Mix Interiors 186 - JULY 2018

Mix Interiors 186

July 2018

RAPID SELECT

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INSIDE UPFRONT 10 Perspective 17 Seven... 18 Material Matters 23 Deser t Island Desks 24 Proper t y Matters 26

SPOTLIGHT 35 Big Question 37 Project Review 38

ROUND TABLE 54 Who cares about sustainability?

PROFILE 60 Intercom's August Petersen

FOCUS 64 Tech Revolution

RE VIE W 76 MixInspired Manchester 76 Mixology 82 NeoCon 94 Workplace Week New York 101

L AST WORD 104 Hurley Palmer Flatt's Emma Macleod

68 CASE STUDY – HALKIN, LONDON We take a look at Halkin's amazing new ser viced office space in the iconic blue Nor thern & Shell Building on the outskir ts of the Cit y of London.

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94 Mix 186 July 2018 | 1

Upfront | Welcome

THE COVER The logo Taking reference from Verco’s Brix Hood, Gensler's logo design draws parallels with the curvature and subtlety of the product. The transparency of the logo offers an abstract juxtaposition to the privacy afforded by the seat’s acoustical surround, whilst stacking the lettering alludes to its playful silhouette. www.gensler.com

The cover Brix-Up ‘Hood’, designed by Studio Verco, provides a versatile and flexible soft-seating solution for informal meetings or for some quiet contemplation time. Brimming with character, the slightly retro design creates a beautifully detailed unit to suit a new way of working and provides the perfect workspace, away from your workplace. www.verco.co.uk Mix Interiors 186

July 2018

A WORD FROM MICK You’ll see from our review on page 94 that we were fortunate enough to head out to Chicago last month for the extravaganza that is NeoCon – and we were even more fortunate to be surrounded by some great fellow visitors from the UK. It was the 50th edition of the show this year and, I have to say, was extremely impressive.

It was really interesting, therefore, to hear one or two rumours, from our little ‘network’ of friends, suggesting that at least a couple of the leading US mega-furniture-brands are considering a move away from the Mart, into showrooms elsewhere in the city. I have to say, the idea of NeoCon becoming a street festival in the style of CDW or (parts of )

Let’s face it, this is Chicago, so of course it was impressive – but this year I felt that a lot of the major manufacturers really upped their game, presenting a lot of eye-catching kit.

NeoCon does, however, have an issue or two.

The Merchandise Mart is not a new building and you can almost feel its infrastructure (elevators) creaking. Queues up and down the Mart’s floors don’t help visitors on a tight schedule.

Milan is incredibly appealing – even if you can’t always rely on the Illinois weather in June.

There’s certainly something grandiose about the Merchandise Mart – but those queues! If even just a couple of those major brands were to move away, it would hopefully result in shorter queues and visitors getting to see even more of this amazing city. Win/win.

GET IN TOUCH BACK ISSUES Contact us to buy back issues: rebecca@wearemixgroup.com

Mix Interiors 185

June 2018

Editor Mick Jordan mick@wearemixgroup.com Editorial support Rebecca Sabato rebecca@wearemixgroup.com Sales director Gary Williams gary@wearemixgroup.com Director David Smalley david@wearemixgroup.com Designer John Hope john@wearemixgroup.com Group managing director Marcie Incarico marcie@wearemixgroup.com Founding publisher Henry Pugh

2 | Mix 186 July 2018

Contributors Steve Gale Emma Macleod David Thame Jo Sutherland Address Mix Media Limited 2 Abito 85 Greengate Manchester M3 7NA

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Upfront | News

COCKTAILS WITH WILTON In 10 designs that blend layers of abstract pattern and familiar floral and geometric motifs, Havana is the latest narrowloom carpet range from Wilton Carpets. Created specifically to cater for the pub/bar, leisure and restaurant sector, Havana’s cocktail-themed designs bring striking modern design in colourways for the latest interior looks.

Damian Roscoe, Head of Creative at Wilton Carpets, says: ‘Havana is one of four new ranges to use our brand-new Creations, a colour palette made for modern hospitality and leisure environments. Packed full of on-trend blues

NEVILLE SCORES FOR MANCHESTER

and greys, the range is a great way to introduce a sophisticated contemporary look in a ‘stock’ carpet that’s made specifically for pubs, bars and restaurants.’

The narrowloom 0.91m width is ideal for the often-complex layouts of these establishments, working with designs that can go wall-to-wall in even the most historic of buildings, without a straight wall in sight. Axminster woven in a durable, seven-row quality from a wool-rich blend that’s perfect for corridors, lounge areas and busy bars, Havana’s dark base colours and patterns also work to hide dirt between cleans. w

THE UK MAJOR OFFICE MARKETS HEADING FOR DROUGHT Exclusive research for Mix Interiors by property

The landmark Manchester city centre mixed-use redevelopment project, St Michael’s, will goahead – after the Secretary of State confirmed that the application will not be called in.

On behalf of the St Michael’s Partnership, Gary Neville said he was ‘excited’ to have today received the green light, adding…’It’s been more than a decade since the idea to regenerate a strategic city centre location was first considered.’

The £200m St Michael’s development lies just off Deansgate on Jackson’s Row, close to Manchester Town Hall. St Michael’s will include a 216-bed fivestar hotel and 189 apartments in a tower reaching

39 storeys. In addition, 148,000 sq ft of office space and 33,000 sq ft of leisure space will be included.

The former Bootle Street police station will retain its frontage.

Recent panellist at our MixInspired event and St Michael’s architect, Stephen Hodder MBE, Chairman of Hodder + Partners, said: ‘This development will regenerate a pivotal city block adjacent to the City’s civic core, and I applaud the evident passion, ambition and vision of all those behind St Michael’s. And that’s why I’m delighted that this significant project has been given the go-ahead.’ w

RUBBER SOUL Interface has acquired nora systems in a stock purchase transaction valued at approximately $420 million. nora systems has been producing floor solutions exclusively in Germany for more than 70 years and is regarded as a global leader in performance flooring and worldwide share leader in the rubber flooring category. nora’s annual revenues are approximately $280 million. Interface expects to close the transaction during the third

10 | Mix 186 July 2018

quarter of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

What does this mean? Interface is of course renowned for carpet, and more recently for Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT), and this acquisition will expand its growing resilient flooring portfolio and increase its penetration into high growth segments including healthcare, life sciences, education and transportation. w

consultants GVA reveals that the big nine regional office markets face a complete halt in the supply of new office space by 2021.

In Birmingham 1.2 million sq ft is under construction, but more than half is already pre-let, and no further development will be delivered after 2019.

In Glasgow, more than one-third of 810,000 sq ft in the office development pipeline is already pre-let, and in Edinburgh more than half of 410,000 sq ft in the pipeline is pre-let.

There will be no new floorspace delivered in any of the major nine UK regional office markets after 2021.

‘The drying up of the supply of new office floorspace will prompt larger occupiers to consider pre-lets – we will see more of them – and we will see many more occupiers make-do-and-mend by staying put in existing premises, renewing leases, and re-thinking how they use existing floorspace,’ says GVA National Offices Director, Charles Toogood.

‘The development pipeline is uncertain thanks to limited development sites and doubts about the economy. Developers and funders fear we’re heading into another recession, in 2023/2025, and they want to be cautious.

‘In the meantime, we will see office rents continue to rise because the supply of space is constrained. There is also pressure to increase rents to meet rising build costs.’

GVA data shows Bristol’s pipeline at 259,000 sq ft, of which 195,000 sq ft is pre-let, Cardiff at 570,000 sq ft, of which 416,000 sq ft is pre-let, and Leeds at 378,000 sq ft – all of which is pre-let. w For more on the supply pipeline crisis, see Property Matters: p26

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Upfront | News

A NEW SHOWROOM AND ACQUISITION FOR CASALA Casala sounds Italian doesn’t it? Well its not. Created 100 years ago in Germany – before being adopted as a Dutch company, Casala is on the march. Casala is renowned for stylish contract furniture and has recently opened a new showroom in Clerkenwell – and as well as celebrating the 100th anniversary this year, the business has also recently acquired Palau.

Now we know you may be thinking that Casala has acquired a Pacific archipelago of over 500 islands, but no. Palau, in this case, is a premium producer of lounge furniture, acoustic solutions and modular seating and seen as complementary to the existing Casala collection. w

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Upfront | News

KOP SHOP

When our friends at Shaw Contract brought us this little gem of a story, we simply couldn’t resist, linking in so nicely with the World Cup and the football fever currently gripping the nation (certainly at time of going to press).

With a colour scheme and materials inspired by the architecture of Anfield and incorporating design references from the original and current Kop (spectator terraces) as well as the expanded main stand, this fantastic KKA project has had a real impact.

The development reflects the ambition and aspirations of the club and expanded stadium, activates the new fan zone and significantly enhances the quality of the public realm and surrounding environment.

The Liverpool FC Megastore features Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) and a custom design carpet runner, which combined provide an eye-catching flooring

The Liverpool FC Megastore won a Shaw Contract Design Award, in the Retail Category 2018; and a Creative Retail Award for the Best Overall Store Collaboration 2018. w

solution.

