Interiors
Get your own To ensure that a regular copy of Mix Interiors reaches you or to request back issues, call 0161 519 4850 or email lisa@mixinteriors.com ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES UK single £45.50, Europe £135 (airmail), Outside Europe £165 (airmail)
2 | Mix 207 November 2020
OWNER Marcie Incarico marcie@mixinteriors.com
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Mix Interiors
SAVE THE DATE
16 September 2021 Evolution, London
W
e are delighted to announce that Mixology London21 will take place on Thursday 16 September 2021 at Evolution London. Mix owner Marcie Incarico outlines: ‘We have been working away in the background investigating all the options available to us to ensure Mixology London can offer guests all the safety and comfort they need whilst providing a spectacular backdrop for our return in 2021. ‘Evolution London offers us twice the capacity we have traditionally had available to us, which means we can allocate more space for networking, dining and, of course, dancing! We have also taken the decision to move from our established June date to September next year, by which time we all sincerely hope that social distancing will be a distant memory, but if it isn’t, this venue provides us with the most flexibility and best possible solution.’ ‘A huge and heartfelt thanks go to our sponsors for continuing to support us and indeed all those companies and individuals who have already booked their places for Mixology London 2021. We’ve been listening to your feedback, and what is clear is that you are unanimous you want the Mixology Awards back as a live event in the calendar next year and we are only too happy to oblige!’ w Don’t forget the 2021 Awards will recognise finalists and winners of both 2020 and 2021. For information, tickets and sponsorship queries please visit mixinteriors.com or call the team on 0161 519 4850.
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Mix Interiors
Celebrating the very best Save the date! projects, products & people in commercial interior design.
SAVE THE DATE 16 September 2021 Evolution, London NOW OPEN FOR BOOKINGS MIXINTERIORS.COM
UPFRONT
Tap into the future
W
MDD Showroom
MDD in town DD has recently unveiled a new showroom in Clerkenwell. Having undergone an extensive re-brand to reflect its growth globally, it was felt that now was the time for a new London home to showcase an impressive design-led portfolio of products. Achieving sustained and uninterrupted manufacturing throughout the pandemic due to well planned in-house tooling and production of componentry, MDD has been able to consistenly meet timely deliveries and offer a superior service during these challenging times. We’re told that, on the horizon for MDD, there will be plenty more innovations and developments –not only across products and traditional services, but also through investments in people and processes, including a range of digital support services – so watch this space! For further information or to have a chat with MDD, please contact Natasha (Country Manager – South). npendlebury@mdd.eu w
M
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ith employers searching to create COVID-secure workplaces in order for staff to return safely, Zip Water has created the HydroTap Touch Free Wave – a contactless drinking water system that delivers instant filtered boiling, chilled and sparkling water. Available in the UK from December, the new Zip HydroTap Touch Free Wave is a 100% contactless drinking water solution and is the latest innovation in the flagship HydroTap range. With health and hygiene now an absolute priority in the workplace, the innovative tap allows employees to stay hydrated and healthy, while avoiding surface contact to minimise the risk of virus transmission. Smart infrared sensors detect hand movements within a 1.5 – 5cm range of the tap, with water flow stopping immediately once the hand is moved away. The tap also features a contactless safety lock for the delivery of boiling water. Boiling water is only dispensed once two of the four sensors are engaged, activated by cupping a hand around the back of the tap. ‘Businesses must do everything possible to improve hygiene and cleanliness in the workplace, following the latest Health and Safety Executive guidelines, in scenarios where employees cannot work from home,’ says Victoria Himsworth, Head of Marketing at Zip Water. ‘With the average person touching their face more than 20 times an hour, it’s possible to transfer viruses from everyday objects, such as handles and taps, to the mouth and eyes, and vice versa. Investing in the HydroTap Touch Free Wave encourages employees to keep hydrated, without the worry of cross-contamination.’ To find out more about the Zip HydroTap Touch Free Wave visit specify.zipwater.co.uk/wave w HydroTap Touch Free Wave
See colour differently A palette to redefine your vision, Colour Edit will change the way you see, experience and use colour. Amtico makes it possible.
For support and samples visit amtico.com or contact our specialist team on +44 (0) 121 745 0800
UPFRONT
S
Silver celebration for Oktra
Halma office
Great Colonnade
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I’s Colonnade has been developed to redefine open plan offices. Colonnade was co-created in partnership with one of KI’s longest-standing clients to create a systemised, cost-effective and sustainable solution to create user-controlled, flexible workspaces. Made for ‘hacking’, the system utilises a series of simple components and materials, in different dimensions. Accessories, furniture and features can be added. Anchored by 800 Series Storage and Modular Shelving, the stanchions and gantry system supports all sorts of equipment – from mobile whiteboards and pin boards, through to TV screens, tables, seating, power and acoustic treatments. This system can either be specified as an enhancement to existing KI storage, or be installed as new. Repurposing traditional storage units gives them a new lease of life, reducing waste and carbon footprint.w
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KI’s Colonnade
ince it was founded in 1995, Oktra has designed and built over 14 million sq ft of workspace and transformed the working lives of over 199,000 people, helping shape the future of workplace design as we now know it. As the company has grown into a position as an industry leader, it have expanded into three branches across the UK, building resilient relationships with clients such as Just Eat, Moonpig, adidas and Gymshark, all while staying true to its roots by putting its own working community first, consistently being voted one of the Sunday Times’ 100 Best Small Companies to Work For. Oktra has pushed sustainability and wellbeing in Design & Build, achieving a Fitwel certification, ISO accreditation, and becoming a long-term holder of The Planet Mark. Furthermore, it has appeared regularly as a finalist for awards including SBID, the Northern Design Awards and, most recently, winning the Mixology Design & Build Company of the Year 2019. Oktra is celebrating this huge milestone by hosting its very own Oktra art show in its new showroom office, with all pieces created by staff members and their friends and family, and with all profits raised to be donated to the Down’s Syndrome Association. We’d like to join Oktra in raising a (socially distanced) glass to the next 25 years of creating spaces that inspire people to do amazing things! w
Proxima
Lojical Thinking
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roxima, the latest wearable tech from Prolojik, helps allow organisations and people to manage their own COVID-19 risk. Building on one of its latest innovations, Proxima allows organisations, from workplaces to schools and universities, to empower people to manage their own risk and exposure to the COVID virus, through wearable technology in the form of a wristband or lanyard, which connects wirelessly to Prolojik’s Proxima sensor network. The movement and temperature of each wearer can be monitored throughout all areas within the space, vibrating when people are within two metres of each other, as well as taking their temperature to alert them of potential illness. Data collected via the Proxima sensor network can be stored on premises for real time analysis or shared with third party systems, such as BMS. If, for example, someone contracts COVID-19 within an organisation, it is possible to track that person’s interactions in the preceding days, identify others that have been in close proximity to them – therefore exposed to the virus and potentially at risk. The enormous benefit is that facility and building operators can focus on specific areas, rather than having to close entire buildings down. As with education, this approach allows for a far more targeted approach to infection management, by isolating individuals or specific social bubbles. The integration with the lighting control system means that all areas of the building are within the trackable zone, including workspaces, circulation areas, back-of-house, plant rooms, car parks, presentation spaces and external spaces. ‘At a time when businesses and educational institutions need as much support as possible to be operational, Proxima wearables provide the ultimate reassurance and comfort for employee and students,’ Asela Rodrigo, Managing Director of Prolojik, comments. ‘The unique difference is the standalone sensor infrastructure, which can equally be fully integrated with any lighting control systems to increases the measurable and trackable area.’w
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UPFRONT Seven
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Wellbeing
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Innovation
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Post-pandemic health
benefits of plants in the workplace
Biophilic design recognises that we are unconsciously connected to nature and that this connection within the space we work can positively influence our physical and psychological health and wellbeing. Here, our friends at Brunner plant the seeds of seven smart new ideas on the subject.
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Productivity Planting around the workplace stimulates creativity and improves productivity. Did you know that if at least two plants are visible from each workstation, employee productivity in the office increases by 15% (according to research carried out by Cardiff University)? The same can be said for natural light and other natural elements and materials.
Acoustics Planting in the workplace improves acoustics. Plants provide a natural form of sound insulation, improving acoustics in the workplace. Their leaves muffle phone conversations, the tap, tap, tapping of keyboards, and the general audible background din within the office.
Air Quality Planting around the workplace improves air quality; effectively removing toxins from the air and helping to clean the 15,000 litres of air consumed by each person daily. Of course, some plants are more effective than others – NASA has even released a list of air purifying plants, which range from Boston Ferns to Peace Lilies and even English Ivy.
Landscaping the office Of course, plants are aesthetically pleasing and therapeutic. They define and divide space and breathe new life into boring places. And as reemergent methods of workplace design – such as ‘Bürolandschaft’ – potentially re-shape the office of the 2020s, vegetation will no doubt populate the workplace even more than has hitherto been the case–- or at least since they proliferated those landscaped mid-century offices.
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Plants connect people to their physical and psychological wellbeing. Employees who are surrounded by plants and take care of them are generally happier and more efficient, and this naturally reduces stress and absenteeism. A study from the University of Exeter showed that we are hard-wired to respond positively to nature and images of nature – showing that our brains struggle to process complex urban landscapes.
From pot plants on the windowsill to larger plants in self-watering containers, from ‘living walls’ of moss and foliage to large shrubs and even fully-grown trees, suppliers have found ingenious ways for these to survive and stay healthy in indoor settings so that we can reap all these benefits.
Over the last few months, outdoor space has become more valuable than ever. A huge percentage of our waking hours are spent working, and this has a huge impact on our health and wellbeing – never more noticeable during the current pandemic. Creating healthy, green spaces for employees to enjoy and value will take precedent in the post-pandemic workplace, and biophilia in all its forms can be an important tool for staff attraction and retention. Products, such as the recently launched PARA VERT planting system from Brunner, can provide incredibly stylish ways to introduce biophilia to the workplace, helping to create beautiful, flexible and healthy spaces.w
UPFRONT Steve Gale
Focus! Conditions for concentration are not the same for everyone says Steve Gale.
Steve Gale is Head of Workplace Strategy at M Moser Associates. SteveG@mmoser.com 20 | Mix 207 November 2020
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or years, we have been building convivial spaces for collaboration, culture and creativity, but the last few months of remote working have made us look again at a neglected activity – the precious ability to focus. Recent surveys show that most people think they have been productive while working at home, as teams have held together and the expected failures in technology and infrastructure failed to emerge, and although the office community has been missed, people found ways to make up for it. This sense of productivity – real or imagined – is linked to the time saved by not traveling, an ability to choose the best working hours, and often the elimination of interruptions from colleagues. The feedback about home working certainly emphasises the importance of focus, but it is split down the middle when it comes to the best place for it. It stops way short of endorsing the remote workplace as ideal. As many feel it is impossible at home because of domestic distractions, as it is in the office because of unavoidable interruptions. We are seeing a renewed interest in individual contribution, competing with the Holy Grail of collaboration and knowledge sharing, which previously dominated the design debate. For example, look at these conflicting comments on the subject, picked quickly from a recent survey on home working. ‘I am better able to focus at home eg. research, analyse and write up’ versus ‘I think it is easier to get distracted while WFH, I don’t feel as focused’. This is not about space, furniture or privacy. It shows
that, for some people, their home simply cannot provide the mental landscape they need for concentration. It is fine for Zoom meetings and phone calls, but for deep work it does not always cut the mustard. The data collected over the last few months contains two vital messages for organisations looking into the future. The first is, after months of enforced trial and error, we have deeper insight into what is really needed to support focus. The second and more surprising one is a challenge to the common assumption that a remote location, usually home, is a better place for solitary output. For many, this is not the case at all. For these people, the office can actually be a better place to focus than a home full of distractions. We will have to weave this into the hybrid workplace that is emerging for many postCOVID futures, which sees an office space as a community hub, and remote locations as preferred places for ‘deep work’. The data shows that the simple hybrid model is missing a spoke. There is a significant body of people who actually find the office is better for focus, despite having the facilities and space to work at home. The ambience suits their disposition and their ability to concentrate. We should include this constituency in our planning, along with the people who cannot work at home for practical reasons. The need for quiet places in the future workplace might have more takers than we first expected. For some people, their home simply cannot provide the mental landscape they need for concentration.w
Cage Storage rawside.co
Ferrari
Perspective We catch up with Lee Penson – the Founder and CEO of renowned, multi-awardwinning global architecture and interior design studio, PENSON. We first met Lee more years ago than either of us would wish to remember, and have charted the firm’s continued rise – which, it would seem – even a pandemic cannot slow!
Hi Lee. How are you and the team in light of the pandemic?
We’re fine, thanks for asking. PENSON is very much a family business – but not in the sense that it is owned by a family, but because we are a team. We come as a family. We did everything we could to put everything in place to protect our guys – to look after them and their own families. I do think we’re one of the lucky ones – and I hope that continues, of course. I know that a lot of firms have been forced to shed a lot of people and are down to the bare bones. We’re in a good place – like I said, we’ve been quite lucky with the clients we have and the work we’ve got. I’ve learned from previous downturns and 9/11 to be cautious – always uber-respectful of the work we have, so we’re doing alright.
How do you feel the industry has changed since those early days of the studio? It’s somewhat ironic to think that the first time we chatted – all those years ago – was
22 | Mix 207 November 2020
in a pub in Merton that we converted into a workplace! Talk about full-circle, with what’s going on right now, with workplaces loosening-up. We don’t need to all head into work at the same time in the morning anymore. How is it possible that all these people, who are doing different jobs, with different deadlines and different schedules, all have to be at work at the same time? I’ve been saying this for years – ever since I was commuting out of Esher. We’ve all been ‘busy fools’ for far too long. Similarly – and this is something else I’ve been saying for years – we don’t have to design workplaces with blue carpets and blue office chairs. That’s just lazy – you don’t need to do that. The one positive thing to come out of the whole COVID experience is that the whole routine of the 9-to-5 has been smashed to bits – life, family, fitness, mental health…the list of benefits that comes from not having to be in the office at 8.30 every morning is incredible. The freedom and the
UPFRONT Perspective
Sports Direct
efficiency that has brought is, in my opinion, mega. For the last three or four years, we’ve been saying that buildings now need to migrate, to become de-categorised. An office building doesn’t need to be just an office building any more. These buildings need to ‘multi-categorise’, multi-function, be more flexible, more efficient and offer more for the people who work and live in them. We’re still working around these buildings – rather than having the buildings working around us. That’s nonsense. That’s not how it should be. I see COVID as a big historical ‘reset button’ and truly hope things don’t go back to normal!