COWORKING FOR STOCKHOLM We are very much a UK-focused magazine, but when we met the lovely people at LUCTRA on our visit to NeoCon and felt it worth a nod to a new coworking place in Stockholm. No18 Stureplan lies in the centre of Stockholm – to many a city that is an international pioneer in the field of modern forms of working life. No18 Stureplan is a

14 | Mix 186 July 2018

design-oriented co-working space with a boutique character. Situated in a historic building, the facility offers a place furnished with classic design objects, which give the feel of a living room rather than an office. Aimed at freelancers, creatives and teams of start-up companies, the lounges as well as an office on the 4th floor are all equipped with impressive LUCTRA lamps.

Ariel Ramirez, Chief Creative Officer at No18, comments: ‘We pay special attention to the character and quality of lighting in our rooms. It must reliably deliver the proper quality of light to create the desired atmosphere in every room. But, due to the flexible use of the rooms, it should also be easy to operate for adjustment to changing situations of work or discussions without disturbing the balance of the overall ambience.’

Clearly Ariel felt LUCTRA did just that.

GREAT SCOTT

We recently collaborated with Scott Brownrigg on a special round table event, as part of the leading design firm’s D3 events programme – which comprised three days of creativity and client led activities.

Our own Mick Jordan chaired an expert panel that included Mix friends Caroline Cundall of ISG, Unilever’s Jordan Jones and a number of Scott Brownrigg’s specifying cream.

The subject for the discussion was ‘Welcome to 2023 – where will you work/live/play?’ – with the panel asked to look into their crystal balls and predict how things will look in five years’ time.

The event was hosted by Bolon, who provided a delicious, energising breakfast – and even a Buck’s Fizz or two. w Look out for a full review of the discussion in our September issue.

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Upfront | News

PHOTOBOX GROUP OPENS £20M STATE-OF-THE-ART LONDON HQ

Photobox Group, Europe’s leading digital consumer service for personalised products and gifts, and parent of the Photobox, Moonpig, Hofmann and posterXXL brands, has opened its new state-of-the-art headquarters at Herbal House in Clerkenwell, London.

Working with London-based design and build firm, Oktra, the Group has converted the historic former printworks and artists’ studios into a 37,000 sq ft office at the heart of London’s creative and digital centre – a firm commitment to the UK as a technology and business hub by the Group, whose four brands operate across 15 markets.

Oktra and Photobox Group developed the office around an analysis of the company culture and ethos, planning an environment that supports

collaborative and agile ways of working across the 400 employees located there.

Clustered around the numerous crossfunctional squads that work autonomously across the brands, the four-storey, completely open-plan HQ moves beyond a traditional desk environment, offering each squad a variety of flexible work, daily stand-up and collaboration spaces.

‘Our new HQ directly reflects our ambition to deliver amazing experiences for our customers as well as our teams,’ says Jody Ford, CEO of Photobox Group.

The full Cat A and B fit-out of the new headquarters took 20 weeks to complete.

Photobox Group has leased the site for an initial 10 years. w

WELL BUILDING STANDARD

In last September’s Mix Interiors we featured the creator of the WELL Building Standard, Paul Scialla, who contributed to a great Spotlight feature on wellbeing. Fast-forward almost a year and we have had many discussions about this and other workplace certifications. Although WELL has achieved some notable successes, many of which have been included in Mix, it is not without its critics.

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Regular readers know that we’re a positive lot – and we’re very happy to hear that WELL Building Institute appears, like any good business, to have listened to the market and created the next version of the standard.

The next version of WELL Building Standard was recently launched by the International WELL Building Institute. WELL v2 is now more flexible to address local perspectives, languages and the most pressing health issues in different geographies, including here in Europe.

Since the launch of WELL, there has been an explosion of interest in the idea of buildings as health intervention tools. Better data, more research and evidence is demonstrating the impact of buildings and communities on our health. w Read more about this in our September issue.

AVOIDING THE BLAND Designing new offices based on deep data analysis is a mistake, says the co-founder of one of the UK's most expansionist co-working and serviced office business.

Charlie Green, who co-founded The Office Group in 2003, says design-bydata helps to create bland vanilla office buildings.

The Office Group, which has 31 office hubs in London and one each in Leeds and Bristol, says it does not indulge in detailed data-watching to inspire its office hub fit outs.

Rivals such as WeWork have invested heavily in data analytics to help create and refashion their network of co-working hubs in London and Manchester. They say the aim is to make each hub community-focused and encouraged communication between tenants.

Green says The Office Group is also watching the data – but by no means obsessively. ‘We like to see which meeting rooms are better used than others – and we try to learn from that – but I have to say we adopt a more human, intuitive approach to our office buildings,’ he says. ‘Pure data might work for others, but it doesn’t work for us.’

For more , see feature pages 30-32

Upfront | Perspective

PERSPECTIVE Andrew Bissell, Director of Lighting Design, Cundall Light4 Andrew has been at Cundall for over 12 years. His approach is to develop a narrative for the lighting design, so that it is unique to the client, ensures that the solution focuses on the visual needs of the users and the latest research and technology is used appropriately to deliver the highest quality of lit spaces. He has worked across all sectors in the lighting industry, with a focus on workplace, daylight design, galleries, museums, aviation, public realm and retail.

What is ‘Productivity Mapping’?

Productivity Mapping is a new methodology for assessing and visualising how effective a floor plate is at supporting productive working.

Name one thing that will have disappeared from the workplace in the next decade.

I worry that many people will experience an absence of sunlight

of health, views, daylight and lighting matures, then end users will recognise a good office from a bad one. It may well become very difficult for employers to convince candidates

Is there a new fad, buzzword or trend starting to surface in your world?

We are delivering more and more animated lighting solution into

Utilising simulation or real time indoor environmental quality data for temperatures, indoor air quality, access to daylight and views to outside, Cundall have been able to use the findings of global academic research to assess the hourly impact on productivity based on these factors. The tool can be used to review and optimise the annual impact of different architectural test fits or to understand which building would be able to provide the most productive environment during a due diligence process. A 2.5% improvement for an organisation with a £20M turnover is £500,000 – so payback period can be measured in days.

and daylight for most of their working day in the next decade. If the lighting guides or, say, the WELL Standard allows ‘circadian lighting’ to be delivered by electric light alone, then developers may simply omit the windows, add some circadian lights and declare a building as healthy.

to work in deep plan spaces.

workspaces. This is generally happening in deep plan spaces where there is effectively no link to the outside world, the time of day or the weather. We are introducing patterns of light and shadow, which change through the day, as you would experience with sunlight passing through the branches of a tree or through a structure or façade detail. When you consider that the lighting guides typically call for static lighting levels and uniformity, it is interesting that we are in a period where clients and end users recognise that variable lighting levels and patterns are preferred as they better reflect the natural environment.

What tech is occupying your thinking now?

There are quite a few, such as the ‘Machine Learning’, ‘Internet of Things’, ‘LiFi’, ‘Casambi’, ‘Light Quality Meters’ and ‘Circadian Lighting’.

Some of these technologies are not strictly new but there is a need to balance what is available, with what the end users and building managers will use. Not everybody needs everything – you must understand the people you are designing for.

What is the single biggest impact to the workforce that affects productivity?

It is not that simple to pick out one element and say ‘focus on that’.

For example, views are the most important or the amount of daylight is the most important. All indoor environmental quality parameters are important and need to be considered, as well as other factors, including stress. However, we do know that the affects of each parameter cannot be simply summated – there is a law of diminishing returns. So, as part of Cundall’s Productivity Mapping tool, we are able to tailor the effects of each parameter to different activities within a business.

Can artificial lighting replace natural light and therefore lead to a windowless office?

Views and particularly views of nature are vital to our health and wellbeing.

Equally, the spectral distribution, colour rendering quality and intensity of natural light is very different from artificial lighting. As our knowledge

What are the biggest challenges you and your team face?

There are now many projects where the lighting design is specific to the people and interior architecture within a space and the feedback is always positive. However, we are still seeing an insistence by some people in the industry for grids of lights, which deliver static lighting level and a high uniformity. We need to end this way of thinking if we are to improve the quality of office spaces.

What is the one thing that you would change when working with architects and designers?

Nothing, it is always perfect!

What was your most challenging or favourite project to date (and why)?

The Sainsbury’s Digital Lab in Holborn and Plexal at Here East are two favourites. Both spaces have been designed around the people within the spaces and the tasks they perform. The basement environment of the Digital Lab is vibrant and lively and feels nothing like you would expect. Equally, at Plexal, the lighting is far from a standard office solution and with wireless controls and mobile lighting, the space can be changed quickly and easily to suit the business demands of each tech company.

Can you share with us a lesson learned and never repeated?

Something often left out with regards to the lighting scope is the detail design. The early sketches and renders are great to sell an idea or lifestyle but there must be an equal amount of effort put into the detail.

What is the best thing about working for Cundall?

Our focus is all about people, the world we live in and what we can do to make things better for everyone. w

Mix 186 July 2018 | 17

Upfront | Seven

7

PLACES TO EAT IN AND AROUND BOROUGH MARKET

As long-term residents of the foodie borough that is Borough, our friends at CBS know a thing or two about the pick of the local restaurants, cafes and coffee houses.

Here are seven of their favourites.

1. Shrigleys A Borough High Street favourite is Shrigleys

2. The Gentlemen Baristas www.thegentlemenbaristas.com

3. Burnt Lemon Bakery www.burntlemon.com

– a great Moroccan café serving both sit down and takeaway lunches. The lunchtime favourite is the ‘chicken box’, which offers pieces of grilled chicken, pitta, humus, couscous, salad – and, for the brave, a chilli sauce that will take your breath away. Always busy, Shrigleys is run by a family team who always have a smile and consistently serve a brilliant lunch.

Located on Union Street near the recently refurbished Flat Iron Square, the Gentlemen Baristas serve excellent coffee, a must when getting into the office first thing in the morning. But it’s not only the coffee they are known for. At lunchtime there is a great selection of sandwiches and, for those with a sweet tooth, a great selection of cakes!

The snug downstairs is complemented by a 1st floor space and (keep it to yourself) a secret balcony – which is great for an after-work beer in the summer.

On the Union Street edge of Flat Iron Square, the Burnt Lemon Bakery focuses on sourdough breads made with organic flours milled in the UK and Europe. With a menu that is driven by what is available that season; the ever-changing menu of pressed sandwiches, cakes, tarts, and pies can be seen being made freshly on the premises each day from the street facing windows of the bakery.

A great space to go and relax in at lunchtime and recharge for the afternoon.

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Photo by Mark Dalton from Pexels

D AVISON H IGHLEY

4. Padella www.padella.co Every lunchtime Padella has a queue snaking out of the door. Why? They turn out pasta, made fresh on the premises, for a reasonable price – TimeOut London awarded Padella number one in the ‘cheap eat out for under a tenner’ category of restaurants, which explains the long queues.

It’s great to pass by and watch the pasta being made fresh in the window ready for the day – a clear demonstration of the quality food being served.

WUND ERWALL

LOOP

5. Roast www.roast-restaurant.com The formal floral hall atop Borough Market is where you will find Roast, which uses the finest seasonal ingredients to create classic British dishes. The lunch menu has a great selection of British meat to choose from, making this a great venue when the weather is cold and you need warming up. No matter if you come day or night, the views of a busy Borough Market or the dome of St Paul’s only add to the quality of the food being served.

6. Lupins www.lupinslondon.com Neighbours of Burnt Lemon Bakery, Lupins serves seasonal British tasting plates in their lovely restaurant space next door to Flat Iron Square. With an ever changing, seasonally driven menu, this is a great venue for a light and tasty lunch that combines the best ingredients of the specific season. The light and airy restaurant space only adds to the enjoyment of the food, offering a brilliant atmosphere to relax in before tackling the afternoon’s work.

7. Big V http://boroughmarket.org.uk/traders/big-v-london Great for some healthy, guilt-free street food, a burger from Big V (eaten on one of the benches overlooking the Thames near Southwark Cathedral) is a wonderful way to spend a lunchtime. What sets Big V apart from its contemporaries is their drive to create exciting vegan food using vegetables, beans, pulses and legumes to create dishes that are tasty and healthy – you won’t find any ‘fake meat’ here.

L ACE Y

Davison Highley London, Lower Ground Floor, The Old Brewery, 16 Brewhouse Yard, Clerkenwell, London, EC1V 4LJ

www.davisonhighley.co.uk +44 ( 0 ) 207 871 1089

I

magic@davisonhighley.co.uk

Upfront |

THE FURNITURE BETWEEN OUR EARS Workplace design is now driven by higher human needs, not actions, says Steve Gale

Team working saw its stock rise so high that it almost wore out the word ‘collaboration’

T

he models that people use to describe and design the workplace have evolved in a fairly lumpy way, but they do seem to have a general direction of travel. The

frameworks, theories and claims have migrated from the physical towards the metaphysical realm, from the mechanical to the psychological. If we go to work for more than money, we also design for more than our activities. Here’s a quick sketch.

Let’s take the 'scientific management' of Frederick Winslow Taylor as the Big Bang. He proposed that productivity grows with more efficient movement – the assembly line would be an example. You study the actions of individuals and devise their space and tools to remove unnecessary input. Less time wasted means more stuff done.

Bureaucracies were not new in the 20th century but this was their time – and they cried out for an intellectual discipline like the one Taylor gave industry. So management of people and workflows started to become professionalised. Early office models must have taken their lead from the military, which knew a thing or two about managing people, and allocated space according to rank.

All 'managers' had an office and, unsurprisingly, the size was directly related to their position in the hierarchy. This idea is far from extinct – it was not too long ago that I visited the old Ministry of Defence headquarters and the 1,000 doors along a 200 yard corridor, each hiding a blackboard, desk and the smell of pipe tobacco. It left a lasting impression.

We know how the economic sense of open plan offices spread across the UK and the US, and it needed a design framework. So we graduated, 50 years after Taylor, to a more office based version, which gave us the handy phrase 'activity based working'. The general idea is that people are more effective if they have a choice of settings instead of being located in one spot to do everything. So you provide quiet spaces for concentration, breakout areas for casual meetings, soundproof booths for telephone calls – and so on. This way we transcend the search for efficiency with a demand for effectiveness. This simple and rather obvious idea retains its currency today.

20 | Mix 186 July 2018

Productive settings were never going to be the holy grail. Next, we admit that people need colleagues to advise, assist and learn from. Team working saw its stock rise so high that it almost wore out the word 'collaboration'. The workplace began to morph into a forum for knowledge exchange. Designers and furniture makers competed to create physical catalysts for people’s infinite appetite to work together. This was done in the name of creativity and innovation, knowing that a man is not an island. Captains of industry promoted the value of 'collisions' and bought into the idea that accidental encounters on the way to the loo or the cafeteria would create osmotic transfer of relevant knowledge and information. Again, this idea is alive and well.

But there’s more, and this is where I feel we are today. The right settings, tools and proximity are still not enough to guarantee output, commitment and productivity. The attention has turned to individual motivation and happiness. How can the working environment help here?

The centre of gravity has swung glacially through doing, thinking and now feeling. It is common to talk in terms of emotional intelligence, the whole person, work/life balance, wellness...

Taylor would not have wasted time with biophilia, bürolandschaft did not include ping-pong tables, 'nap rooms' were not provided in the MoD HQ. The effect of the workplace on the primitive brain, which psychologists agree makes all the important decisions for us, is now being actively studied and experimented with. Designers are looking at our innate need for curiosity, variety, excitement and calm – and they are beginning to understand the human desire for respect and some control over their immediate surroundings.

This does not mean the earlier theories have been over-written or discarded, it only implies that they are just a part of the story, and can be assumed to be automatically incorporated into good design, just like a modern car has reclining seats and indicators as standard. Despite all the energy expended on creating the best functional environment, we are now reflecting on the importance of our internal furniture, between our ears. w Steve Gale is Head of Business Intelligence at M Moser Associates. SteveG@mmoser.com

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Upfront | Material Matters

1

3

2

4

MATERIAL MATTERS In this month’s Material Matters, the team of experts at Material Lab explores surfaces that marry cutting edge design with sustainability. www.material-lab.co.uk 1. Gaétan Bobichon creates design-led lighting from recycled plastic bottles Pet Lamps was born from Gaétan Bobichon’s desire to up-cycle and transform common everyday objects into functional products. Plastic bottles are cut into strips and thermoformed to create a unique recycled lighting solution. The Pet Lamps are currently available in red, dark blue and green but can be made from a wide range of pet bottles. www.gaetanbobichon.fr 2. Reclaimed wine barrels from Pladec make for a invitingly tactile surface Pladec recycled wine barrels offer an interesting and sustainable alternative to traditional flat wall panels. Offered in many different sizes and textures, this bespoke service allows you to create feature

walls for your specification. Ideal for any feature area, Pladec wine barrels radiate character with the aged red wine subtly staining the surface. www.pladec.pt 3. Gleam from modulyss provides a luxury and indulgent aesthetic with commercial durability.

Made from ECONYL yarn, this exciting new range from modulyss blends dull and glossy yarns to create a chic and mysterious aesthetic.

Gleam has been designed with commercial office environments and high-end hospitality in mind. The thick, soft finish broadlooms create a luxury feel, yet at class 33- LC5, making them suitable for heavy contract usage. www.modulyss.com

4. Ellie Morgan creates textural tessellations combining complementing coloured layers Using coloured Jesmonite and resin, Ellie Morgan has created a range of surface finishes that aim to create a relationship between tactile and visual stimulation. Sporting a muted colour palette, these versatile products can be used in a variety of environments, from residential through to commercial. www.ellie-morgan.com

Mix 186 July 2018 | 23

Upfront | Desert Island Desks

DESERT ISLAND DESKS Franky Rousell, Co-Founder & Creative Director, Jolie Studio

Franky co-founded Jolie Studio, a Manchester based interior design studio, in 2017, and has already been listed as one of Manchester's 30 under 30 entrepreneurs. Jolie Studio's philosophy is based around human experience and memories, playing with the five senses. She has applied these principles to her desert island choices, with the emphasis on a once in a lifetime, unforgettable experience.

My Drum Kit

Perfume

I’ve always wanted to play my kit

Jo Malone Dark Amber & Ginger Lily

on an empty beach, in the sun,

– a must have as a home comfort,

where no-one can tell me to be

and for generally just smelling

quiet! Plus, you never know, it

great. Even if no-one else would

could come in useful to ward off

be there to smell me, I would know

wild animal, or to sleep on if there is a storm and a flood in my little camp.

how great I smell and that's all that matters. A good fragrance to keep me motivated.