Tell us a little about how/ whether your own ways of working have changed in 2020. I myself was being a busy fool.
With on average three international return flights a week, New York, France, Madrid and the odd meeting for a day’s workshop in Ibiza. Fun, exhausting, felt great but, actually, many inefficient hours. Let’s say I was busy ‘moving’ rather than working – in the same way I constantly tell my family to ‘stop emailing and do some work’. It’s not so much about how we’ve changed the way we work – what we have done is work really hard to be nice people and to maintain and improve relationships with the people we’re working with. We are lucky enough not to pitch for work, we can choose what we do offline from the gravy train for our high profile, high net worth friends and organisations – clients, suppliers, across the board. It’s how you emerge from COVID that really matters – everyone needs to get in the mindset of looking out for each other and, as I have always said, be nice to people on the way up and on the way down. Etiquette, for me, is everything in business. We’ve turned huge projects down on the basis that the client wouldn’t fit with that mantra.
What are you and the team working on right now?
A wide variety of work globally, really. In the UK we’re still working hard with The Hut Group (THG), Jo&Joe and other new hospitality brand creations – hotel rooms on wheels that can be delivered to most grid references and are also on the shortlist for things like a $1.5 billion project in China – although we haven’t secured that yet and I obviously can’t really talk about that right now. Watch this space! Its always varied here
and we’ve sustainably grown into a fully multi-disciplinary studio now. Something else I’m really proud of. We also develop our own buildings and have a few nice deals that are close to reaching planning consent, which ironically already adopt post-COVID routines in my decategorised way. Ironically, one deal of 150,000 sq ft is already fully pre-let on that basis!
Please tell us a little about your continued work with the Hut Group.
We’ve been working with them for over eight years now and we have become their one and only trusted architectural Accor Nest
partner for all their really serious stuff – the big, high profile projects. We’re the executive architects for the new builds. We set out all the architectural vision, workplace vision and interiors. We’re obviously doing the THG HQ, and we’re also doing an ingenuity campus near Manchester Airport – everything’s near or on the airport. We’re doing some gamechanging retail, which touches on the high street problem, how people shop etc. It’s properly cool work. We even had a call recently, from a contractor, who told us that they were so happy to be working with us. They work with the likes of Zaha Hadid – and were saying that they considered
UPFRONT Perspective
PENSON to be in that bracket. That was a really nice moment. I have to say, having worked through three recessions now, I do feel that we are designing stuff that really is at that level. I’m really proud of the fact that we’re doing some great work – and it’s top, top profile! We’ve masterplanned approximately 1.6 million sq ft of future phasing for the THG HQ. We’re building phase one right now – which is going to be a beautiful, visionary building. THG is an online business, so they’re continuing to grow and to recruit people. Their trading has gone through the roof – their only blip is upwards! We are enjoying a great long- term partnership, delivering highly visionary assets for a highly innovative group.
And how are you finding the hospitality market right now? top down The Hut Group JO & JOE, Hossegor JO & JOE, Paris
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We’re finding that the investment companies who own hotels – who have the asset of the actual building – seem to be bumping along quite happily. It’s the companies who operate hotels who seem to be really struggling – because their income has essentially stopped. It’s a real mixed bag. We’re launching into some fairly big rollouts across the USA and
Europe with brands that PENSON has created after our proof of abilities through creating Jo&Joe with Accor – and the investors are currently sitting tight, and waiting until they can buy what they wanted to buy originally, but for far less money. The people I feel sorry for are small, family-run businesses who have put everything on the line to keep their little bar, shop or hotel going. It’s an obvious thing to say, but the hospitality market is having a really hard time right now! I’m sure once a vaccine is in place things will bounce back.
So what’s next for PENSON?
The future is all about being visionary – but ‘visionary commercial’. Pushing boundaries but also carrying on the journey of steady sustainable global growth without reactive fuss, peaks or troughs. What I have learned is that these values have certainly made our studio resilient throughout COVID.
What are you really missing right now?
I’m missing the fact that we should be having this chat, leaning against a bar, having a beer – and I’m also missing man-hugs! It’s fair to say that everyone needs some fun! w
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I N T R O D U C I N G | M AY Z E By surprising yourself, unsurprisingly, creative flair will strike you in everyday life. This is Allermuir.
UPFRONT Material Matters
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Material Matters Of the many changes COVID-19 has brought, our sudden hyper-awareness of what we touch has been one of the most rapid behavioural shifts. Once an optional extra in commercial spaces such as workplace, education and hospitality, antibacterial and virus-secure surfaces and materials will no doubt become an important design decision outside of just healthcare – going beyond the short-term solutions of distancing and plastic screens. COVID-19 seems to survive longest on smooth surfaces such as plastic, glass (72 hours) and steel (48 hours), while lasting 24 hours on cardboard and clothing. Antibacterial surfaces can improve hygiene and safety (and reassurance) in shared environments – from manufactured technology to materials with naturally occurring antibacterial properties, such as copper.
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Panaria: PROTECT Besides being beautiful and remarkably resistant, PROTECT antimicrobial floor and wall tiles from Panaria have been created with Microban technology, developed by the world leader in the sector: a true antimicrobial shield built into the ceramic product that eliminates up to 99.9% of bacteria on the surface.
Sharklet: SharkletShield SharkletShield are hygienic disposable ‘skins’ that are applied to high-touch germ-prone areas in commercial and healthcare settings. The Sharklet surface comprises millions of microscopic features, arranged in a distinct diamond pattern, inspired by the pattern of denticles on a shark’s skin. The structure of the pattern alone inhibits bacteria from attaching, colonising and forming biofilms, and contains no toxic additives or chemicals.
Duravit: HygieneGlaze Baked into the ceramic and extending from the interior to the rim of the toilet, HygieneGlaze from Duravit is effective in the areas particularly susceptible to the accumulation of bacteria. HygieneGlaze inhibits the growth of bacteria: after just six hours, 90% of the bacteria growth (such as e-coli) is inhibited, and, after 24 hours, 99.9% of the bacteria growth is inhibited.
UPFRONT Material Matters
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Agua Fabrics: AguaGuard365
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Allgood: Contego
AguaGuard365 (powered by HeiQ ViroBlock) is a state-of-the-art anti-bacterial fabric technology, which offers effective protection against both bacteria and viruses, including SARS-COV-2, which is the strain of the disease that causes COVID-19.
A range of door hardware with the antimicrobial power of copper and the sleek appearance of stainless steel, Contego is available from Allgood and is made from a 70% copper/nickel alloy. Matching the elegant aesthetic of stainless steel with the strength and durability of copper, with no loss in antimicrobial performance, Contego is an effective part of a COVID-secure environment.
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UPFRONT Desert Island Desks
Desert Island Desks CHLOE BULLOCK, MATERIALISE INTERIORS Chloe is the Founder of Materialise Interiors, the first interior designer in the UK to be certified by vegandesign.org. She designs ‘joyful, animalfriendly, human-friendly and planet-friendly interiors’ across commercial and residential sectors, designing with a focus on sustainability, health and cruelty-free specifications, and is a FitWel Ambassador. Prior to setting up her own company 15 years ago, Chloe was part of The Body Shop team, delivering ethical global store concepts and specifications.
Snorkel Sunblock First things first – I’ve got to be practical! I frazzle in the sun. I won’t enjoy it if I get burnt. I’d love a vat of non-animal tested sunblock please!
Pears’ Cyclopaedia
This time last year, my husband Paul and I went by train and ferries to the island of Milos in Greece’s Cyclades. It was a bit of an experiment – we wanted to try avoiding planes. It was a great success. The journey became part of the holiday, rather than the part you endure. We snorkelled in the beautiful clean and clear waters there and it was magical. I’d forgotten how serene and peaceful it is having your head in the water and exploring the seascape.
I loved these compact almanacs. They were updated each year and the font of so much knowledge! My Gran loved them, so we had a copy on our shelf. Sadly, they were superseded by the internet, and the last one was the 201718 edition. With no internet on the desert island, I would love one of these to dip into. Penguin
Garlic sea salt with chilli It’s a toss-up between this and Marmite, actually! This combination wins. I think even the most unexciting boiled vegetable concoction I could make would be nice with this on!
The Grammar of Ornament – Owen Jones I discovered this book whilst at art college in Eastbourne, before I did my furniture and product design degree at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic. What a beautiful book. First published in 1856, it is magical and colourful – full of inspiring patterns from all over the globe – and was a complete passion project for its creator at the time. Such a complicated book to even print.
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My recycled circuit board personal organiser I’ve had it since the late 90s – when I was working at the Body Shop Australia/New Zealand office in Melbourne. It’s from the beautiful Georges department store. I have such fond memories of that time and the friends I made. I use it every day, as well as the feelgood boost it gives me. It’s jam-packed with useful things such as a world map (which I could look at for hours), a pen and paper, a diary and a ruler!
Tracks for the juxebox Underworld [feat. Dame Evelyn Glennie] – And I Will Kiss
Oh, how exciting this country was in 2012! The opening ceremony to the Olympics was fantastic. It just makes your hair stand on end listening to this. I went to watch some of the Paralympics and got to explore Zaha Hadid’s Aquatic Centre and the Olympic Park.
Joe Smooth – Promised Land
I love it and what it stands for. Reminds me of dancing with my friends.
The Waterboys – The Whole Of The Moon
A theme tune from my wonderful days working for The Body Shop’s international head office as a retail designer. Happy days working with such fantastic people and, of course, its unbelievably inspiring founder, Anita Roddick.
Candi Staton – You Got The Love
Paul and I had music by Stick It On for our wedding and our guests were invited to be DJs and play three records each. This wedding dancefloor filler was played by our friend Claire – a doctor who has worked so hard this year. Can’t wait to see her on a dancefloor again.
Justice – Love S.O.S.
If you haven’t watched their Glastonbury set from 2017, you should!
Prince – Little Red Corvette
Got to have a Prince anthem whilst on this island! Too many to choose from. Can’t believe he’s gone.
Create your
Circe.
CON FIGU R E ON LIN E: • MOD U L A R L AYOU TS • U PH OL S T E RY F I N I S H E S • LE G S T Y L E S • HI -RE S I M AGE S • 3D CA D M OD E L S
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ROUNDTABLE
Full speed ahead? How to get the interiors business moving on the road to sustainability
The journey to a sustainable office interior is a long one, and full of potholes. We’ve gathered seven of the sharpest minds in the industry at Interface’s new awardwinning Birmingham UK HQ, to map the way forward.
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T
he 10th floor of Birmingham’s Colmore Building is a great place to get your bearings. The city is spread out below, and beyond there are hills – green ones. Which made Interface’s new 8,180 sq ft UK head office – a Mixology20 finalist and winner of a regional British Council for Offices sustainability award and now a contender for the national prize – the perfect place to plot the journey to sustainable office design. An office developer, a cost consultant, an architect, a designer, a surveyor with a specialism in wellbeing, and an academic sat down with us to assess the pathways to a circular economy in office design, the shortcuts that could lead to quick wins, and the skills gaps that could lead to detours and delays.
Their conclusions? That incentives need to come with a hard edge, and that sometimes clients want magic solutions to their sustainability problems. In short, as one of the participants pointed out, it’s all about sharpened carrots and carbon magicians. According to Interface Head of Sustainability EAAA, Jon Khoo, the hardest lesson to learn is that many sustainability efforts do not aim high enough. ‘This isn’t a race to be less bad,’ he said. ‘We may have until 2030 to make the changes we need to make to the planet, or we may already have passed the tipping point, so solutions aren’t about being 20% less wrong or 20% less bad than we used to be. It has to be about doing more good, about being regenerative.’
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Rider Levett Bucknall Head of Sustainability, Heather Evans, agreed. ‘It’s about more than getting away with the basics,’ she said. Gensler Birmingham architect, Matt Redding, who is part of the practice’s resilience team, said some larger corporate office occupiers now grasped this point, but that not enough realised ‘the curve of bad can’t just be allowed to plateau – that can’t be the aim. The curve has to come down.’ Property developers, whose business puts them in the middle of the fight about sustainability between occupier clients and property investors, pointed to a change in mood, which suggested doing good, rather than avoiding bad, was an increasing priority. ‘There is a growing sense of urgency,” Bruntwood Director, Rob Valentine, said. ‘Among the big office space users it used to be quite low, but talk to business leaders today and issues of sustainability are up there at the top. I’ve noticed that sea change quite recently – in the last 12-18 months – and it encourages me. Maybe we’ve reached a tipping point?’ If we have – and Birmingham City University specialist in experimental sustainability, Dr Matthew Jones, wasn’t sure we had – then it is thanks to a younger generation of practitioners. ‘There is a new generation of designers who want to practice what we’ve learned,’ he said. Matthew added that, rather than having passed the tipping point into standard good practice, we are now ‘at mid-tip’.
The view was widely shared. ‘Something does feel different now,’ said Jon, summing up the discussion. So how can the good mood be turned into good deeds? Where are the quick wins on sustainable office interiors? You could start with adhesives, suggested Ekkist Director and Co-founder, Olga Turner-Baker. ‘The sustainability issue can’t just be
a theme, a box to tick, it has to be ingrained in everything we do – so look at the use of materials; swapping out stuff we know is worse for stuff that is better, because being smarter about what you select doesn’t need to be more expensive,’ she said. ‘So, for instance, an easy win is to avoid sticking things down – like floor tiles, because it they are stuck down we can’t re-use them even if the carpet tile itself is part of a sustainable circular economy, because we can’t cycle it.’ Jon responded that Interface has developed a product called Tactiles to combat this. They are little PET squares that connect the corners of the floor, replacing glues and making it easy to install, replace and remove – and put back into a circular economy.