Swingball

My Dog Chip I wouldn’t go anywhere without Chip

Who doesn’t love Swingball? I could kill hours just playing this, a 90’s

and, although he would probably

classic that's still going strong

eat all of the mash and steal the

today. Also, again, a great weapon

ball from the Swingball, I would forgive him. He would provide

should it be needed – and who knows, the rackets might be great for hitting coconuts out of trees. It's a no-brainer.

hours of entertainment and gives the best bedtime cuddles. He also loves swimming, so I could train him to catch fish for me.

Mashed Potato This is all I need to keep me sane.

Giant Pretzel Lilo Obviously an essential – a buoyancy

Gravy would be an added bonus,

aid with a great sturdy shape. I

but not essential. Mash would see

could also sleep on this or hold it in

me through the dark times and

the air, like the lady in the picture,

would add to the great times.

to attract passers by. Chip could sleep in one of the little holes as well.

Plus, I do love a pretzel.

24 | Mix 186 July 2018

Tel 01925 850500 Email info@sixteen3.co.uk

Multicoloured Umbrella Hat I don’t understand why this hasn’t caught on as a go-to fashion statement.

Granted, it's not the most flattering look, but no-one would be there to see how fab I would look, plus it would free up my hands for fishing, climbing and just generally thriving. Turn it upside down, and you’ve got yourself a rainwater harvesting system. genius.

My tracks for the Desert Island Jukebox: Gabrielle Aplin – Home Blink 182 – Feeling This Moby – Natural Blues Beyonce – Drunk in Love Coheed & Cambria – The Suffering Camelphat & Au/ra – Panic Room

London Showroom The Gallery, 21-22 Great Sutton St. EC1V 0DY / Manufacture/Showroom Chesford Grange, Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 4RQ

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Upfront | Property Matters | Pipeline

IS SOMEONE STANDING ON THE HOSE? Let’s get this clear, right here at the top of the page: there isn’t much office construction going on. Anywhere. Period. market feels very late in the economic cycle. The funds that provide the money are feeling cautious about speculative office development – funding activity so far this year has been very restrained – and everyone is keeping their eye on interest rates, which will have the effect of softening yields, which will shrink funders’ interest in speculative office development even further.’

Those occupiers who can afford it – and whose long-term planning allows for long-term decisions – are signing up for pre-lets. Of the 4.7 million sq ft due between now and 2021 in the UK’s nine major regional office markets, 2.5m sq ft is already pre-let.

‘Not a fat lot of good,’ declares Charles.

The result of uncertainty (and occasional burst of pre-let activity) is likely to be a very lumpy speculative development scene – a building here, a project there, as confidence successively fills developers’ sails, only to sag a short while later.

Manchester, where 854,000 sq ft is being developed up to 2020 (but thereafter, zilch) makes a Two Chamberlain Square, one of a handful of UK regional speculative office schemes: It is an eight storey, 183,000 sq ft building developed by Hermes with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

On the face of it, this claim sounds untrue or exaggerated. Stand in London or indeed most UK regional centres and it looks busy – there are tower cranes on the horizon, rents are rising and big name occupiers are nursing substantial requirements. But most of the cranes are building apartments, rents are rising precisely because hardly any offices are being built and the big name occupiers are cooking up home-made workplace solutions (whether pre-lets, or localised re-thinks of their existing floorspace).

So here’s the stark truth. In Bristol and Cardiff, the office development pipeline runs dry this year.

In Birmingham it dribbles to a halt in 2019. Even in cities like London and Manchester, where there is the potential flow of development into the next three years, the supply stutters and splutters and is far from even. Glasgow’s extensive pipeline ends with just 97,000 sq ft in 2021.

And if you look for a supply of new UK office development beyond 2021, you will be disappointed: there isn’t any. Not a single development.

Why? The simple answer is that to understand the three words ‘office development pipeline’ you

26 | Mix 186 July 2018

also need to grasp the significance of four more: ‘late cycle’ and ‘alternative uses’.

‘Developers begun a series of speculative schemes which are now on site, and since then they have been sitting on their hands wondering what to do next,’ GVA National Director for offices Charles Toogood explains. ‘This is partly thanks to the uncertainties of Brexit. And partly because the

Two Chamberlain Square

fine case in point.

‘There’s new floorspace due every year to 2020, and then…nothing. Developers will decide what to do on the basis of how well the floorspace in the pipeline lets,’ says Andrew Gardiner, Director at Lambert Smith Hampton’s Manchester office.

‘Supposing developers and funders decided everything looked good in 2019 or 2020, we’ll still be waiting for a few years for buildings to come out of the ground, so that’s a few years of nothing.

In Bristol and Cardiff, the office development pipeline runs dry this year.

In Birmingham it dribbles to a halt in 2019. Even in cities like London and Manchester, where there is the potential flow of development into the next three years, the supply stutters and splutters and is far from even. Glasgow’s extensive pipeline ends with just 97,000 sq ft in 2021.

Planned Developments (x 1,000 sq ft)

2018

Manchester - 317 Cardiff - 154 Bristol - 64.5 Edinburgh - 37.6

2019

Birmingham - 570 Manchester - 113 Newcastle - 108 Leeds - 66

2020

Manchester - 166 Edinburgh - 122 Glasgow - 94 Liverpool - 90

2021

Glasgow - 97

2022

0

And if you look for a supply of new UK office development beyond 2021, you will be disappointed: there isn’t any. Not a single development.

London

London is – always – the exception to the UK office market picture.

It peaks sooner, it peaks higher, and it collapses spectacularly.

According to Knight Frank, 6.9 million sq ft of office floorspace is under construction in central London, a full 20% ahead of the yearly average. At this stage in the economic cycle that ought to be worrying – it looks like too much, too late. But only 4.9 million is due for completion in 2018 and 2019, representing about half of the take-up for new and refurbished floorspace.

Which is high, but not very high. Knight Frank concludes that the supply pipeline is ‘weak’.

Deloitte Real Estate complicates the picture, suggesting developers are getting ready for another burst of development – even if they haven’t started work on it yet. Deloitte say demolition has cleared the way for around 8 million sq ft of new, as yet merely planned, development. w

Upfront | Property Matters | Pipeline

Three Snowhill is the third and final office development on the Snowhill estate in Birmingham, now completing construction.

At 420,000 sq ft it is the largest ever speculative city centre office scheme built in the UK outside London, delivered by M&G Real Estate and development partner Ballymore.

Three Snowhill

This market is like surfing: lots of standing around waiting for the next big wave

This market is like surfing: lots of standing around waiting for the next big wave.’

In the meantime, little wavelets of occupier demand will eat away at the big waves of supply, says Andrew. The (more or less standard) assumption in regional cities is that 20% of floorspace will let before work begins, another 20-30% during construction and another 20% at or around completion of work on site. That leaves just a third of speculative floorspace as genuinely speculative.

Andrew – like Charles – is by no means confident that a steady pipeline of supply will resume after 2021. Not only does he share concerns about the wider economy, but the last decade of residential development has severely reduced the supply of potential office developments in Manchester and many other regional cities.

Referring to a development on Manchester’s northern fringe, Andrew says: ‘What started out as three 150,000 sq ft office blocks has now turned into one 150,000 sq ft office block and two lots of apartments – and that is the threat the office market is facing.’

28 | Mix 186 July 2018

Inevitably, much demand for new office space will divert into refurbishments – although they suffer from residential competition too. Quite simply, the office blocks that might have been refurbished have already been converted into apartments.

From his Birmingham office, Charles surveys the prospects of refurbished office space stepping in to fill the gap left by the dribbling pipeline of speculative floorspace – and it doesn’t fill him with hope.

‘Hotels, student housing, apartments – all provide higher capital values than offices, so landlords go for those uses instead. There’s now a shortage of refurbished space in the pipeline.

There’s just three in prospect in Birmingham – that’s 300,000 sq ft between them – and I’m struggling to think of any other realistic possibilities in the next five years.’

So how to explain the speculative office supply pipeline? Is it a draught, did someone forget to turn on the tap, or is someone standing on the hose?

Maybe it’s a little of all three. But for now, anyone expecting to get soaked had better forget it. w

Upfront | Property Matters | C-Suite

AVOID VANILLA

Same. Same. Same. If you were to be led, blindfolded, into an outpost of most of the world’s big serviced and coworking office providers, and asked to guess which city you were in, could you honestly say? Whether it is IWG (the Regus brand) or the more hipster-themed offerings of challengers like WeWork, the chances of distinguishing London from Paris, or Manchester from Mayfair, would be small.

Until you looked out of the window.

24 Greville Street (Farringdon) - Photo: Andrew Meredith

In the cases of both IWG and WeWork, their successful business formula is based on a carefully engineered standard fit-out style, which has been applied to new outlets. And it’s totally depressing.

This is the claim of The Office Group CoFounder and London office market guru, Charlie Green, as he surveys the competition to his growing chain of 31 London hubs, along with bases in Leeds and Bristol. According to Charlie, his is a crusade against vanilla. The Office Group pioneered the concept of the shared workspace in Britain. TOG launched in 2003, riding the pre-credit crunch tech boom with the aim of creating beautifully designed

30 | Mix 186 July 2018

buildings with a wide variety of spaces. Each building has its own unique identity, but all have a range of facilities and vibrant communal areas to foster an open, collaborative working culture.

Today, TOG has over 15,000 members and is home to a dazzling range of the capital’s makersand-doers, ranging from app creators and advertising agencies to financiers and foodies.

Last summer’s majority buyout of the £500 million business, by US private equity giant, Blackstone, heralds a new phase of growth.

‘We started 15 years ago to challenge the very corporate, very vanilla world of service offices,’ says

Charlie. ‘Back then it was so very uninspiring. There was a complete lack of consideration for design, and the obvious consequence of that is that tenants moved in but they didn’t want to stay. We thought we could produce office space that was much more considered.’

The Office Group rejected the cookie-cutter approach and it is Charlie’s proud boast that every one of their 33 offices is entirely different.

‘We always wanted to distinguish ourselves from traditional landlords and to focus on individual design. It means that each of our hubs is new, and the formula is fresh each time,’ he says.

24 Greville Street (Farringdon) - Photo: Andrew Meredith

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Upfront | Property Matters | C-Suite

151 Wardour Street (Soho) - Photo: Charles Hosea

Thomas House (Victoria) - Photo: Gareth Gardner

The Office Group 24-25 The Shard

The key to successful interior design is a close look at the exterior envelope, says Charlie.

‘Every building is different. You have to respond to that. And you also have to respond to the local market because the fact is that life in Mayfair is very different from life in Shoreditch, and your interior design has to reflect that,’ he considers.

The Office Group theory is that a standard design template – templates are branded ‘dangerous’ by Charlie – violates the two basic laws of property. Those laws say developers should, above all, think about the market context and the location. ‘Making each building different is really just following the traditional tenets of the real estate business,’ he insists.

The latest addition to the portfolio – the 100,000 sq ft Tintagel House at London’s Albert Embankment – is now winning tenants in its local Vauxhall market. The building has a peculiar history: until 2011 it was the (largely

‘The idea at Vauxhall was to create something beautiful and more thought-through than you would otherwise see in Vauxhall, so we’ve put in a café with a full commercial kitchen that is open to the public – for all the people who live around there – and there’s a garden open to the river, an art gallery, and a shop with a co-retail offer, which basically means there’s an opportunity for pop-up shops,’ says Charlie. There is also a roof garden, a library and a members’ bar. Quite a list!

Upstairs are the private offices with incredible natural light and a complete mix of sizes. On the top floor are meeting rooms and an apartment with a sunken bath.

‘We wouldn’t normally have put that lot into Vauxhall and we’ve spent a lot more than we would in a more traditional location, because we felt we had to make an impact in this location,’ Charlie says of the £15 million refurbishment, which included adding another 17,000 sq ft of new floorspace.

Universal Design Studio were responsible for

‘I’m not sure about mid-century design,’ he confides.

‘If it’s done properly and the context justifies it, then fine – but I don’t want it to become a cliché. Every one of our buildings is different. You can’t be predictable.’

Some rivals in the coworking sector would – by now – be raising their eyebrows, because being predictable is exactly what they want to be. How can a brand acquire a reliable reputation without being predictable?

So just as every Premier Inn hotel works (and looks) much the same, so every coworking and serviced office location should be predictable. The exceptions will be where physical constraints make this impossible or the tenant mix seems to demand something else.

Whilst WeWork offices are not identikit – there are variations from place to place – WeWork is nonetheless keen on using data analysis to drive design. WeWork obsessively collect data about usepatterns: the beer pump will be moved if it is not a successful focus for occupiers, furniture will be moved or replaced if it promotes contact and coworking between members.

discrete) base for much of the Metropolitan Police, and the fifth floor was the home of the secret counter-intelligence units tasked with tracking and infiltrating green protest groups.

The new design has banished that shady past.

‘Tintagel House isn’t an established business location, and the area has a strong residential catchment,’ says Charlie, referring to the mighty Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station apartments schemes now under construction.

Stanton Williams and Universal Design Studio have turned the 12-storey block into flexible office space – complete with a floating canopy roof and speakeasy-style club.

the interiors and were inspired by the Tintagel’s ‘secret life’ as the police HQ. Seriously policethemed materials such as brushed stainless steel were chosen in reference to the building’s history of innovation – particularly its role as the home of the first-ever police computer. Terrazzo and plush furnishings soften the harsher law-and-order materials, paying homage to the space’s mid-century look.

The phrase ‘mid-century’ gives Green pause for thought. Take a look around rival coworking spaces and you might think mid-century design was the only design option available – Charlie has done this and does not want to fall into a clichéd trap.

Charlie says The Office Group is also watching the data – but by no means obsessively. ‘We like to see which meeting rooms are better used than others – and we try to learn from that – but I have to say we adopt a more human, intuitive approach to our office buildings. Pure data might work for others, but it doesn’t work for us,’ he says.

The Office Group's approach is not cheap – a product, perhaps, of the strong bull market in London’s office sector over the past five years. Some in the property industry wonder if it could survive a tougher market. With Blackstone’s deep pockets – and a 15,000 strong membership base of loyal occupiers – the odds are that they certainly can. w

32 | Mix 186 July 2018

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Spotlight | Project Review

SPOTLIGHT

THE BIG QUESTION 37 The current workplace 'revolution' is actually just another stage in its evolution. Whilst the interior design world understands, lives and breathes this, are property developers and agents up for it?

Project Review 38 Mix 186 July 2018 | 35

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Q

Th e c u rre nt w o rk p l a c e 're vo l u t i o n' i s a ct u a lly j u st a n ot h e r st a g e i n its e vo l u t i o n . Wh i l st t h e i nt e ri o r d e si g n w o rld u n d e rst a n d s, l iv e s a n d b re a t h e s t h i s, a re p ro p e rt y d e v e l o p e rs a n d a g e nts u p fo r it?

THE BIG

UESTION

MARK ALCORN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, C2 CONCEPTS

JILL BANCROFT, DIRECTOR, BROWN & BANCROFT INTERIORS

HELEN BARLOW, DIRECTOR, HARRISON INCE

Agents and developers are as excited as we are and they demand more dynamic possibilities

In short, yes! We have seen a huge change in both attitude and approach from commercial

Yes. Agents and developers should be occupier-led – essentially their aim is to let space. While there

from real estate because tenants are onto it! The coworking brands are, in a sense, leading the charge with dynamic, connected, humanised environments that make people and businesses more communicative and somehow more extrovert.

It’s also a catalyst for a new phase in fit-out spec from building services to look and feel, departing from the more tired modules and iconography of austere office design for new creativity in interiors.

It’s a pretty exciting time for workplace design!

developers, who are more prepared to commit considerable time and money to work alongside interior designers in a bid to create buildings that excite and wow. And with the current trend of occupiers wanting more ‘bang for their buck’, the lettability of commercial premises depends on it.

may always be a need for some conventional office spaces, the growing trend among occupiers is for flexible and more creative space. Large corporate companies are looking at the workplace as an investment to attract talent and retain it, whereas smaller business are now seeking spaces that allow flexibility, collaboration and community. The workplace will always evolve – and agents and developers will need to evolve with it to meet the demand.

CHRIS BIRCH, DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, HILSON MORAN

LOUISE GRIMES, ASSOCIATE, AEW ARCHITECTS

ATILLA DENIS, SENIOR INTERIOR DESIGNER, SPACEZERO

I see a mixed bag both from the technical and geographical perspective. Developers and agents are definitely feeling the advantages of agile working practices and wellbeing in the workplace.

In the last 12 months, we’ve seen some great examples of innovative workplace design that’s starting to put people first. I believe the sector needs a Post Occupancy Evaluation evidence base, demonstrating the benefits of agile working in terms of efficiency, wellbeing and staff retention.

Umbrella editorial banner Mix Interiors July 2018 copy.pdf 1 C

Whilst economics is high on the agenda, developers are embracing the cultural values of the Workplace Revolution. Third spaces are being generated in making viable use of dead space such as a concourse of agile work settings, transformation of an undercroft, creating flexible event spaces or a biophilic inspired rooftop social idyll. Advancing technology as an enabler of anywhere/anytime, offering investment return by way of occupier preservation, portfolio marketing 25/06/2018 and15:19:09 brand awareness.

I believe developers and agents are not only ‘up for it’ but are encouraging the further catalysing of the movement. The recent revolution in workplace design has redefined the way an organisation perceives their workspace. As designers, we are tasked with conceiving revolutionary environments to accommodate increasingly bespoke needs for the client. Without the support of engaged developers and agents, the next revolution may never be discovered. They facilitated the last one – long may they support the next!

M

Y

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Mix 186 July 2018 | 37

Spotlight | Project Review

ACE STUDIES

Once again we bring you the cream of the cream – in the shape of a selection of the project entries we received for this year's Mixology awards. The projects, which come from right across the UK, represent the small, medium and large commercial interiors, and the hospitality interior awards. The Mixology judges commented on the fantastic quality of both the entries and the design firms who had entered this year's project awards. Tell us what you think...

align – Spark44 Located on the 11th and part of the 12th floor of the White Collar Factory, align have created a dynamic, highly-functional and client-sensitive workspace project for global creative agency Spark44 (an agency uniquely dedicated to fulfilling creative projects for Jaguar Land Rover).

The project focused on the mantra ‘Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Honest’, and delivered a high-impact colour palette of red, grey, white and black.

Modus Workspace – Ladbrokes LC2 provides a brilliant new home for the Ladbrokes-Coral technical teams, drawing on the heritage of the Olympic Park to create a collaborative, sportsinspired environment. The design works with the strong interior architecture of Here East, retaining the existing services infrastructure.