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Among the big office space users it used to be quite low, but talk to business leaders today and issues of sustainability are up there at the top
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But the quickest win of all might be to take time to think, suggested Oktra Design Director, Amina Akhtar. ‘It takes a lot more time to collaborate, it’s about getting everyone to buy in, because the client has to see the value in being sustainable. In areas like Design & Build, where I’m doing a lot of work, it is fast-paced, about producing turnkey solutions in a matter of months, so the time for collaboration is short. When clients think their lease is up on existing offices, they have to move quickly – but to achieve sustainable design takes time to organise. We have to sell the idea of sustainability as part of the design process.’ Becoming advocates for sustainability ‘is incredibly important’ replied Dr Matthew Jones, and Matt Redding reinforced the necessity to interrogate and question clients about what they want, and how they want it. ‘I’ve been told I say reduce, re-use and recycle too often, but it is always a good starting point for discussions,’ he said. Even the problem of adhesives required more questions, said Jon Khoo. ‘Yes, you can find adhesive solutions for floor tiles, but what about wall tiles? That’s going to need some work,’ he said. ‘We’re working with suppliers to reduce carbon footprints, and what we’re saying to the market is that if you can make a carbon neutral product, why wouldn’t you? We have to be more ambitious.’ Yet even the most thoughtful questioning, and most patient conversations with clients,
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can’t work if the client doesn’t know what they want. Getting it right early in the design process can save time, money and frustration later on says RLB’s Heather Evans. ‘It’s all very good having individual bright ideas, but it all needs marrying together and that has to be done at the project or master planning level. It needs to be done early. Suddenly asking in the middle of a project for BREEAM Excellent or net zero carbon is going to lead, often, to the answer that it is just too late in the day,’ she said.
And that is because designers, architects and developers are not carbon magicians, said Matt Redding. ‘Exactly,’ Heather agreed. ‘The watchword is: anticipate.’ For Bruntwood’s Rob Valentine, quick wins depend on government policy. Without it, progress will be slow and stuttering. ‘This is all about leadership, because the technology exists. We’re working on carbon neutral schemes so we know it can be done, but the house building community has too much pull with government, they call the shots, and they are holding it back,’ he said, and won instant applause from Jon Khoo, who
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There is a new generation of designers who want to practice what we’ve learned
”
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added that the way the government approaches carbon taxes could be decisive. ‘There’s also a role for banks and lenders,’ Rob responded. ‘Lenders need to reflect the lower running costs of sustainable buildings.’ Could this mean mortgages that rewarded borrowers for making a more sustainable choice, asked Jon? Definitely, replied Rob. And yet, even if the policy is right, and the carbon cycle is spinning, do the right skills exist in the right combinations to make it work? That’s not clear, said Olga Turner-Baker, particularly as projects near delivery. ‘Some of the skills are missing at the end of the building process, at the handover, when you get clients asking how you run these systems,’ she said. ‘There are too many examples of systems included in a building or fit-out, but never operated properly.’ Management skills in general need improving, said Heather Evans. Perhaps designers could take the lead in helping other stakeholders learn, particularly those in the construction sector? The conservatism of some in the building process – ‘stuck in a rut’ said one of our guests, ‘running on tramlines’
said another – caused a groan around the table. ‘There are some – many – who care a lot, and they think it all the way through. Manufacturers and suppliers who consider everything: Who made this component? How? And so on,’ Heather continued. ‘And yet you suggest something new to some contractors, and they ask, ‘Has it been tested?’ And you say, ‘No’. You try to make it work, and it sometimes feels like they stick with old ideas just because they know them, and perhaps they are also worried about insurance?’ Most in the room agreed with Rob Valentine when he said there was still a long way to go. ‘We are a million miles away from where we need to be on manufacturing issues, but I’m encouraged even so. The government is talking about a green recovery, and about building back better, and that could be a real opportunity for designers and researchers to work with business to scale-up sustainable technologies. ‘It is up to the developer to take the lead, and help contractors if they want to take that step towards new ideas.’ Today, with policy obstacles and some ingrained conservatism, is the
“
We’re working with suppliers to reduce carbon footprints, and what we’re saying to the market is that if you can make a carbon neutral product, why wouldn’t you?
” In association with
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circular economy a real thing or just a pious ambition? The mood in the room was modest, but hopeful. ‘This is an area that’s definitely improving,’ said RLB’s Heather Evans. ‘But we’re not there, not by any stretch of the imagination, because you need to design for deconstruction as well as construction, which means simple things like screwing things together, not gluing or nailing. This kind of thinking is more mainstream, but there is still a long way to go.’ Gensler’s Matt Redding was also sceptical. ‘It is a bit of a buzzword. We’re a long way off because so many in construction don’t want to take the risks,’ and he pointed to Olga’s suggestion about fear of insurance risks. ‘For whatever reasons, some people don’t want to touch it,’ he said. According to Dr Matthew Jones, the trade-offs between sustainable solutions and efficiency have not yet been calculated. ‘What we need to think about is what we do with buildings or fit-outs at the end of their life – how they are repurposed. That isn’t yet a mainstream issue. And yes, screwing timber together takes longer than hammering in nails, so we have issues here
34 | Mix 207 November 2020
about efficiency versus the needs of the circular economy,’ he said. Interface’s Jon Khoo agreed. ‘We can make our flooring from waste fishing nets, waste nylons, and we can make beautiful stuff out of waste, but we also need to think about what happens at the end of our product’s life – so takeback schemes can work – but maybe we also have to get away from the idea of the economy being perfectly circular, where one object becomes another. What if it ends up in five different outcomes? It would give more options to the designers,’ he said, ending with a call to value waste at its proper, higher value. ‘If we don’t put a proper value on waste then it will always be easier to burn or to bin,’ he warned. Oktra’s Amina Akhtar appealed for developers to resist standardised solutions (or assumptions) about occupiers. ‘Too often, the issue with CAT A floorspace is that the occupier comes in and starts to fit
out to CAT B, which immediately means that out go the expensive ceilings – literally hundreds of thousands of pounds chucked out because you can’t re-use them. It’s outrageous, it’s crazy,’ she said. Rob Valentine didn’t demur. ‘It comes down to building quality. We need to build less waste in,’ he said. The route to a greener office interior is paved with good intentions. But walking down it will take more than warm thoughts w.
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It is up to the developer to take the lead, and help contractors if they want to take that step towards new ideas
ROUNDTABLE
OUR GUESTS
Heather Evans
Matt Redding
Rob Valentine
Jon Khoo
Heather has an extensive track record in delivering expert consultancy for clients on sustainability, wellbeing and social value. Passionate about developing sustainability strategies for clients that allow for improvement across all areas of sustainability; environmental, economic and social and keenly interested in all aspects of sustainability, Heather has contributed to technical standards and spoken internationally on a range of topics.
Matt is an Architect at Gensler, Birmingham, with a passion for sustainable design and low impact development. He is proactive within the organisation’s Resilience team, dedicated to Gensler’s sustainability commitments. Matt has undergone specialist training on low carbon impact construction materials. He has given lectures on sustainability and PassivHaus at York University and The Grand Designs Live Show.
Rob has worked in the Birmingham for more than 20 years, becoming a passionate advocate for the city and the West Midlands, helping it to thrive even further. For Rob and Bruntwood this also means supporting communities, arts and culture in Birmingham, understanding that they are key components to a city’s quality of life, enriching values and beliefs as well as being powerful economic drivers.
Jon Khoo is the Head of Sustainability (EAAA) at Interface with a focus on sustainability, inclusive business and intrapreneurship. Jon specialises in the commercialisation of Interface’s sustainability initiatives and response to the current climate emergency, such as its mission Climate Take Back. He is also the host of the Designing With Climate In Mind podcast: interviews with experts on the ever-evolving world of sustainable design.
Amina Akhtar
Dr Matthew Jones
Olga Turner Baker
Head of Sustainability, Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB)
Design Director, Oktra
Amina has focused her career on interior projects of all scales around the globe. She has spent 13 years practicing in London and recently relocated to Manchester to exercise her wealth of experience in an ever growing market. She has acted as a lead for schemes in London and Europe, including a number of award-winning office fit-out projects.
Architect, Gensler
Associate Professor, Birmingham City University, School of Architecture and Design Matthew is a qualified architect and Director of Technical Studies at Birmingham School of Architecture and Design. He is a founding member of the School’s Experimental Sustainability Studio, an initiative established to foster interdisciplinary collaboration to enable students to build the collaborative skills, critical awareness and depth of knowledge necessary to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis.
Director, Bruntwood
Head of Sustainability EAAA, Interface
Director and Co-Founder, Ekkist Olga Turner Baker is co-founder and Managing Director of Ekkist, a consultancy firm specialising in design and certification services for well-being. Olga is a WELL Building Standard Accredited Professional and Rics Chartered Surveyor, and she is one of the first people in the UK to become a WELL FacultyTM member. In 2019, she was listed in the Forbes 30 under 30.
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WORK Hospitality Workplace
38 The Big Question 40 Property: Warehouses: the offices of the future? 46 Boden by Spacelab 52 Property: Lessons from King’s Cross? 54 Net-Zero by Perkins&Will 58 bubbleHUB by align 64 Rolling Stock Yard by Squire & Partners 70 A day in the (working) life by Muriel Altunaga Aguirre, CBRE
THE BIG QUESTION
In light of the pandemic and lockdowns, what have been your highs, lows and lessons learnt?
Tina Norden
Mark Simpson
Nick Threlfall
This year has shaken our boundaries, belief systems and everything we took for granted to the core. We had to adapt, adjust and move fast to keep the studio working entirely remotely – not something we thought possible.
As far as highs the are concerned, we started the year with the opening of PwC’s offices in Birmingham, where they welcomed 2,000 staff to a superb new agile, collaborative and progressive workspace – and, of course, Trump being dumped.
As a multidisciplinary studio, we have always followed a strategy of spreading our risk across different markets, project types and regions, which has been the right path to see us through this testing year and into the future.
As for the lows – where to start? From a business perspective, dealing with projects delays, cancellations and new levels of uncertainty. From a wider perspective, seeing many friends in the industry and elsewhere lose their jobs. The hardship many people are facing will take some time to repair, even if a vaccine is found soon. The economic and political landscape is very depressing. Hopefully, Biden’s win will be the start of a better world?
2020 has been an exceptionally challenging and, in many ways, cruel year for the development world. It is a sector where design, construction, sales, marketing and finance all come together to make vibrant new places to live and work – the whole process relies on a complex and extensive network of people. This year, the resilience of these networks has been tested as never before.
Partner, Conran and Partners
The big positive in all of this has been the realisation that we have an amazing team that has pulled together to keep working, be creative and deliver our projects from their kitchen tables or bedrooms, in very difficult circumstances. We have missed being in the studio as a team, sharing creative conversations, brainstorming, bouncing ideas off each other (which don’t work perfectly on Teams!) and generally being with people. Design is a team effort and we can only be locked up in solitary confinement for so long! As a result, we will never give up a home for our team in a studio (excitingly, we are moving to a new studio in Clerkenwell in spring!), but we are extracting the positives from the enforced WFH. This will definitely have a lasting impact on our work culture, improving our work/life balance and reducing the time and cost of commuting through the introduction of flexible working. We are already formalising this for our team.w
Principal, Board Director, Chair of Design and Head of Workplace, BDP
We have learnt that we can work effectively from home but company culture and engagement, in-person collaboration to foster innovation, mentorship and learning, and a desire to form real and meaningful connections and friendships with colleagues, is very important. We all crave a place to collaborate, communicate and create, to learn, inspire and develop. The office is not dead – the pandemic has merely accelerated the pace of change and the evolution of the workplace that was already underway. The trick will be to make the office environment one that we will all want to go to. The new distributed workplace will need to support people more, offer a more diverse, inclusive and energising, experiential community environment, which brings real choice, really embraces the sustainability agenda and the wellness of the people that work there – they are no longer boxes to tick, they are essentials. Those organisations that do those things well will thrive, those that don’t won’t.w
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Design Director, Regal London
Since construction sites were allowed to reopen, stringent public health measures have been put into place in order to maintain construction activity. This has meant that Regal London can continue supporting dozens of small sub-contractors and familyrun businesses, many of whom we’ve been working with for years. Sales is a critical part of the sector and essential face-to-face interactions have been disrupted. As a result, the industry has innovated. Using the latest smart technology has helped to really raise the standard of our online project presentations and virtual tours, allowing our sales teams to engage effectively with purchasers and agents remotely. Our head office team has been working effectively from home. We’ve adopted Zoom and Microsoft Teams effortlessly for meetings and our Friday fancy-dress virtual pub quizzes have been a lot of fun, creating much-needed camaraderie. Despite all the uncertainty and disruption thrown at us, we’ve had a remarkably strong year, with the completion of major projects and record sales. It just goes to show that, if you have a talented team, are adaptable and can deliver great design, you are likely to do well. This year has demonstrated to me just how important – and effective – good design has been to our success.w
SPOTLIGHT The Big Question
Simon Jackson
Colin Wood
Director, Project & Building Consultancy, Colliers International
Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Fora
Many highs and lows are commonplace. Surprising, from my perspective, is the enhanced camaraderie that has developed in the team, and all done virtually.
One of the best things to come out of this challenging period has been the opportunity to advance our use of technology. The pandemic shone a light on the importance of technology and staying connected, and we were able to act fast to invest in technology to reposition our service offer. Our clients are always looking for ways to save time and money, particularly in the current environment, and the 3D visualisation and budgeting tool that we developed have really helped us to respond to our clients’ needs in these difficult times.
Working from home has exposed the failings of old-fashioned workplaces. Employees need happy, healthy, and safe spaces that enable them to work productively together, to learn, and to have shared experiences that enrich their company culture. Flexible workspaces will be the answer to postCOVID-19 office life.
Director EMIA Interior Design Practice Leader, Aecom
The quality of design solutions being produced by our design teams is incredible under the circumstances…perhaps it’s that extra thinking time, or the challenges we are facing, that are contributing to stimulating our creative genes – but I must say I’m immensely proud of the contribution the team is making at this time. An added benefit is the increased focus on our digital design response – of course, I’m the guy with the fat and thin felt-tips, but I make my point and contribute accordingly! The lows perhaps are obvious, but for me it is the loss of the industry events. That meeting-up with old colleagues, industry associates, especially the supplier community, and spending quality social time with colleagues…I can’t lie, I do miss this enormously. It’s been pretty tough from a business perspective for us all. It has been a time of reflection, a time of reviewing business strategies, a time for rightsizing (that horrible word that appears when the economy contracts, or goes into recession), the furlough scheme, the many redundancies that have affected some talented individuals. I do believe this period of uncertainty is different and presents more opportunities for the design industry. It is our time to shine and make our mark. We can make a positive difference; we can drive the agenda for the new paradigm across all industry sectors – increasing the value of the human condition through our design solutions…to be continued! w
From a personal perspective, a positive from COVID has been my new hobby of early morning yoga sessions. One of my contacts started teaching sessions during lockdown, and has continued to run them, free of charge, over the last six months. It has been a great way to keep in contact with people and has provided some much-needed structure to my day during lockdown. It always amazes me how people pull together in times of crisis. As for the lows, in my role I’m usually surrounded by people and everything is fast-paced. So I’ve missed the buzz and the energy of working in London, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve had some really low moments during lockdown. I’ll be eternally grateful to the close friends in my network for helping to keep me motivated during these challenging times.
Katrina Larkin
At Fora, this year has seen us accelerate our work to be leaders in the workspace sector. We stepped up our wellness offerings to support residents during what is a difficult time, both as an individual and for the wider company. The wellness programme has developed a permanent hybrid offering, covering a variety of classes seven days a week, supporting mind, body, and soul. These classes can be bespoke and tailored to individual companies and their needs. Fora’s philosophy in light of COVID-19 is to celebrate returning to work for those who are ready, but to cater to those who aren’t with ultra HD 4K webcams with integrated Rightlight technology installed in all meeting rooms for video conferences, whether that be on Zoom, Teams or Hangouts. All events are streamed as hybrid, for example, across our wellness festival – called Restore – held in September. w
The road to growth and success is rarely a straight line, and I’ve realised that, if you need to go backwards so that you can then move forwards more quickly, then that is not necessarily a bad thing. My team has definitely emerged stronger for it. Plus, I can also downward dog with the best of them now!w
Mix 207 November 2020 | 39
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Warehouses: the offices of the future?
Aver Property Partnership logistics hub, Bicester, Oxfordshire
The surge in e-commerce is creating up to nine million sq ft of new offices in the UK regions. But those offices are in warehouses, not office blocks. David Thame reports from the frontline of an unexpected and fast-growing new segment of the office market.
W
arehouses have had a good pandemic. Whilst the office market shudders and retail property collapses, the ‘shed’ sector has been riding a tidal wave of new demand, generated by lockdown e-commerce. But what has largely escaped notice is the growing proportion of new warehouse floorspace that isn’t warehousing at all – it is offices. New data shows that sheds could easily be the biggest source of new regional office floorspace supply in the coming 18-36 months, with as much as nine million sq ft of new warehouse-related offices coming on stream by 2023.
40 | Mix 207 November 2020
That is because warehouse developers are building more offices (as a proportion of their total floorspace), and building them to a higher quality than ever before. So how much office space is being included in these new schemes? The answer is that it varies, but warehouse developers typically offer between 5% and 12% of their total floorspace for offices – a figure that is now settling at the higher end of the spectrum. Take a trip to the heart of the UK logistics sector in the Golden Triangle, a zone of motorway junctions and enormous distribution centres stretching from Tamworth
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south to Milton Keynes, and embracing much of the M40 corridor. Close to Junction 9 at Bicester Aver Property Partnership, a joint venture, backed by NFU Mutual, has invested in excess of £24 million on a 200,000 sq ft development of five units. Each of the high-specification units of this first phase, which range in size from 23,500 sq ft to 65,000 sq ft, has ample production and distribution facilities, plus Grade A office space at the rate of about 8% (the lower end of today’s expectations). Aver Asset Manager, Leigh Burnett, says the office floorspace is an important part of the appeal of new warehousing. ‘We’re responding to tenant demand, which is for better quality. In Bicester we’ve created Grade A open plan floorspace, raised floors, ducting for data wiring, comfort cooling – its really high standard office space of the kind you wouldn’t expect in a shed,’ she says. Until recently, warehouse occupiers used office space in a fairly basic way to service their warehousing operation: stock control and the staff canteen were the principal purposes of what was always a scant allocation of
office space. Today, says Leigh, they can insist on space for back office functions, regional management or even the company HQ. ‘We know this office space is important to tenants. It needs to look like a corporate environment, which means the entrance has to look good as well as the floorspace. It has to look professional, look well-presented, be somewhere clients and customers can come that doesn’t look like they’re being shunted into a mucky warehouse,’ she says. Of course, this level of quality office provision doesn’t come without a cost. Yet the surprise to many in the office interiors world will be that it is not a cost carried by the occupier. Aver estimates that their budget to create their Grade A floorspace is a cost-effective £65 per sq ft. This compares with the (seriously) sub-£20 per sq ft typical budget for creating the warehoused floorspace. Yet developers like Aver reckon the extra expense of creating the office floorspace is well worth it. They do not charge separately for the offices, which are rented at the same £8.50 per sq ft as the warehouse. This makes it the best value regional office space on offer. By miles!
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In Bicester we’ve created Grade A open plan floorspace, raised floors, ducting for data wiring, comfort cooling – its really high standard office space of the kind you wouldn’t expect in a shed
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Interior shells at Aver’s Bicester hub
Mix 207 November 2020 | 41
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For us, the extra cost is not significant because adding the office floorspace means the building lets more quickly, and appeals to a wide range of tenants
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‘For us, the extra cost is not significant because adding the office floorspace means the building lets more quickly, and appeals to a wide range of tenants. So it is worth paying because it gets the building let so much quicker,’ Leigh says. Her tenants are looking at eaves heights, power supplies and the volume and location of docking bays, not primarily at swanky offices. To grasp the maths that sits behind this apparently generous approach to office floorspace, talk to Cushman & Wakefield’s Birmingham-based Industrial and Logistics Director, Simon Lloyd. If Aver are charging £8.50 rent on a 65,000 sq ft building, that amounts to £550,000 rent per year. If you can let the building six months earlier than you hoped, that means more than £250,000 of extra income (and a corresponding amount of saved interest payments on the money you borrowed to build it). It also means a rent-paying tenant and thus an assured income flow in the longer-term. In the mind of developers, says Simon, this is very well worth the modest investment in good offices. ‘Developers see the office space as part of making their building more appealing. It means a quicker letting, a shorter void period, and that is worth it from their point of view.
They want occupiers to see their warehouse at their best,’ he explains. Developers tread a tightrope, however, in their efforts to win quick letters. Some occupiers want fancier fit-outs than others, Simon tells us. ‘I’ve seen some very nice regional and head offices in warehouses,’ he says. Some want considerably more office space than others, and if the number in the occupier’s head is appreciably different from that on the developer’s working drawings, this can get expensive. Adding extra office floorspace – typically at first floor level, and typically in a mezzanine – is not cheap. ‘There’s no doubt the office element is climbing up the agenda for warehouse occupiers. It’s not just the staff welfare angle that can stretch from restaurants to gyms, it’s becoming more normal to see CAT A office space in warehouses. I expect city office brokers would dispute that this is really what it is, but really there isn’t much difference,’ says Simon. The consensus is that three trends will dominate this market in the coming months. First, the amount of floorspace included in warehousing will grow. Simon reckons 5% has been the norm, Aver opt for 8%, but when Harworth launched a new 50,800
Interior shells at Aver’s Bicester hub
42 | Mix 207 November 2020
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WORK Property
Aver Property Partnership’s logistics hub, Bicester, Oxfordshire
How much shed/office floorspace will get built?
sq ft speculative warehouse at Logistics North, Bolton, they opted for 11% of CAT A floorspace at first floor. Some caution is required here: 11% is only a shade over 6,000 sq ft, and the eagle-eyed will recall that in the larger Aver unit, their 8% of a 65,000 sq ft unit came out at roughly the same amount (although not proportion) of offices. It may be that warehouse offices tend to hover around 6,000 sq ft. There are, however, exceptions: Mountpark is building 359,500 sq ft of warehousing in Bristol and has included 18,250 sq ft of offices over two storeys, plus another 4,000 sq ft for direct warehouse supervision. That amounts to a little over 6%. Second, there’s a likelihood that, despite the surge in e-commerce demand for new warehousing, traditional high street retail will need less warehouse floorspace. An example arrived in late October when US fashion retailer, Gap, announced it would
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abandon its UK and European standalone store portfolio, and as a result would not need its 1.3 million sq ft warehouse in Rugby. If this floorspace returns to the market it may need additional office floorspace because it dates from an earlier less office-friendly era. The Gap warehouse, for instance, was built 20 years ago. Third, demand for warehouse is not going to slow. The problem is that developers can’t (or won’t) build them fast enough. The safe conclusion would be that Knight Frank’s estimate about the volume of new warehousing required (see Sidepanel) – and hence volume of warehouse offices – is likely to be an under- rather than an over-estimate. The shed/office market is still in its infancy. The idea of top grade CAT A floorspace is still relatively new. And if office floorspace volumes rise, then developers may have to re-think their (currently rather generous) offers to tenants w.
As much as nine million sq ft of new office floorspace could be created in warehouses in the next 36 months. New research by Gerald Eve shows that construction began on 7.4 million sq ft of new speculative floorspace. In all, there were 25 separate new buildings under construction. Warehouse developers launched a frenzy of new build activity during the autumn quarter, with a fivefold increase in the volume of new floorspace under construction. By the end of Q3 2020, there was 19.7 million sq ft of space under construction across the country, within 90 individual buildings. A little short of half – 9.6 million sq ft – is speculatively developed. Now do a quick calculation: warehouse developers typically offer between 5% and 12% of their total floorspace for offices (as we stated earlier, a figure that is now settling at the higher end of the spectrum). Make the conservative assumption that a modest 8% of warehouse floorspace is in fact offices, and that means 1.6 million sq ft of new office floorspace was under construction as part of warehouse schemes at the end of September 2020. Fast-forward and the numbers get much larger. Earlier this autumn, Knight Frank released predictions that e-commerce will stimulate demand for up to 92 million sq ft of new UK warehouse space in the next three years. They base their calculation on analysis which shows that every billion pounds of online spend requires 1.36 million sq ft of new logistics floorspace. Assuming a conservative 8% of warehouse floorspace is in fact devoted to offices, that implies 7.4 million sq ft. Add the 2020 figures to the Knight Frank longer-range projection and you have some nine million sq ft in prospect.
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CASE STUDY Boden
Ware there’s a will This month’s property focus extols the many virtues of transforming warehouse space into workspace. Here, Kara Carter, Director at Spacelab, shows that this can and does go way beyond the hypotheticals – in this case resulting in a major transformation of both space and culture – and even a major award win.
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any warehouse buildings are considered not suitable or appealing as a modern workplace – whether people are concerned about the perceived costs to convert a relatively inexpensive shell, an association with their former factory days, or they just can’t see the potential. We’ve proven that warehouses can be converted cost-effectively to meet today’s requirements, while also providing much more flexibility for its occupants than many modern day buildings offer. Clothing retailer Boden’s head office no longer supported their needs or their brand. Teams were segregated across six floors, had nowhere to bring the whole organisation together, and the flow of product rails between teams was hindered by narrow corridors and small passenger lifts. While their existing office space was cramped and over-utilised, right behind it sat a large, open warehouse space; previously their clothing distribution centre, it was used only occasionally for the odd photoshoot. Thinking that their
only option was to relocate, they initially came to us to help assess what they needed to help them identify a new home. Working with Boden to build a detailed picture of different teams’ needs, we developed a brief for their property search, in terms of size, connectivity and visibility across floorplates. Based on this brief, we carried out extensive analysis of potential locations, while also analysing their existing space. The comparison conveyed the flexibility of their existing site, and, through the natural size and openness that the warehouse offered, the incredible possibilities that this space held within it. It’s not often that we have the opportunity to work with a blank canvas where we can completely dictate the shape of the floorplates that sit within the building’s envelope. Based on results from our unique spatial analysis tool, we extended the existing office into the warehouse behind it, connecting the two segregated
left Working with a blank canvas, Spacelab was able to dictate
the shape of the floorplates that sit within the building. photos: jefferson smith
Mix 207 November 2020 | 47
CASE STUDY Boden
above Tiered amphitheatre seating links the social hub to the other floors, as well as providing social and meeting space.
buildings with a two-tiered mezzanine to create one open space. We positioned the social hub centrally within the building where the warehouse sat, enabling it to become the heart of the space and the business, with the sheer volume resulting in an impactful and impressive space. Tiered amphitheatre seating now links the social hub to the other floors, as well as providing ample social and meeting space for the whole business to come together within minutes. A large projector displays their latest collections and announcements. The existing height and size of the warehouse enabled us to increase the usable floor area by 2,508 sq m – without breaking up the openness and full visibility across the
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space, helping everyone feel more connected to each other and to the brand as a whole. One of the biggest challenges of converting a warehouse space is ensuring adequate daylight levels due to the deep footprint. Previously, the warehouse space was very dark, with limited access to natural light. So we added four large skylights into the warehouse, along with fullheight glazing and louvres along the southfacing facade – increasing daylight penetration into the lower levels of the building to help create a healthy working environment. Based on data gathered through our workplace consultancy the client has adopted a more agile way of working, moving away from a focus on ‘the desk’. A variety of different types of workpoints to suit the varying tasks
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We’ve proven that warehouses can be converted costeffectively to meet today’s requirements, while also providing much more flexibility for its occupants than many modern day buildings offer
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CASE STUDY Boden
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Based on data gathered through our workplace consultancy the client has adopted a more agile way of working, moving away from a focus on ‘the desk’
” above A variety of creative design hubs have been created for collaboration.
left Spacelab connected the two segregated buildings with a two-tiered mezzanine to create one open space.
required by teams have been created – spaces for collaboration in creative design hubs, breakout spaces, touchdown benches, quiet rooms, booths and bookable meeting rooms of varying size. The building’s exterior has also been transformed into a modernist icon, with external walls painted white and new windows framed in black. With one team member stating ‘this building has changed my life’, this project is a great example of how a space can have a huge impact on both mental and physical wellbeing, helping people feel more together and connected to the wider brand. Furthermore, we upgraded the building’s efficiency to ensure it met modern standards, reinsulating the warehouse along the perimeter and the roof. Boden is a truly bespoke environment, tailored completely around the client and their needs. It demonstrates that we don’t need to write these buildings off and demolish them. Instead, re-working the building can be a more sustainable solution to create a future-proofed home – and it got recognised for its success, winning a regional BCO Award in the Recycled/Refurbished Workplace category.w
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WORK Property
Lessons from King’s Cross? More property tech, and much more interventionist landlords, will mean big changes for the way office floorspace works post-COVID, says an office developer active in one of the most cutting-edge of London’s office markets. David Thame reports.