Gensler – Basecamp In pursuit of a new London headquarters, Gensler saw a perfect opportunity in Wapping; a chance to take an unseen part of London and transform it into a hub of innovation and creativity.

Their temporary home marks the first step in the journey towards a customdesigned permanent space, which will be completed in 2019.

38 | Mix 186 July 2018

Fletcher Priest Architects – The Clubhouse, Bank The Clubhouse Bank is the new offering from London’s leading business club, providing unique flexible meeting and workspaces. Designed by Fletcher Priest, the material palette references the look and feel of a boutique hotel, while communicating a warm, light interior aesthetic that offers a sense of desirable comfort.

BW:Workplace Experts – Conde Nast International BW collaborated with MCM Architecture, GDM Partnership and Knight Frank on the fit-out of their new office space in the Adelphi Building on the Strand. This was a groundbreaking project for Conde Nast International as it formed a milestone moving point in the move from print to the digital age.

Whittam Cox Architects – Berkshire House, Reading Berkshire House, originally constructed in the early 1970's, has undergone extensive refurbishment and façade replacement, which has brought an entirely new and contemporary visual identity to the entire building. Whittam Cox Architects, CityBlock and Torsion Group delivered a sustainable, premium quality asset, which has provided a market-leading residential offer to students in Reading

Saracen Interiors – Call Credit London Work for the client involved an intensive period of creativity and development, in the early design stages, to ensure that any space planning and subsequent fit-out activity – right down to the furniture selected and the mix of colours used – supported and honoured the brand.

HLW International – Capital One Capital One UK have unveiled a new, state-of-the-art office across two floors in the White Collar Factory in London’s growing tech precinct. To strengthen its presence in London, the new office is a showcase for modern agile working within the fintech industry. Capital One engaged HLW to conduct a full workplace analysis, develop a new and pioneering workplace strategy, design the most cutting-edge and inspiring space to work and deliver it to exceed its employees' expectations. The results are a workspace that showcases the business whilst creating a fantastic space for employees to work in.

Grimshaw – Yoox Net-A-Porter Tech Hub The Yoox Net-A-Porter Group Technology Centre interior fit-out celebrates technology, quality design and embraces the inevitability of change. Occupying the former BBC Media Works building at White City Place, the 71,500 sq ft office environment is now home to 580 employees and has firmly placed the company at the forefront of London’s growing tech industry.

Mix 186 July 2018 | 39

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Spotlight | Project Review

TTSP – 5 Savile Row Located within London’s exclusive Mayfair district, 5 Savile Row provides commercial office space over five floors with a bespoke reception entrance at street level. The reception design weaves together references from fine tailoring traditions, with a contemporary palette of olive ash, tinted cement, bronze metals and limestone.

Goddard Littlefair – The Principal Edinburgh, Charlotte Square The Principal Edinburgh Charlotte Square is a luxury, Grade I listed hotel, located within the UNESCO world heritage site of the New Town, Edinburgh. The project included a complete revamp of the hotel’s public spaces, 199 guest rooms, former courtyard space, The Garden, plus BABA – a new Levantine-inspired bar and restaurant.

Orbit Architects – ESCA Incorporating an ambitious plan to bring together eight separate organisations within one space, to create a Central London collaborative Hub, Orbit Architects responded sympathetically to the existing architecture of this listed building, using geometric patterns and soft colour palettes accented with playful graphics to create a fun yet professional interior.

LOM architecture and design – RocketSpace Tech Campus The fit-out and restoration of Regents House (formerly a cash handling facility) provides RocketSpace and their high-growth tech start-up business members with flexible working space. Set over four floors, including a former underground bank vault, LOM's design strips back the building to its original structural core.

BW:Workplace Experts – IG Group This project not only involved refurbishing IG Group's building in occupation but also the reduction of their office space. Despite the challenges, BW rose to the occasion. IG Group's new offices have become a beacon of style and sophistication and enables them to sub-let a percentage of their previously occupied space.

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K2 Space – DTRE K2 tell us that they genuinely loved working with DTRE to create their amazing new London workplace. From the outset, the project team was aligned and committed to creating a space where staff enjoyed working and that clients loved to visit – and they believe that is what they have delivered.

8build – Exponent, 30 Broadwick Street 8build undertook the high specification, luxurious Cat B fit-out for Exponent on Level 6, 30 Broadwick Street. Exponent is a private equity firm who hold substantial stakes in various large companies and were looking to relocate their London headquarters.

Perkins+Will London – The Economist Perkins+Will’s design for The Economist’s offices started by the team immersing itself in the weekly rhythm of the paper, to understand its essence and its people. They had to ensure that the culture of The Economist was preserved, capitalising on its richness to create transformational workplace fit for today and the future.

Spacelab – ASOS Contact Centre Spacelab have delivered a workplace for ASOS that redefines the traditional contact centre, embracing both digital technology and agile working. Using their unique spatial analysis tool, Spacelab strategically positioned different types of spaces and circulation routes to increase movement, visibility and collaboration, fully reflecting ASOS’ transparent and collaborative culture.

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KSS – One Twenty, Club Wembley One Twenty is a new exclusive members’ club, within Club Wembley, at England’s National Stadium – delivering a new benchmark in sports hospitality. KSS’ designs provide an experience that has never been seen before, with this ‘Jewel in Club Wembley’s Crown’ – the most in-demand hospitality space at the ‘Home of Football’.

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Spotlight | Project Review

NoChintz – The Daisy NoChintz transformed an unused basement space in Manchester’s Northern Quarter into a comfortable and luxurious, yet raw and honest, neighbourhood hangout. Now open as a member’s lounge and cocktail bar, the 145 sq m space is a new destination on the Manchester scene.

Modus Workspace – Gravis Gravis take a long term approach to their investments – their projects offer a human dimension and they wanted to reflect this in their new office environment. The clean, simple aesthetic combines natural finishes with a haptic design approach and has been designed to harmonise with the Gravis corporate re-branding.

Peldon Rose – XTX Markets The XTX Markets office design is inspired by sci-fi, mathematics and space travel, and sits in the heart of the King's Cross technology district in building R7. Designed to attract top talent and support their talented people, this futuristic office intrigues the mind – and is simply out of this world.

3Equals1 Design & BEH Interiors – Clarion Housing Group HQ Working in collaboration with construction contractor BEH Interiors, 3Equals1 Design led on the design of this grown-up classic scheme. Intended to stand the test of time, Clarion Housing’s new head office on the South Bank's More London gives them a timeless, high quality space, which will be enjoyed for many years to come.

align – Macquarie London For Macquarie's London office, align have created a small suite of inspiring, high performance workplaces that are a consistent representation of their global brand. Comprising a mix of traditional workplaces, collaboration, training and quiet zones, the spaces offer a choice of work locations for this agile organisation.

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Unispace – Deliveroo The design of Deliveroo’s first corporate workhub is critical to the development of a new brand, ensuring its young workforce are fully integrated and can flourish. It is a beautiful space: clean, simple and agile, bringing the Deliveroo team together under one roof for the first time.

BuckleyGrayYeoman – Fred Perry BuckleyGrayYeoman were appointed to design the new headquarters of international fashion brand, Fred Perry, in Mount Pleasant, London. The project involved the fit-out of three 19th century warehouse buildings on the corner of Mount Pleasant and Warner Street, creating 26,000 sq ft of offices, showrooms and gallery space.

HUT – Appold Studios Launched as part of British Land's new flexible workspace brand, Storey, this furniture warehouse building, located between Shoreditch and Broadgate, has been refurbished and extended by HUT. A series of shared spaces within and on top of the building are designed for fast-growing businesses and corporate clients in need of creative project space.

Gensler – Adobe London Adobe’s new playful London office, in the heart of the vibrant Tech City community, signifies the tech giant’s commitment to the future of the UK’s digital economy with an exceptional environment that’s optimally aligned to empower users, while also meeting current and future business needs. iDEA – RCA, White City iDEA created a self-sufficient site for all at White City, comprising 'light' technical facilities, flexible seminar and lecture facilities and studio and learning spaces. With in-house designed customisable workbenches made from scaffolding and wall graphics from Neville Brody, this really is an RCA home from home.

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Spotlight | Project Review

Oktra – NewDay NewDay appointed Oktra to design a bold and modern 30,000 sq ft workspace in a magnificent Victorian building.

They envisioned a coworking environment that would offer a mixture of formal and informal workspaces. NewDay required a design that would grant more working space to help promote collaboration and communication.

HUT – Ten Health and Fitness, Fitzrovia Ten Health and Fitness is a newly refurbished Pilates studio and boutique on the quiet and highly sought Great Titchfield Street in Fitzrovia. In keeping with Ten’s distinct brand identity, the studio was sensitively designed to host a plethora of classes and treatments, whilst weaving in a sense of wellness, sustainability and community to the building.

HKS Architects – Elsley House The new flagship studio for the London office of HKS Architects features flexible, collaborative workspace, with a focus on wellbeing and a fantastic gallery/ events space.

MCM – Havas UK The project involved the consolidation of multi-brand global media and communications company into a single 167,000 sq ft spec building, forming a new HAVAS Village creative hub. MCM designed an agile workspace to provide civil, creative and collision spaces to enhance interaction and collaboration between brands and open plan workspace, with support space, to accommodate 1,600 people.

Scott Brownrigg – Gartner Collaboration, technology and flexibility are at the core of the exemplary modern design for this new European headquarters for leading research and advisory company, Gartner. Reflecting this status, the design delivers a world-class client suite, bespoke employee training facilities and a stunning multi-functional atrium.

An impressive central hub promotes collaboration.

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Spotlight | Project Review

AIS Workplace – Arthritis Research UK With 30 million working days lost yearly as a result of musculoskeletal conditions, Arthritis Research UK sought a workplace design that puts the physical health of their people first. AIS has created a workplace that truly placed the users' wellbeing at the heart of the design.

ThirdWay Interiors – Periscopix Merkle ThirdWay's design for Merkle's new London HQ focuses on the importance of staff happiness and wellbeing. It is a new home for Merkle to grow into and thrive within. Staff feel relaxed and can work effectively within the space, as well as feeling a sense of pride in their environment.

Manalo & White with Tala Fustok/Culture in Architecture – The Mandrake Hotel Rami Fustok, the owner and visionary behind The Mandrake, first fell in love with the central London site in 2012, when he saw the dramatic potential of the space between two empty buildings. Manalo & White worked hand in hand with Mr Fustok over the following five years to realise his dream to create a new type of boutique hotel.

Wylde Interior Architecture Ltd – H3G GBM Reading Wylde IA were given a £14 per sq ft budget and just six months to refurb the 85,000 sq ft building, with 900 staff in-situ. It seemed impossible, but that was the challenge facing the team – and, thanks to everyone involved, they did it. That's what we call VFM!

Squire and Partners – The Department Store The Department Store was a derelict Edwardian retail building, revived as an inspiring workspace for Squire and Partners, which includes event spaces, generous breakout areas and a rooftop restaurant. It’s decayed grandeur reflects The Department Store’s past and current inhabitants by continually celebrating the process of craft and making.

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GOTO: oeelectrics.co.uk/oepandora

Spotlight | Project Review

Genlser – Hyundai Capital UK Existence requires continuous change. For a global business like Hyundai Capital, where growth and evolution define its culture, it was crucial to craft a workplace that reflects its progressive nature, whilst still having the flexibility to unfold with its workforce.

BDG architecture + design – Kobalt To design and build this great new London home for Kobalt, the BDG team needed to translate the client's evolving and growing teams' requirements into a showcase headquarters. Creating a space that marries their creative and technical teams has been key to the concept for the space. Taking Kobalt’s brand values of ‘honest, simple and humble’, the new office gives everyone fantastic opportunities – from grass roots to superstar.

Stylise Design Studio – Lindeth Howe Hotel Stylise Design Studio transformed the world-famous Beatrix Potter’s former home, Lindeth Howe Hotel, nestled on a hillside overlooking Lake Windermere. The former swimming pool has been transformed into a tea room, along with an updated bar, lounge bar and guest lounge, with unique features throughout, designed and installed by the team.

MCM – NFL International American football has been growing massively in the UK for the last 10 years.

The primary function of the NFL’s new space is to reflect the massively successful NFL brand – the largest sports franchise in the world. MCM’s concept creates an immersive, amazing experience.

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Space & Solutions – Ipreo This project features an inspiring, quirky, yet multifunctional reception, breakout and workspaces. This has been achieved by utilising the industrial aspect of the space, a striking reception desk and feature lighting to highlight key areas.

Spotlight | Project Review

HLW International – Which?

Which? is a diverse organisation with a consumer-first culture. The previous space was outdated and the business decided to refresh the building to help recruit and attract top talent, plus ensure it would accommodate the increase in numbers. The new workspace was designed to reinforce and grow a dynamic and creative culture, improving work flows, organisation effectiveness and also to break down silos.

MDC Group – Acxiom Corporation MDC Group were commissioned to complete an office fit-out in 72-hours.

The scope of work on this fast-track project included the relocation of a breakout area, installation of fixed and glass partitioning, new furniture, lighting, network and power cabling (IT), new floor finishes and plumbing works – all completed to an incredibly high standard.

Perkins+Will London – Deloitte Birmingham This project represents the next generation Deloitte office. It is the first of its kind for the company, with a full activity work based programme, an increased range of work settings and a complete shift away from a hierarchical-based office environment.

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Spotlight | Project Review

Michael Laird Architects – Cirrus Logic Cirrus Logic is an exciting mix of workplace and test lab areas in a new brand environment over six floors in Edinburgh’s Quartermile 4. This truly collaborative, international project combined the creativity, energy and expertise of some great people from all over the UK and Texas. The team have created a variety of highly functional, flexible and intensely inspirational spaces, lab areas and workplace settings for approximately 600 of Cirrus Logic’s Edinburgh team.

BDG architecture + design – Finsbury The design of this new workplace offers Finsbury a contemporary feel that reflects their brand and business strategy going forward, whilst also making reference to the iconic Grade II listed building, The Adelphi Building.

Thirdway Interiors – Chiswick Park ThirdWay's 'plug and play' office bridges the gap in the commercial market between conventional office lettings and coworking – a new sector they call Cat A+. Ready-touse right down to AV and data setup, Cat A+ spaces allow landlords to market immediately available, unbranded offices to potential tenants.

Keane Brands – Gabeto This bar/restaurant experience is a product of its environment – it doesn’t alienate locals and doesn’t turn away future trends.

Bold music, big artwork, mood lighting, drinks, fun and a striking restaurant on the 1st floor for intimate dining, this is a beautiful new space for weekend revellers and live music events.

IA Interior Architects – Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Erskine Conceived as a hub of activity, the facility’s purpose is to improve staff relationships and provide a space of refuge away from the workstation. The finishes are warm, welcoming and provide reference to the building’s industrial past. Cantilevered elements create views from above and below, while providing comfortable seating within.

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Roundtable

WHO CARES ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY?

Martin Townsend, Director of Sustainability, BRE Global Limited

Christopher Hay, National Sales Manager, Cosentino UK

Tony Matters, Creative Director, Faber

Peter Swallow, Senior Project Architect, Grimshaw

Tony is Founder and Creative Director of Faber, a specialist interior design and branding agency for the F&B sector, working for leading chefs, restaurateurs, hotels and retailers across the UK. He has 20

Peter has over 10 years’ experience, delivering projects across the United Kingdom, Australia and the Middle East. He aspires to surpass client expectations, through the application of biometrics and sustainable design methodologies to maximise energy

Martin has a diverse professional background, covering all aspects of the built environment, from advising UK ministers when he was an advisor in government, to his time as a regulator in the Environment Agency, and working as a civil

Chris heads up the commercial department of Cosentino UK, a company whose portfolio of products covers all aspects of surface applications, from Dekton façades to Silestone Vanities. With

engineer. He joined BRE as Director of BREEAM in 2008 to drive BREEAM forward in the UK and internationally. He works closely with the construction industry, driving sustainability issues right across the social, economic and environmental agenda.

17 years’ industry experience under his belt, Chris has witnessed the increased demand for design-led materials to offer the added value of sustainability and is a keen advocate that specifying the right product early on will help ensure this happens.

years' experience working with global brands and independent businesses, with a particular focus on F&B design.

efficiency and enhance human wellbeing. Peter is also a member of Grimshaw’s Project Sustainability Group, providing in-house support and training to ensure sustainable decision-making is embedded throughout all phases of a project’s lifecycle.

Phil Gray, Associate, Head of Sustainability, BDP

Jane Lawrence, Head of Interiors, Knight Dragon Developments

Una Barac, Executive Director, Artelior

Tim Bowder-Ridger, CEO, Conran and Partners

Philip is Head of Sustainability at BDP. The group sits within BDP’s Environmental Design Studio, which includes engineers, lighting designers and acousticians. He has successfully delivered a wide range of projects for public and commercial clients across the UK. He is currently spearheading BDP’s post-occupancy evaluation work-stream through engagement with past clients to develop a portfolio of projects and data that can be used to substantiate or improve BDP’s design quality.

Jane is Head of Interiors at Knight Dragon Developments and is working on the regeneration of Greenwich Peninsula. She was a Director at The Manser Practice until 2015 – and prior to that a `director at Conran + Partners.

During her 16 years with C+P she was responsible for interiors projects in the residential, museum and hospitality sectors.

Jane is a regular contributor to design debates for a number of periodicals, is a speaker at conferences, including The Sleep Conference, and an Associate Lecturer at UAL and UEL.

Una runs her own architecture and interior design studio, Artelior.

She has made a name for herself through her innovative design work across Europe – from leading the design team for the ‘Shaded White’ bedroom, which won a Sleep Hotel Best Room Design award, to the recent award winning MGallery by Sofitel Resort & Spa in Sarajevo.

Over the last 15 years, Una has focused her work on the hospitality sector, working with noted clients and brands including Four Seasons, Park Plaza, Hilton and InterContinental Hotel Group.

Tim is an architect who is passionate about creating authentic experiences centered around cultural spirit and personality. He brings his knowledge of the hospitality and residential sectors to design buildings and spaces that reflect local as well as international lifestyle needs and desires. As Senior Partner, he leads the design direction of the practice as a whole, as well as being responsible for the finance and operations of the business. He directly leads on a number of strategic projects, large and small, at home and abroad.

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Roundtable

I

t could be argued that sustainability appears on the agenda when we are; legally obliged to act, when it saves money (or some other commercial imperative) or when we feel it is good for the planet.

Often, it is very much in that order!