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ondon is a network of villages, some of them funkier than others. NorthHill Capital’s parish extends from King’s Cross, through Clerkenwell and Islington and, in their opinion, it’s a few square miles of hyper-contemporary real estate paradise. Today. it is the location where new ideas in office floorspace are being trialled. Yet, with a second lockdown ending 2020, and no guarantee there won’t be more lockdowns in 2021, the King’s Cross office economy feels fragile. Google, whose arrival at a 1 million sq ft ‘landscraper’ (a horizontal skyscraper), caused ripples earlier this autumn when it briefly seemed like the deal was off. An air of unreality still hangs over the plan thanks to Google’s insistence that staff can work from home,
images 30 Lighterman
and its busy investment in other London real estate, not least an £800 million office campus around Holborn. The pandemic has plainly hurt this London village, as it has hurt so many others, but can it heal those markets too? That is the claim from NorthHill Capital’s Zac Goodman. NorthHill have just put the finishing touches to their refurbishment of 14,000 sq ft at 30 Lighterman, King’s Cross. It is the latest element in a 70,000 sq ft portfolio of upscale refurbs. Zac’s gamble is that small suites will be in demand, post-coronavirus, and that well-located small suites will be superfashionable. It goes without saying that this analysis is very comfortable to someone with four floors of roughly 3,000 sq ft each.
‘We won’t just let floors on standard five year leases. We’re happy if someone just wants a year, though obviously that’s a little more expensive,’ he says. Demand for small suites will come from businesses who might have gone into shared flexible workspace but, in changed times, want to control their own environment. ‘They want to be behind their own front door, they want their own identity and culture. So we’re offering the same benefits as serviced floorspace – furnishing, cleaning and so on – but behind their own door,’ Zac explains. This sounds like an appeal for the kind of agile international tech businesses that have started to migrate to King’s Cross
ahead of the Google move – but Zac insists it isn’t. ‘Once, we might have said that 3,000 sq ft suites appealed to businesses with 40-50 staff. But today I think we’re appealing to companies with 150-ish staff, but who don’t all come into the office at once,’ he says. The calculation is that big corporates and professionals will opt for an office pied a terre to help new recruits, younger team members and those who need to touch down in town to meet and share. ‘It is about soaking up the company culture,’ Zac says. What makes this interesting is that Zac is determined to offer tenants flexibility (at a price) and to rethink his role as landlord. NorthHill will not be a distant figure, piling up the money, but a partner helping make business work. That, rather than the idea of city centre offices, will be the real victim of the pandemic. ‘The idea of landlord and tenant will be the real casualty of 2020,’ Zac insists. ‘Many landlords have learned for the first time about the importance of being attuned to the needs of their customers. They have to be less about lettings, and more about being responsible corporate citizens who deliver a compelling product.’
This matters to the world of office design because it means a more constant, more integrated conversation between landlords and tenants about the way their floorspace works. NorthHill are, for instance, borrowing an idea from the serviced office sector by creating community managers to help keep
tenants happy, and by investing in smart technology to monitor air quality, power use and occupancy. ‘We need to develop listening buildings, and I think some landlords are in denial about this and the challenges we face, thanks to coronavirus. Which doesn’t mean just problems, there could be some surprises that propel the property business forward,’ considers Zac. This might involve using buildings in different ways at different times of the day to ensure floorspace is delivering the best results for occupiers. ‘Obviously, an office building works differently at 3pm on a Monday than it does at 10am on a Thursday. Data analysis will show that, and clever people are already adjusting how they use floorspace based on occupancy,’ says Zac. These trends – ‘incubated during a crisis’ – will make huge differences to the way office space works, regardless of the impact on the volume of floorspace occupied. ‘It is the way we work that will change,’ Zac concludes.w
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WORK Net Zero Interiors
Zero Quest Architects Perkins&Will and Penoyre & Prasad have pledged to ensure the internal fit-outs of offices and commercial property will be net-zero carbon. From November 2020, the combined London practice will offer, as standard, a net-zero embodied carbon or circular design strategy up to RIBA Stage 2.
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et-Zero Now, Perkins&Will’s net-zero interiors pledge and manifesto for change, sets out clear and achievable targets to ensure the interior fit-out of projects aligns with the firm’s architectural net-zero commitment to actively reduce the whole life carbon footprint of buildings. The manifesto aims to address the gap between organisations’ corporate net-zero promises and the reality of their building stock. Many corporations and government bodies, led by the likes of Microsoft, have set targets over the next 10 years to reduce the built environment’s impact on the climate. According to The Crown Estates’ Sustainability Fit Out Guide for Offices, interior fit-out is responsible for 40% of energy in a building, while research from Rype Office suggests 300 tonnes of fit-out goes to landfill every day. Furthermore, furniture from natural resources contributes to 30% of the carbon footprint of a commercial building over its entire life. Shortening lease lengths in the sector indicate that flexibility in design and circular design principles are becoming more critical to waste reduction, and that the full life cycle carbon impact of our resources must be considered. To hit the net-zero embodied carbon target, the firm will engage with clients, partners, supply chains and peers to ensure projects are designed using sustainable resources and re-used materials, which can be disassembled at the end of their lifespan in line with circular economy principles. Perkins&Will promises to drive and lead transparent change across the industry. The pledge is broken down into three steps: in Q4 2020, the London studio
of Perkins&Will, which includes Penoyre & Prasad, will launch a consultation process with key contractors, subcontractors, and supplier partners to ensure that their supply chains will meet the firm’s net-zero carbon targets. By the end of 2021, half of its projects will be designed to be 100% circular – and by 2025, all projects will be designed to be 100% circular. By 2030, all projects will be Net-Zero Embodied Carbon as demonstrated through a Whole Life Carbon Assessment. The net-zero carbon interiors plan follows the firm’s architectural net-zero operational carbon pledge made at the end of 2019. Since January of this year, the London practice has delivered a Zero Operational Carbon Strategy Report for each new build or retrofit project within the RIBA Stage 2 of the design, at no additional cost to the client. ‘We welcome this report and the position that Perkins & Will are taking to advance net zero in the built environment,’ Judith Everett, Chief Operating Officer at The Crown Estate, enthuses. ‘Bringing a space to life for people to use draws on the expertise and skills of many different professions and organisations, requiring collaboration across the whole value chain. Making impactful progress will take all of us across this ecosystem working together to find innovative ways to eliminate waste and ensure that we make rapid advances in meeting net-zero ambitions; re-programming how we design, develop and operate space. It’s the leadership we want to deliver for our customers, people and wider society.’ ‘Building on our 2019 net-zero architecture pledge, this net-zero carbon interiors pledge is the next stage in
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WORK Net Zero Interiors
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achieving our goal of delivering net-zero embodied carbon buildings,’ Adam Strudwick, Principal at Perkins&Will, says. ‘By focusing on the continuous use of resource, circular design principles and supply chain engagement our team will be pivoting to design projects in a new way that will enable us to reach this goal. It is critical that change happens now.’ ‘Many of our clients have already committed to being carbon neutral or negative and, as such, we have a responsibility to help them on this journey,’ explains Steven Charlton, Principal and Managing Director at Perkins&Will. ‘Fit-out is responsible for nearly 40% of carbon in a building, and efforts must be made to reduce this. We believe that innovative design can play a fundamental role in significantly reducing this footprint by creating places that are truly energy efficient from cradle to grave. ‘As with all big aspirations, this is work in progress, but this is the next step towards changing our futures. This manifesto provides us with a clear plan to
achieve our net-zero embodied carbon target for interiors. It incorporates key milestones, which we will use to track our progress along the way. We are committed to this pledge, and I hope that, as we engage more with our clients and industry partners, we can develop and increase the presence of netzero carbon buildings across the country.’ ‘The cycle of replacing fit-out with brand new materials every few years generates massive waste and carbon emissions,’ Sunand Prasad, Co-founder of Penoyre & Prasad, says. ‘New ways of designing and constructing interiors are urgently needed, but they also offer exciting innovation challenges. ‘Rather than seeing energy, carbon and waste as compliance issues that increase costs and inhibit the imagination, we need to harness creativity and technology to bring zero carbon and the circular economy into the world of fit-out.’w Images and graphics supplied by Perkins&Will
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CASE STUDY bubbleHUB
The central lounge area on the ground floor photos: Franklin + Franklin
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CASE STUDY bubbleHUB
In the bubble Ever since the pandemic struck, we’ve been talking about a shift in the coworking market; local hubs that could reduce (or eliminate altogether?) the need for the daily commute and provide high quality working facilities while surrounded by likeminded people.
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e’ve been talking about it, but haven’t actually featured too many perfect examples – until now! align have completed a striking, two-storey, coworking space for new operator bubbleHUB, located within a characterful former pump house building in the centre of St Albans. bubbleHUB co-founders Benn Latham and Harry Dougall briefed align to help create a ‘unique and aspirational’ space, which was to be unlike anything else currently available in the St Albans area. ‘The scheme we created for this wonderful and historic industrial building is colourful and natureinspired’, align Director and Cofounder, Gurvinder Khurana, tells us, ‘and the resulting environment, which also responds strongly to the building envelope, is like a mix between a private members’ club and a workspace in feel. The overall atmosphere is relaxed, with a definite home-from-home feel. ‘The building is a perfect example of a fantastic industrial building being repurposed for contemporary use,’ Gurvinder reveals. ‘The transformation was both a CAT A and a CAT B project, and align was involved from the outset in the building envelope/infrastructure decisions, as well as the design of the workspaces.’ We ask Gurvinder how align first became involved in the project.
‘We were introduced by some friends, who run a local creative business called Quirky Interiors,’ she tells us. ‘We’d previously worked with Quirky’s owners, James and Catherine, on a few projects, including the award-winning Spark44 project at The White Collar Factory, as well as a local restaurant in St Albans. Catherine and James had been approached by Benn Latham, one of the Co-founders of bubbleHUB, about their new concept and, as Quirky don’t do interior architecture and design, they suggested bubbleHUB talk to us. We, of course, took it from there!’ ‘Our brief was rather open but the key was to create a beautiful, unique, eclectic space that was both sensitive to the building and allowed for movement and natural light, facilitating working in a relaxed collaborative environment,’ bubbleHUB’s Benn Latham tells us. ‘We had our own ideas but were challenged consistently by align, creating a dynamic creative (and fun) tension! align were both very good at proposing and contextualising ideas as well as listening to and incorporating certain non-negotiables of ours!’ align worked with bubbleHUB very closely at every stage of the project. ‘This was very much a new adventure for them and there was plenty of learning to be done
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CASE STUDY bubbleHUB
about what was and wasn’t possible with the building!’ Gurvinder explains. ‘We acted both as interior architects and workspace designers/strategists, so that the owners could really get the best out of the building fabric and its huge, elegant windows and great natural light, as well as ensuring the high-spec interior would be dynamic, stylish, multi-functional and perfect for the target market’s needs, as well as performing economically for the business’s owners in terms of capacity. ‘We knew our clients wanted a ‘unique and aspirational’ space and one that was to be unlike anything else in the St Albans area. The scheme we created was both colourful and nature-inspired, as well as responding strongly to the building envelope. The overall atmosphere is relaxed, with a definite homefrom-home feel. The residential element is strong, as is the hospitality influence. ‘The interior has been arranged to encompass a ground floor clubhouse area for meetings, touchdown, relaxation and social use, including a dedicated bar area for events, with a new bespoke staircase leading to the upper floor, and a quieter space where fixed and allocated desking is located. ‘The building’s historic structure has been made fit-for-purpose, whilst also being
60 | Mix 207 November 2020
celebrated at every turn, with ground floor ceiling beams painted out in white, with eye-catching cross-beams in black. At the rear of the ground floor, the ceiling features three new inset, walk-on glazed panels, which increase natural light ingress from the existing upper floor windows. In a further reference to its origins, a glass square in front of the Chesterfield sofa on the ground floor reveals the Victorian cobbled foundations below. From the mid-point up, the dark-painted walls on the ground floor have been pulled back to their original brickwork and sandblasted whilst, upstairs, both side walls and most of the front and back walls are in sandblasted brick.’ Gurvinder feels that this is a facility that punches above its weight – and it’s easy to see why. ‘At 2,000 sq ft, it’s a small space but, outside London, I don’t believe there’s much like it. Its feel is bright, vivacious and happy, and it offers a number of different workstyle offerings to suit those of us accustomed to our bigger city centre offices, from fixed desks and relaxed seating to a bar and also a meeting room and phone booths. I feel there is also a real sense of blended design styles, with odes to the influence of hospitality design within workplace. Many of the newer out of London offerings seem to look more traditional, rather than blended. This, combined with the open shop
left Two- and four-person tables to the rear of the space
right
Loop bar seating from Boss Design
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The space at bubbleHUB offers what so many of us love about working in London, including good quality design and finishes, biophilia, lots of natural light, a sense of community and plenty of fresh air and ventilation
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CASE STUDY bubbleHUB
front, which facilitates a greater sense of community inclusion, really sets bubbleHUB apart. ‘The heart of the concept is metropolitan sophistication, but available outside of London, combined with flexibility, collaboration and social appeal. The whole offer has been clearly created to appeal to creatives, entrepreneurs, start-ups and purpose-led small businesses.’ We ask about the greatest challenges for the team. ‘Like all historic buildings, there were challenges from the second you begin to strip back and see both what lies underneath newer surfaces and what state it’s in!’ Gurvinder tells us. ‘Naturally, there were a few surprises, but we tried to work with those and adapted where necessary. Discovering the original cobblestone foundations, for example, led to the insertion of a glass panel in the flooring to keep them visible to new users of the building.’ How important to the scheme was the furniture/ finishes selection? ‘I would say this was particularly important,’ Gurvinder continues. ‘There are a lot of design-aware people in St Albans and, because the shop front is so big, there needed to be a visible statement. The space needed to be somewhere people wanted to go to, be a part of and belong to. ‘Once the space opened, there were a lot of people asking for details of the floor and wall tiles, for example. We used a mix of furniture from the likes of Workstories, through to bespoke joinery. A major feature of the ground floor space is the bar area, located front-left, which helps communicate an
above Bookable Meeting Room
left Ground floor hub space view from the back
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The design concept itself was inspired by the site’s previous use as the GlaxoSmithKline headquarters, and other neighbouring industrial buildings
” 62 | Mix 207 November 2020
CASE STUDY bubbleHUB
instant sense of welcome. The bar features a metalclad island unit with indented bubbleHUB branding, bespoke-manufactured for the project by Quirky Interiors. A decorative lighting feature above, made up of a cluster of nine pendant bulbs, at double-drop height, supplied by Calibo, reaches all the way up to the first floor ceiling above the staircase void and is punched through both storeys.’ We should, of course, discuss the advantages this facility can offer in light of COVID. ‘St Albans is a huge commuter city with a super-fast connection into St Pancras – if you can get onto a train!’ Gurvinder explains. ‘Like many other commuter areas, the route is heavily congested and transport costs are rising disproportionately so, in many ways, there was a sense before COVID that more people might think of working in an agile way to reduce the stress of commuting and save on travel time. As a team, we were super-conscious of good quality workspaces; all of us have deep emotional ties to London and a wellestablished love for the city and culture, but we don’t necessarily want to ride the cattle train every day. The space at bubbleHUB offers what so many of us love about working in London, including good quality design and finishes, biophilia, lots of natural light, a sense of community and plenty of fresh air and ventilation. The fact that the space has fresh air, cooling, and heating as well as varied work settings has become topical since this pandemic as many people have been reluctant to get back onto public transport.’
What are Gurvinder’s own favourite elements of the space? ‘There are a few elements from both sides of this project, the architectural and the interiors, that I particularly love, including the large windows, especially at the back of the space, with their connection into the floor lights via the timber floor, allowing the green of nature and warmth of sunlight to filter into both floors of the space. The balance of the new with the old of this building is still so pleasurable for me. ‘I also love the brass bar in the front window by Quirky Interiors, with the dropped chandelier that makes for a dramatic yet warm entrance and the reclaimed credenza in the meeting room – plus the unexpected pops of colour around the WC area.’ We’ll leave the final words for the client. ‘We love the finished building,’ Benn enthuses. ‘It is beautiful – every area has distinctive, interesting features arising from both the building fabric and the design. We are overjoyed that, for many of our earlier members who took a ‘leap of faith’, it has surpassed expectations! They are able to focus and work, relax, collaborate and reflect in a great space with state-of-the-art technology. ‘We were always conscious that a building isn’t finished until someone is using it. The environment we set out to create was a unique space in order to attract unique people. ‘At over a third full in under a month, it appears to be working!’w
above View from rear of space back towards the stair
Client bubbleHUB Architect & Interior Designer align Branding design SEA Design Main contractor Angove Construction Furniture Broadbase Furniture Solutions, Workstories, Elite, Modus, Boss Design, Naughtone, Orangebox, Vitra Lighting Calibo Surfaces Tektura Other id Fusion
Mix 207 November 2020 | 63
CASE STUDY Rolling Stock Yard
Rolling rocks Squire & Partners has completed Rolling Stock Yard, a new development in King’s Cross for Newmark Properties LLP, designed as a contemporary response to its industrial setting, providing 57,500 sq ft of workspace for creative small to medium sized businesses.
above Low leather sofas, wing backed armchairs and upholstered benches create a comfortable waiting area for visitors.
photos by jack hobhouse left The two levels are connected by a folding metal stair, behind which the large-scale mural provides a fantastic backdrop.
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They wanted the building to have a strong connection with post-industrial King’s Cross, and celebrate contemporary architecture
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e ask Olga Gomez, Director at Squire & Partners, to tell us about the origins of the project. ‘We previously worked with Newmark Properties on an apartment building on Berwick Street in Soho, however Rolling Stock Yard is their first office development with Squire & Partners. The client was heavily involved during all stages of the project, including the construction phase. ‘The client’s vision for the site – just north of Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard – centred around creating a new destination for creative enterprise, which builds on Tileyard’s growing cultural community in the area. They wanted the building to have a strong connection with post-industrial King’s Cross, and celebrate contemporary architecture. Our approach established a strong aesthetic drawn from the historic roots of the area, and created generous and light filled workspaces with inspiring communal spaces to bring people together. ‘‘The project brief was flexible and we worked closely with the client to define the concept, unit sizes and letting options. We started with a proposal for a small, elegant tower offering duplex units but, following discussions with the planners, we evolved the design to deliver the same concept with a different massing. The approved design was for a long linear form with the façade split into three elements, instead of a tower and a lower block. The project started on site in September 2018 and completed in March 2020. We ask Olga how the concept for Rolling Stock Yard was conceived and subsequently implemented?
‘Both the interior and exterior design of Rolling Stock Yard are inspired by the railway tracks that are synonymous with King’s Cross,’ Olga tells us. ‘We took inspiration from the stacked metal containers of freight trains, using dynamic timber fins to represent sleepers as if they were seen from a train in motion. The juxtaposition of these two elements creates an interesting and dynamic façade. ‘The building has nine storeys, with a doubleheight entrance space addressing York Way. We wanted to continue the industrial rail and freight aesthetic internally, so the reception area features a backlit perforated screen made from the same façade cladding system as the exterior. This feature wall has two openings, the reception desk and a bar, which mimic the interior of a freight container. Lined with plywood, these niches bring warmth to the space. ‘Connecting the ground and mezzanine levels on the far wall is a 12m x 6m mural by artist Barry Reigate, commissioned by the client to animate the space. At the top of the building, the roof terrace has linear granite pavers and staggered feature lights, representing the movement of trains at night and provides far-reaching views of the city. As Olga says, the design concept draws on the area north of King’s Cross St Pancras, historically characterised by the machinations of transport, freight and industry, and now an emerging creative quarter. Converging railway lines and shipping containers are subtly referenced throughout the building, expressed as a series of stacked elements, with a
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CASE STUDY Rolling Stock Yard
Client Newmark Properties LLP Architect & Interior Designer Squire & Partners Branding Mammal Design Project Manager Rougemont Structural Engineer Davies Maguire M&E Engineer Atelier Ten Cost Consultant Currie & Brown Planning Consultant Tibbalds Contractor Volker Fitzpatrick Mural Artist Barry Reigate
black profiled steel structure emulating parallel railway tracks running horizontally across the facades. Within this horizontal grid, full height glazing is softened by a layer of vertical solid oak sleepers and sinusoidal perforated metal screens to offer privacy and shade during daylight hours, and emit a diffused glow at night. At pavement level, the building animates the street with bespoke illuminated entrance signage behind a corrugated metal screen, and a doubleheight office entrance addressing York Way. ‘The perforations on the metal façade offer privacy and shade during the day, and emanate a diffused glow at night,’ Olga says. ‘Also incorporated internally as a light box to the core walls at each level, the mesh provides an attractive glow to each unit. This is very unusual as, traditionally in office buildings, the core walls are clad in standard materials rather than using them as an opportunity to create a light installation. This same mesh is used on the external signage of the building, and on the wall of the reception space.’ Internally, an industrial palette of exposed concrete, blackened steel and perforated aluminium is balanced by a pair of timber-lined recesses for the reception and café. Unifying the space is a pale grey poured resin floor with inlaid track patterns, which define routes from the entrance to the reception, lifts and café.
Suspended filament lighting elements hang vertically at assorted heights above a bespoke rug, which continues the graphic of converging rail tracks. Low comfortable seating on leather sofas, wing backed armchairs and upholstered benches create a comfortable waiting area for visitors. For building users and guests, the Rolling Stock Café within the main entrance offers raised seating at high tables, with access to power and data, and additional space on a mezzanine level with more informal and lounge seating. The two levels are connected by a folding metal stair, behind which the aforementioned large-scale mural by Barry Reigate provides a playful backdrop. Combining cartoon imagery and graffiti with geometric shapes and cultural references to King’s Cross, the specially commissioned work projects a dynamic urban attitude. We’re told that the installation is Barry’s largest work to date, and was applied layer by layer over five weeks using monochromatic tones to complement the building’s industrial palette. The work is presented as an architectural element within the space, drawing on the local built environment and encouraging people to move around the space to discover different aspects of the painting. Lift lobbies feature bespoke floor-numbering graphics on the reveal and blackened steel lift
above Both the interior and exterior design are inspired by the railway tracks that are synonymous with King’s Cross.
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NOOM
NOOM NEWS Soft seating
www.actiu.com
CASE STUDY Rolling Stock Yard
top The mezzanine level provides informal and lounge seating.
bottom Bespoke illuminated entrance signage.
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We wanted to stick to four main materials to create consistency throughout the scheme
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doors. Wayfinding tracks within the resin floor continue into the lift car. Meanwhile, the WC’s are designed as ‘superloos’; self-contained cubicles, which include a black Corian worktop and splashback, sink, large mirror and vertical feature lights. The back wall of each cubicle is lined with panels of natural ply featuring an engraved pattern depicting freight containers. Office spaces benefit from natural light on three sides (and all four sides on the upper level) and every floor has openable windows to allow for natural cross ventilation. Exposed concrete ceilings continue the industrial aesthetic, with suspended lighting tracks directing light up and down. Circulation on each level is marked with a backlit perforated metal screen, leading to the lift lobby and toilets. Some 300 sq m of roof space has been planted with wildflowers and grasses chosen to support local populations of birds, bees and butterflies. On top of this planted bed are 120 solar panels, with a further 80 panels on the south façade, providing the building with a sustainable energy source. The 140 sq m private roof terrace offers views across the skyline. ‘One of the biggest challenges was to incorporate solar panels into the façade, as well as achieving a sustainable building despite the large amounts of glass on the façade,’ Olga explains. ‘We worked closely to achieve an elegant solution with black solar panels, analysing the design in detail to manage solar gain whilst maximising the views and transparency of the building.
Capable of responding to the needs of growing companies, the building is presented as an adaptable collection of working spaces, offering units ranging in size from 150 to 680 sq m. Rolling Stock Yard tenants have access to generous cycle storage, showers, lockers and a reception café and breakout space. Branding and wayfinding were conceived as an evolution of the architecture and interiors concept, by Squire & Partners’ in-house branding agency, Mammal. Referencing the railways and freight industry of King’s Cross, Mammal established a graphic identity based on parallel and converging lines. ‘The selection of finishes was extremely important,’ Olga tells us. ‘We wanted to stick to four main materials to create consistency throughout the scheme: timber, steel, aluminium and concrete. Due to cost and technical reasons, it was not possible to use blackened steel, natural oak and concrete in all elements of the building internally and externally. Therefore, we had to find convincing alternatives; plywood, PPC black aluminium and a micro screed floor were used to mimic the materials and achieve consistency in the materiality.’ Finally, we ask Olga to reveal her own personal favourite elements of the space. ‘My personal favourite elements are the double-height backlit screen and the embedded black wayfinding tracks in the flooring of the reception space,’ she says. ‘We also created a bespoke rug in reception with lines that align with the flooring, to represent parked trains.’ w
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re,
A day in the (working) life Muriel Altunaga Aguirre, workplace and design specialist and Director at CBRE, tells a refreshingly alternative tale from all those Grimm ‘the office is dead’ stories. So, if you’re sitting comfortably, we’ll begin…
Pernod Ricard
I Muriel Altunaga Aguirre, Workplace and Design Specialist and Director, CBRE
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t is a sunny May morning; Elise is cycling to work after dropping her daughter off at school. Today she will be working from the office. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, her typical week is now a combination of days working from home and days working at the office. Elise doesn’t have a strict calendar, but usually Thursdays and Tuesdays are days for her team gatherings. Those are days focused on meetings, onboarding training, and mingling with colleagues. Elise’s routine feels normal – and many of her friends and colleagues organise their weeks in similar ways. The office days are for exercising,
dressing up and meeting colleagues face-to-face. The days at home leave more time to pick up kids from school and for focused work. As Elise is approaching the city centre, she remembers the year she spent working from home, in and out of lockdown. She remembers the discussions about office purpose and the understanding that companies might not need an office anymore. Back then, the conversation moved from the financial opportunities for companies in reducing their portfolio, thereby cutting costs, to the risks of increased employee loneliness, team disconnection, disengagement,
WORK Viewpoint
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The goal for the designers was to accommodate the users’ needs in a way in which the office turned out to be a preferred option for employees and clients to come together
” The Core
and poor onboarding. She remembers, once the lockdown was released, how the first small group of people started to come back to the office. The number grew steadily, increasing the office occupation up to today’s regular hybrid weeks. She felt proud of the transformation her company, her team and her management went through; and the positive outcomes, which enabled them to embrace this new normal. One of the key aspects of the change was the office space. Once coming to the office became optional, the office became one the alternatives employees might have. Suddenly, the office concept and design had to ‘earn’ the right to be occupied. Enjoying the office space advantages turned out to be one of the reasons for employees to commute to the office. Elise’s management understood the opportunities and challenges of the new workplace arrangement. The goal for the designers was to accommodate the users’ needs in a way in which the office turned out to be a preferred option for employees and clients to come together. It was clear that there was no going back to the old 9-to-5 culture. Elise remembers a visioning session with the designers, where they agreed on the priorities and clearly defined the new office environment goals. The designers, workplace strategists and user teams worked together to forecast the expected occupation and activities. In other words, the amount and type of space that would be needed.
Elise recalls, with a smile, the debate about the ‘soft features’; namely, the characteristics that would make a tailor-made solution for the teams, drafted in words that needed to be translated into design concepts. Elise’s team worked on brainstorming ideas and agreed on six key attributes: 1. Understanding the user’s journey Considering that, as different employees would visit the office a couple of days per week, the space had to be easy to understand. The team defined a day in the life of different personas, and this shaped the way the office was organised. 2. Environmental compromise Elise’s company agreed to become net-zero carbon back in 2018. The team agreed on incorporating a corporate sustainability agenda in the design – imprinting environmental awareness through the choice of materials, design and furniture. 3. Wellbeing Published research shows how the quality of space, light, access to outside views, good acoustics and opportunity to exercise has an impact on an employee’s ability to focus and perform better at work. Once colleagues were entitled to work either from home or from the office, the wellbeing programme was expected to be instrumental in
WORK Viewpoint
EY Interior
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Once colleagues were entitled to work either from home or from the office, the wellbeing programme was expected to be instrumental in making it more attractive to spend quality time in the building
” making it more attractive to spend quality time in the building. Elise smiles again, she has a yoga class today with her colleagues at the office, which is an excellent opportunity to recharge and have some downtime between meetings. 4. Flexibility It was clear that the office space should be ‘fit for purpose’ for a variety of activities and different occupations. Elise’s team’s discussion went deep into the purpose of the office space. They agreed on creating flexible solutions – combining small meeting rooms and large gatherings areas, to accommodate colleagues visiting from other offices and onboarding training. The most practical approach for an office design to last was to define several uses per space and make them easy to rearrange. 5. Branding During the workshop Elise confessed: ‘Our office could belong to any company; it is a dull neutral vanilla.’ The scope was agreed: to create a story that would strike a chord
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with the team and give a clear identity to the office. They wanted a unique immersive environment for people, which felt and breathed the company brand. The company’s history started deep in mechanical production. The technology evolution transformed large, oiled machines into spotless robots – and transformed blue collar workers into highly specialised software programmers. Elise’s team agreed that the office would pay tribute to the company’s history by applying an industrial look and feel. 6. Identity and diversity Elise’s company had a long-standing diversity and inclusion programme. The challenge was to bring the ambitions to life through the design. Elise invited a group of employees to a co-creation session. They shared the design proposals and went through the specific needs. Discussing aspects such as toilets, coffee break areas and multi-faith rooms, they agreed on the core aspects of inclusive office considerations.
It is the end of the day now, and Elise’s journey was great. The day went between meetings and co-creation sessions with her team. However, she had time to finish a report in a nice private space and keep her stress levels low by attending a yoga class. The end of Elise’s schedule for the day is meeting Nathalie. She’s an old friend, a very talented professional, who was top of her class back at university – Nathalie would be a great catch for the new product development team. Elise has been chasing her for a while, and today she has convinced Nathalie to walk around the new office before evening drinks. ‘I don’t know what’s going on here,’ said Nathalie with a bright smile, ‘but I like this vibe – actually, I could see myself working here.’ w Data to sustain this story is subtracted from CBRE research and published articles.
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HOSPITALITY Hospitality Workplace
76 Villa Copenhagen by Goddard Littlefair and Universal Design Studio 82 Maison Francois by John Whelan and GSL
HOSPITALITY Villa Copenhagen
ok
Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen One of Europe’s most anticipated launches of 2020, Villa Copenhagen, officially opened its doors in the heart of Denmark’s capital city this July. The new hotel is housed within Copenhagen’s historic Central Post & Telegraph Head Office, originally built in 1912
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above Guestrooms feature a warm and muted colour palette photographer: andy liffner
left Public dining space and Rug Bakery photographer: stine christiansen
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When we are faced with a new project, we always take the time to research the building’s history and location and the people and personalities that have contributed stories to the property
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esigned by Universal Design Studio, Goddard Littlefair, and their hospitality arm, Epicurean, as well as the sustainability-focused Earth Studio and Shamballa Jewels, the design within the century-old architectural landmark forms the start of a dynamic new district being regenerated for the city. Goddard Littlefair was tasked with transforming the public areas of this iconic building, originally designed in 1912 by architect Heinrich Wench in Neo-Baroque style, with the aim of accentuating the historic aspects of the building and its architecture, and introducing contemporary Nordic designs. ‘Community was the value that the client and ourselves believed in when we started designing this project,’ Jo Littlefair tells us. ‘The building is iconic in Copenhagen as the Old Post House and therefore synonymous with communication and connecting people together.’ ‘Our design was focused on welcoming both guests to the city and equally Copenhageners into the building. The design had to appeal to both sets of guests, which meant we had to
really understand what design language would appeal to both parties.’ Specialising in creating and developing F&B concepts across the hospitality sector, Goddard Littlefair’s emerging sister company, Epicurean, was tasked with designing Villa Copenhagen’s five food and beverage spaces. Epicurean discovered old photographs of the space as a working sorting room for the Post House, which inspired the entire design process – referencing original archways, lights with draped flex, reeded wall panelling and original glazed brickwork. ‘When we are faced with a new project, we always take the time to research the building’s history and location and the people and personalities that have contributed stories to the property,’ says Jo. ‘Inevitably, this upturns a multitude of design directions and details, which we funnel into a melting pot of ideas. We then pull together strands that weave into a contemporary interpretation that is relevant to the building and the society it serves now.’ Using these elements to tell a story through a contemporary lens, the space has been
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HOSPITALITY Villa Copenhagen
right The suites were inspired by Danish artist Vilhelm Hammeshøi
below Bathroom photos: andy liffner
Client Strawberry Properties Architect Krook & Tjäder Interior Designer Guest rooms: Universal Design Studio F&B: Epicurean Public Spaces: Goddard Littlefair Earth Studio, Shamballa Jewels Furniture House of Finn Juhl, J.L. Møllers Møbelfabrik, Getama, Fredercia, Fritz Hansen, Carl Hansen, Menu, Fogia, Mobel Copenhagen, Brdr. Petersen Surfaces Astrid, Kvadrat, Sahco, Nero Marquina, Zellige Other Flos, Louis Poulsen, Asetp, Universal Design Studio, Axor, Skandinavisk, Nero Marquina
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transformed into a multifaceted breakfast and event restaurant, complete with copper archways made from the Villa’s rooftop and features an open kitchen, café and bakery. The restaurant and bar – Kontrast – has been designed with the inner-city locale in mind. Styled to be approachable for the Danish market and authentic to guests, it combines mid-century design with beautifully crafted references of the past and present. The building and the bones of the structure offered up unique opportunities for a large hotel to feel like a community and a boutique hotel at the same time. ‘The hotel has an ability to host a large number of guests and has incredible conference facilities but in a much livelier and more engaging environment than most other competitors of this scale,’ says Jo. ‘The interaction of the hotel and the neighbourhood it sits in really beds it into the community, too. We’d love to be locals stopping in for a loaf of bread before catching the train home.’ Historically, the entire building was nicknamed T37, a short version for the
address – Tietgensgade 37. The new T37 Bar is complete with restored timber panelling, original decorative entrance and Arabescato marble columns. This beautifully restored area of the hotel retains most of its original features, referencing the heritage of the space in the design whilst adding cheerful and tongue-incheek features in both rooms. Satchel straps from post bags hang as a central feature above the bar, and a striking cerise and olive colour palette sits well against the vintage cherry wood and marble features. The furniture and finishes were absolutely critical to the scheme, adds Jo. ‘All of the furniture, lighting and finishes selections were selected or bespoke designed to reference the history of the building, local design movements and to overlay the building with a design language that feels relevant for the guest of today. ‘Historic buildings always hold surprises close to their chest, waiting for the moment that a contractor peels down a wall to reveal an unexpected space or a finish that deserves to be preserved or should influence the design
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HOSPITALITY Villa Copenhagen
Kontrast restaurant and bar
positively. Villa was no exception to this, and it meant thinking with agility to adapt and flex the design to achieve the best results for the interior.’ Also inspired by the building’s Neo-baroque style and the context of the local architecture, London-based Universal Design Studio designed 381 guest rooms across the hotel’s five floors. As very little original features of the building remained, Universal began its design process by mapping the building’s interior and either reinstalling or restoring period features, including grand window surrounds, cornices, timber panelling, flooring, doors and architraves. To bring the best of international and local design into the hotel, Universal has curated each room to include bespoke, custom-made furniture, textiles, ceramics and lighting, selected from a range of craft-led European brands, all with a connection to Danish design. Influenced by the artworks of Danish painter, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Universal has reflected Hammershøi’s understated use of light – using a warm, muted colour palette throughout the rooms that aims to be ‘both timeless and forward-looking’. The suites feature soft ochrecoloured tones, inspired by one of Hammershøi’s paintings, alongside warm-toned furniture, silk curtains, marble tables to dine and work, and large built-in walnut dressing tables and wardrobes. ‘Our aim was to create a series of rooms that respond to the historic building, while centring on contemporary Danish design, humanness and craft,’ says Richard McConkey, Head of Hospitality at Universal. ‘Copenhagen has a beautiful quality of light, which, alongside the feeling of quiet beauty in the work of Hammershøi, became a key reference point in our design process.’
Unique to each room type, Universal has incorporated a carefully considered selection of classic and contemporary furniture, mixed with customised and reissued pieces from a range of periods, all of which reference functional yet humanist Danish design – including original pieces from renowned Danish designers Finn Juhl, Ole Wanscher, Nanna Ditzel, Niels Otto Møller, Hans Wegner and Borge Morgensen. A long-lasting approach was central to Universal’s design for Villa Copenhagen, using natural materials designed to wear in and not wear out and a range of robust materials that can be repaired and updated as they age and wear elegantly over time. ‘We have tried to look at each room as if it were an individual residence, aiming to emphasise the building’s original character to create a mix of different room types, tones, bespoke pieces and relaxed quiet experiences, which contribute to a stand-out destination for conscious, quality luxury,’ adds Richard. Other contributors include Earth Studio, a partnership between renowned Danish architect, Eva Harlou, and manufacturer, Mater, who have created the Earth Suite – a fully sustainable suite wholly comprised of recycled materials and eco-friendly and durable Mater furniture. The flooring is created from lowimpact clay brick tiles and the walls are coated in crushed reclaimed bricks from the building’s renovation. As Collins Dictionary declares ‘lockdown’ the word of the year for 2020, Villa Copenhagen’s opening in such an uncertain time could be considered a risky move – but the hotel has developed its design and operations to create a hospitality offering that we’re certain will ride out the pandemic and become a Copenhagen institution.w
photographer: stine christiansen
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French Revolution Paying homage to the grand brasseries of Paris, Lyon and Alscace in both flavour and design, Maison François is a new restaurant on the site of what was previously Green’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar in St James’s.
Mirror-filled arches and Pierre Frey drapery soften the high walls
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edesigned by John Whelan, Creative Director of artist collective, The Guild of Saint Luke, the restaurant is a decadent tribute to Ricardo Bofill’s converted factory, La Fabrica, outside Barcelona. The sophisticated and dramatic design for Maison François marks a departure from historic brasserie aesthetics, embracing postmodernism and brutalist architecture – inspired by La Fabrica’s terracotta arches (beautifully referenced throughout the space) and rough ‘faux-cement’ patina on the ceilings.
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The structure of the restaurant follows a brasserie format, with details that nod to revered establishments of the past. ‘Our studio always studies the building that will house the project first, in order to ensure coherence,’ says John. ‘The new build in St. James did not offer a lot of clues, as we inherited a giant concrete cube! However, this nevertheless inspired us to look at Ricardo Bofill’s cement factory conversion – La Fabrica – which ended up being a key reference for the project.’
HOSPITALITY Maison François
Bofill found the disused cement factory – an industrial complex from the turn of the century consisting of over 30 silos, subterranean galleries and huge machine rooms – and transformed it into his home and the head office for his practice in 1973. ‘Once we felt that we had a coherent direction, we worked around the client’s desire to evoke classic brasseries of the past but with a more contemporary edge,’ John explains. ‘We drew upon our extensive experience of designing brasseries in France and combined it with our knowledge of London cool – and the result is perhaps a mix of both.’ Mirror-filled arches and Pierre Frey drapery soften the high walls of the space, while the focal point of the dining room is a 70s-inspired clock in patinated bronze above the kitchen. Mounting the clock, inspired by the front of vintage Rolls Royce cars, was a technical feat according to John, weighing half a tonne and requiring some serious structural engineering to get right. The furniture and finishes selection were absolutely integral to the scheme, John tells us. ‘We had a very limited palette, with only two colours (terracotta and cream) and then various woods and metals. As such, it was important that the furniture and finishes carried the project. The quality of the joinery by Longpré is outstanding, and the metal patinas we requested from Rathbanna were absolutely pitch perfect. So, whilst the design might be relatively simple, it feels sophisticated.’ Tables are separated by latticed glass and walnut panels and surrounded by curved banquettes. The latticed backs are inspired by the pews in Germany’s modernist Maria Heimsuchung church, which John came across in photography by Robert Goetzfried. Downstairs, the scheme throughout Frank’s Bar becomes more industrial: the oak-panelled central bar is surrounded by whitewashed brick, with a polished concrete floor.
above A 70s inspired patinated bronze clock sits above the open kitchen.
left Frank’s Bar
“
Once we felt that we had a coherent direction, we worked around the client’s desire to evoke classic brasseries of the past but with a more contemporary edge
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HOSPITALITY Maison François
Glass and walnut latticed seating separates guests
Cold cathode sconces add a contemporary edge to the space
The lobby and kitchen canopy are made in Sapele mahogany, and the design echoes the windows of the Ismaili Centre next to the V&A, with bevelled panes and lamb’s tongue mouldings. ‘I would say the heart of the concept is longevity,’ John adds. ‘We aspire to timelessness with every one of our projects. There is nothing worse than a project that ages badly, and so the antiageing elixir is indeed timelessness. It’s an elusive quality but we resolve to find it with every design.’ The space is undoubtedly younger, fresher and more edgy than many of the other stalwart restaurants of Mayfair. This was deliberate. ‘We wanted to shake things up a bit in the area as we felt that it was a bit stiff,’ says John. ‘We wanted the monumentality and gravitas of The Wolseley but the contemporary cool of an east London joint.’ The greatest challenge for the team was creating intimacy and warmth, despite the imposing volumes. ‘We worked tirelessly with our lighting designers (Stileman) to get the right balance throughout the main room, and details such as linen banquettes gave a tactility to the space that made the scale feel more human,’ says John. The monumental chandeliers were inspired by Fritz Breuhaus, while cold cathode sconces add a contemporary edge and brightness to the room. ‘I would say my favourite element of the space is the cold cathode sconces, which feel a bit punk or transgressive for Mayfair. They cut through the more traditional brasserie design elements like a light sabre. These lights really make the place feel new and different.’ w
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HOSPITALITY Maison Franรงois
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LIVING
88 Property: When the living is easy? 92 Greenford Quay from HTA and Woods Bagot
LIVING Property
When the living is easy? Is the build-to-rent sector about to come down to earth with a bump after three years in which the living has been easy? Or will it ride the current crisis? Investors are putting their money on the latter, as David Thame reports.
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WL Forest
his might have been an extinction moment for build-to-rent. The nascent sector, still providing barely six figures-worth of housing units in the UK, might have suffered badly from the flight from the cities and the discomfort of working from home. Being stuck in a rented flat is, so the logic went, nobody’s ideal of lockdown living. As it happens, BTR seems to be okay. And far from languishing on its death-bed, developers and investors are talking up its prospects. Their argument runs like this: renting is ever more popular, and often inevitable, for young mobile professionals. And if you have to rent, surely better to rent a top quality flat from a superreputable landlord? The hope is that, far from suffocating demand for BTR, COVID-19 has spurred it to new heights. Letting data is, as yet, providing some grounds for hope and the big money investors, without whom BTR is genuinely dead in the water, seem convinced. London, where an additional 260,000 private rented units are expected to be delivered in 2021, is (unsurprisingly) the focus of much of the interest. Among the biggest is Investec, whose structured property finance team has agreed to provide Comer Homes with a £36 million, five-year senior debt facility. This will fund the development of the final phase of Mast Quay,
a 204-unit riverside residential scheme in Woolwich, London. Due for completion in December 2022, construction is already underway, with the majority of apartments benefitting from balconies offering panoramic views of the River Thames and vistas of the capital. This amounts to BTR gold-dust, as does proximity to the new Crossrail station. It is part of a sequence of Investec bets on BTR including a separate £45 million loan to fund the development of Royal Winchester House in Bracknell into 338 units for rent (the scheme has just finished construction). Investec’s activities are matched by HUB and specialist investor, Bridges Fund Management, who have agreed a deal with Canadian real estate investment company, Realstar, and global investors, operators and developers, QuadReal, to forward-fund their £100m Wembley Link development in North London. Designed by Glenn Howells Architects, Wembley Link will deliver 256 high quality oneto three-bedroom homes for private rent in two 17- and 19-storey brick buildings. The deal is the second this partnership has attempted, following their first Wembley scheme – the 239-unit Chesterfield House – which completed in May 2020 and is now open and operating.
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LIVING Property
HUB has 4,100 homes completed, under construction or submitted for planning, including new homes in Croydon, Greenwich, Wembley and White City, and mixed-use schemes in Maidenhead and Birmingham. HUB’s completed developments include one of London’s first institutionally-backed Build-to-Rent schemes – The Rehearsal Rooms in North Acton – as well as The Boiler House and Material Store in Hayes and Hoola London at the Royal Victoria Dock. If overseas money is growing in significance in London’s BTR scene, UK institutional funds are making the running in the UK regions. Legal & General IM Real Assets, on behalf of its BTR Fund, has agreed the forward funding of an £81.5m mixed-use regeneration scheme in Candleriggs Square, Glasgow. The project will deliver 346 BTR homes, 17 parking spaces and 12,800 sq ft of commercial space. LGIM Real Assets were among the first big UK names to step into BTR. Entering the sector in 2016, they currently own and operate 15 schemes in 11 UK cities, amounting to over 5,000 homes. Candleriggs Square will mark the fund’s second investment in Glasgow, last year having committed to the forward funding of a 324-home BTR scheme at neighbouring Buchanan Wharf, another scheme promoted by local developer, Drum Property Group. Legal & General is increasingly opting for its own favoured style of amenity provision. The latest Glasgow property will include a dining space, gym, business lounge and games room, and boast strong environmental credentials including a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. The fund is setting out its stall as the high quality option, a wise move if the BTR sector’s survival
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Mast Quay
depends on offering the best of everything. Their projects include a 1,000-home scheme in Wandsworth, London, and a 200-home scheme in Brighton. ‘Through our BTR Fund, we want to create the best possible experience for renters, providing high-speed digital connectivity, dedicated workspace and exercise facilities, all of which are essential in a post-COVID world,’ LGBIM Real Assets Head of BTR, Dan Batterton, says. As the fraught world of 2020 BTR moves into a recovery phase in 2021, there will be plenty of other BTR operators who share the same ambition. w
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Through our BTR Fund, we want to create the best possible experience for renters, providing highspeed digital connectivity, dedicated workspace and exercise facilities, all of which are essential in a post-COVID world
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All Modular Cons Greenford Quay is the first large-scale UK scheme for US Build-to-Rent operator, Greystar, creating over 2,000 new homes, along with retail, commercial and amenity space. But there’s far more to this story‌ Designed by HTA and Woods Bagot, Greenford Quay is a new type of tenure for the area, re-opening a long-derelict GlaxoSmithKline site in Greenford, inviting the public back into an area that had been closed off for decades.
above Communal spaces featuring curated and bespoke furniture
left The lobby features colourful mosaic flooring set against a darker industrial palette
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Key to our design is the lobby, welcoming residents and guests in, with communal lounges to one side for people to work and relax in
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illermans, Greenford Quay Block 5, is the first phase to be delivered within the new masterplan and is designed as a bespoke BTR development, which will lead the way in delivering a new community on the edge of the Grand Union Canal. For the project, Rory Bergin, Partner and Head of Sustainable Futures at HTA, conducted a piece of research with Herriot Watt University into the environment benefits of modular design – finding that just one building built through modular construction produced 40% fewer emissions at 26,000 tonnes of CO2 saved, equivalent to 7,030 vehicles taken off the road for a whole year or planting over 160,000 trees. The Sustainable Futures team was set up in 2007 by Rory, and over the last decade has managed to provide a wide range of services to the practice’s clients aimed at improving the sustainability of development. In embracing offsite production and environmentally friendly modern methods of construction, the practice is producing architecture that does not compromise on design and is conducive to creating places where people choose to live.
Rory & HTA managing partner Simon Bayliss recently co-authored a book with RIBA Publishing - the Modular Housing Handbook, a practical handbook combining real-world advice on designing modular housing with a compelling argument for offsite construction as a means for architects taking a greater role and achieving more influence in their housing projects. The block design has been optimised for off-site manufacture, using HTA’s expertise in modular building to produce a high quality product capable of delivery on a tight construction programme, saving 26,000 tonnes of CO2 by minimising the use of concrete and reducing vehicle movements and waste – resulting in a robust yet recyclable end product. Inside, a mezzanine lounge and coworking space overlook a generous double height lobby, with additional commercial spaces running alongside the canal. HTA’s role has been to design and specify a full interior design package of works, from an early design inherited from the concept team at Woods Bagot, through to final detailing. ‘Our design process was collaborative from the offset in order to integrate the interiors’
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LIVING Greenford Quay
concept and delivery with the buildings’ architectural approach,’ says Lucy Smith, Partner at HTA, and responsible for the firm’s Communication Design. ‘Our original concept for designing the spaces in the way that they are physically arranged was to address the potential incoming audience and evaluate the amenity spaces that we thought would be popular and well-used by residents. Key to our design is the lobby, welcoming residents and guests in, with communal lounges to one side for people to work and relax in.’ The interior concept reflects both the site’s heritage and the incoming community demographic, with materials, furniture and finishes aligned to the theme. The colour and texture palettes remain largely industrial, with deep tones, walnut timber and painted-out dark ceilings. To balance the industrial aesthetic, pops of colour appear throughout, with greens and pinks appearing in the entrance lobby mosaic flooring (Lucy’s favourite element of the space, which we’re told went through numerous iterations to get right and many hours of setting out!) up to the 14th floor commercial kitchen, complemented by fabric in the furniture choices throughout the amenity spaces. ‘The design concept itself was inspired by the site’s previous use as the GlaxoSmithKline headquarters, and other neighbouring industrial buildings,’ says Lucy. ‘We took some influences of the heritage and combined it with the design aspirations for the site and created this ‘eclectic industrial’ concept, which has really helped us focus the interiors aesthetic. ‘The original concept is best visualised through the finishes and furniture choice. We worked very closely with Conran and Partners, who were appointed as
above Exterior
right Lobby and reception
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The design concept itself was inspired by the site’s previous use as the GlaxoSmithKline headquarters, and other neighbouring industrial buildings
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LIVING Greenford Quay
Communal spaces featuring curated and bespoke furniture
FF&E consultant, to ensure the choices we made worked with the original concept and the interior finishes,’ Lucy adds. ‘We also spent a lot of time working with the joinery manufacturer to ensure that the veneer tones were right for the palette and that the scale of the pieces worked within the individual amenity rooms, which are all quite large spaces. The spaces all needed dressing and Conran sourced original pieces that reflected the site’s heritage for each joinery piece.’ This meant that some of the furniture was designed as bespoke pieces – such as the concierge desk and the bar on the top floor. Both feature tiled fronts, specifically selected for their spaces, and are designed as stand-alone pieces within the spaces. ‘The client played a key role in bringing their experience of the US Build-to-Rent market – we learnt a lot from them. We spent a lot of time in general, thinking about how people use and experience places, so bringing that thinking to the first Build-to-Rent building at Greenford was a challenge. It sets the tone for the rest of the masterplan to be delivered, and getting the
temperature right for the site meant that early reservations could be met, residents can move in and start to experience the place as it is intended. ‘We’ve been working on the project since the pre-planning design stages, so trying to preserve that original design vision, whilst adapting to change was a challenge. As the building developed architecturally, we had to adapt our interior design, so flexibility was key, whilst preserving our original concept as much as possible.’ The developer has committed to delivering a series of future events for the community, creating a programmable space of activity, with something happening every week. Local schools and community groups have been invited in to share in the new spaces and help to fill the place with activity. All of the above, plus the sheer quantity of new homes, brings a new contribution to Greenford – resulting in an exciting, developing part of a wider community.w
Client Greystar Architect HTA Design LLP Interior Designer HTA Design LLP, Woods Bagot, Johnson Naylor Furniture Conran & Partners Flooring Interface, Solus, Tarkett, Havwoods Surfaces Armourcoat, Domus, Dulux, Optima, Egger, Grestec, Gradus, Caesarstone, Kvadrat Storage Hurst Other Technogym
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THE FINAL WORD
The only constant is change As each month passes, I see the idea that business doesn’t need as much office space as before gaining traction across a wider and wider range of industries, considers Criteo’s Mike Walley.
Mike Walley is Senior Director of Global Real Estate & Workplace Strategy at Criteo 96 | Mix 207 November 2020
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ll over the country, as the end of year figures take shape, the responsible people are looking at the piece of paper in their left hand, showing productivity over the last nine months, and then looking at the piece of paper in their right hand, showing the Q4 rent bill and saying, ‘Hang on a minute! Why are we renting?’ Many businesses have already reached this conclusion and are beginning major transformations, and I don’t think it is hyperbole to say that this is one of those ‘once in a generation’ moments that we will look back on and say, ‘that’s when it started’. What I hope we don’t do is look back and say, ‘Oh my, I got that wrong!’ I don’t mean the general change to a flexible approach to work, but the actual changes to the physical office. In the same way that children are not just smaller adults, but have an entirely different set of needs and desires, the flexible office is not just a cut down version of the old style office. A flexible office has a completely different set of objectives. I certainly don’t plan to list them, as each office will differ depending on its workforce, their role in the company and how often they plan to come into the office. I can tell you this…there is no point filling the space with desks if the only reason people are coming in is to have meetings. Sound a bit obvious? You’ll be surprised at how many businesses assume all they need is smaller versions of what they have today. This is the moment you need to open a serious conversation with your staff and understand what they think flexible working means to them, or (and this could be a tad controversial) explain clearly what it will mean for them and what the company expects of them.
Now, whilst I am certainly a fan of the first approach and would always rather have everyone in agreement before executing change, I would take the second approach in preference to no guidance at all. One of the single largest mistakes that people make in any major change to a working environment is simply forgetting to explain to the users how the new space is meant to work. Just because we ‘workplace types’ do it all day long and can immediately see how a space is meant to function, does not mean it is anywhere near as obvious to the people on the ground. I vividly remember moving a group of people from old style office-based accommodation to new open plan gorgeousness. I assumed everyone would understand it like I did. It was only when I went back the next day to discover a bunch of computer engineers sat around the team leader’s desk, in open plan, having a conference call, that I realised we may have an issue. Their logic was clear; they had always congregated around the team leader’s desk for the regular call and didn’t see why that should change. I had to point out that, previously, he’d had a private office and the call did not annoy 30 other people with the door shut. Once it was explained and we had shown the team how much more comfortable it was in a meeting room, we had no more issues. I hold this example as a personal reminder never to assume that, what may be obvious to me, is obvious to everyone else. So, transform by all means, manage your change with aplomb but, in the midst of budgets, Gantt charts, floorplans and new designs, don’t forget to explain. One man’s cutting edge layout is another’s impenetrable maze. w
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