High profile environmental campaigns – not least the war on plastic – have perhaps started a discussion that will genuinely impact on the choices made by clients and designers. We all know the value of spending a little more on quality products, and perhaps now the architectural and design community stands a better chance when helping their clients make the ‘right’ choices.

Our latest Round Table assesses some of the pressures that the design community is under when the key objective is to land the job but still aim to provide a sustainable solution.

So, suitably surrounded by our sponsor Cosentino’s beautiful and sustainable products – who have been generous enough to take over their Old Street showroom for this Roundtable – we begin by discussing the real meaning of sustainability from our esteemed panel’s eyes.

Martin: One of the interesting challenges I find when talking with clients is that the word sustainability actually has a fairly binary effect – it either turns people off or it gets them excited. But when you start to unpick it and you start to say, ‘If you

Phil: I’ll be honest, the fact that the word sustainability is part of my job title has troubled me for the last six years! It means everything and nothing. I think Martin’s right – there has been a shift towards the human focus, the human-scale, although

get the design of this space right, it can be a more productive space.

You can create a space that has a really good health and wellbeing impact. So you’re looking at things such as circadian rhythms in terms of the lighting, you’re looking at VOC’s in terms of the materials you use – and actually that can really get people interested in the space, but not by using the word sustainability. Then you can start bringing in other elements, such as efficiency and durability. I think the word sustainability can sometimes be a barrier to actually getting people involved. When you start talking about the impacts on people, that’s when I think the conversation can get quite interesting.

it is still very much underpinned by economics. People are actually now realising that it is more about what you can get out of people, that people are happy at work, they’re taking fewer sick days, their tenure is longer, they recommend the company to their friends…and I think some savvy commercial entities have fully grasped that.

Martin: That’s a really good point.

If you look at a building, 90% of the costs are people related. So when you bring that into the equation and you say that keeping the workforce happy and productive is part of that cost equation of the building – it’s not about the capital costs, it should be about the lifetime cost.

Phil: The problem is that sustainability is not just about the environment, it’s also about social.

Tim: There are so many different elements to it. The way you talk about these things varies massively depending on the audience. For example, in the Asian market they have a culture where everything is knocked down and replaced every 25 years. You don’t have that layering that you have in London. Jane led a project together some years ago, for the Great Eastern Hotel, and we’re only just refurbishing it now. For a hotel, only refurbishing the rooms after more than 18 years is real

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Roundtable

sustainability – in that context it is about longevity and the economic benefits for the owners there.

When we tackle that same subject in Japan, it’s a very, very different conversation. Two years ago we completed the first LEED Gold project in Japan.

It’s a massive masterplan project. The willingness of clients to engage with us on an architectural level has always been a bit further ahead there – mainly because of planning permissions, so it is a commercial thing. If you go to India, for example, you can just forget that. In Hong Kong, every shop has an open front with air conditioning blasting – so you’re air conditioning Hong Kong! Of course, Hong Kong is getting hotter and hotter because all the units on the roofs are chucking out hot air.

The variants are incredible. I think we have to be very careful to not just talk about our local market because what we do is quite specific, to a local market.

With this global view in mind, we ask the rest of the panel about their experiences when it comes to longevity of design in the hotel sector.

Chris: It does very much depend upon the area of the hotel. Refurbishments normally occur between seven and 15 years. You normally find that public areas are changed much more regularly because there is more heavy traffic, but then, when it comes to the guest rooms, you find that they’ll stretch it for as long as they can before they need to change things – and even then the bathroom will be pretty much the last thing to get changed. From our perspective, if they put in the right material from the beginning, the longevity you’ll get will extend the life of the space.

Tim: With the Great Eastern, we’ve left the original tiling in the bathroom – because it was specified right and still looks right.

Martin: One interesting thing that we have started to see in hospitality is products been treated as services. So rather than actually buy a carpet, you lease a carpet. Rather than buy a lighting system, you buy a level of lighting. So you’re effectively saying to a provider, here’s my requirement – I’ll pay for the service. When it comes to the conversation about sustainability, it isn’t just about the products – it’s also about the business model.

Ultimately, we all want the right settings in our rooms, so our hoteliers are providing us with what we want – which are not very sustainable buildings.

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Roundtable

Peter: I think that people still see sustainability as a sacrifice. You’re doing something for the greater good – therefore it’s going to come back to hurt you. Actually, through these business models, isn’t there a way to shift people’s understanding of what sustainability means, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to lose out in some way?

Tim: Quite the opposite. On an interior design level, and this is something we’ve always tried to do, if you specify genuine materials, they can be there forever. Also, you should always strive to create the right design that has a timeless appeal – and not just do something for the sake of fashion.

Jane: I read an article where an architect was talking about recycling and sustainability. He said that if we specified gold and silver as our cladding materials, they would inevitably be recycled because they have a value. It’s trying to get people to understand the value of materials, isn’t it?

Una: I agree with what Chris was saying a little earlier about how long it takes for a typical hotel refurbishment – in our experience it is between seven and 15 years, although we have seen projects that are refurbished within five years.

These tend to be soft refurbs in heavy footfall areas in cities such as London and New York,

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which have heavy occupancies. When it comes to materials, they carry the embedded energy within them and therefore are often not really sustainable – or certainly are more or less so, depending on what you’re using. Ultimately though, the big things are the air conditioning units and the chillers. By their nature, hotels are not the greenest of building typologies. We can all sit here and happily debate this subject – but when we go to our hotel rooms on a business trip or a holiday we want different temperatures, different settings – which means a non-sustainable system. It is the MEP in hotels that is the big sustainability tick or minus. Ultimately, we all want the right settings in our rooms, so our hoteliers are providing us with what we want – which are not very sustainable buildings.

Jane: We want the right aesthetic too.

So is the same true from a workplace perspective?

Peter: From that point of view, it is perceived comfort. Everybody has a different perception of what is comfortable. That’s something that has to be at the forefront of any conversation about how you facilitate the services of a building.

The biggest challenge I’ve had is quantifying how to do that. Not so much the settings for rooms or getting into the technical side of things, but what people perceive as value to them – the things that will make the come back and use those spaces time and time again. This is something I’ve seen in a lot of educational facilities. One of the problems they have is that you now have students who have laptops and WiFi and comfortable living environments – so how do you get them to actually come to the university buildings when they don’t need to be in a specialised learning environment. That is a real challenge for that sector. Also, the way that the culture is changing rapidly in workplaces in the city, people have more dynamic work/ life balance, they’re not always in the office, they don’t need a dedicated space, there’s hot

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desking – this changes the way you think about environments and having controlled spaces, and when you’re not in a space from 9-to-5 you have a loose perception of what comfort is because you can move, you can find spaces and you know where you need to work, anywhere in the city. You start to create a mental map of your city and where is comfortable for you to work. That ability to not have a rigid working world that we came from in the 20th century will start to impact on how we plan spaces from an environmental point of view in the future. Going pack to the hotel market, I was fortunate enough to go to the recent Circular Economy event. One of the pitches from a start-up company there was to take products such as soaps and towels from hotels and put them to use in the community.

This was something I hadn’t thought about before. It really opened my eyes as to how hotels might be able to give themselves an edge against competition.

Una: Repurposing is something we are hearing about right now. The big hotel chains and brands are making a big effort to reduce their carbon footprint. They are, of course, encouraging travel so it is Catch 22 for them.

Jane: When I was designing hotels and BREEAM was still in it’s infancy, I did feel that there was a level of tokenism – it was a ticking boxes scenario. I don’t know whether it’s moved on.

Maybe this offsetting will make a difference. It can’t all be sustainable though, can it? There’s a balance between aesthetics, comfort etc…

Martin: I think that’s a really valid point. If you look at hospitality and, specifically, at a bedroom, what’s the relationship between the person occupying that space and their health and wellbeing? If it’s a good experience and it leaves them feeling healthy, they’ll come back. We are now becoming much more sophisticated in the way that we’re looking at buildings.

Jane: I agree – it is a bigger picture thing. We need the big moves to affect the small moves.

Phil: Giving people that ability to feel like they’re empowered has a huge psychological impact – that ability to control your local environment and start to have a global impact.

So what about the restaurant and bar sector when it comes to sustainability? Are they as accepting and forward thinking about the subject?

Tony: To be honest, and this is a real challenge for us, the vast majority of our clients couldn’t give two hoots about sustainability – unless you can package it up in some way that there is a benefit to them. There is this ‘localism’ thing going on, which does suit a more sustainable approach. Also, if you’re working for a brand, which is looking at a 20-25 year project, then they will invest in a base layer of durable, sustainable projects – although the manufacture of things isn’t really on their radar.

It’s more about commercial sustainability – about creating something that will do more than the usual five-year cycle when it comes to restaurants.

Jane: Yet the worry about the provenance of the food w

Roundtable

In Hong Kong, every shop has an open front with air conditioning blasting – so you’re air conditioning Hong Kong! Of course, Hong Kong is getting hotter and hotter because all the units on the roofs are chucking out hot air

Conclusion Clearly, this issue has come a long way in a relatively short space of time – and still has a long, long way to go. Businesses and their needs are constantly changing and evolving and, by pushing the socio-economic benefits of durable, sustainable products, materials and systems, the offer will become all the more attractive. This is a subject that truly matters to younger generations – and while it might not yet be something embraced around the globe, hopefully – in time – it will be. w

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Profile | August Petersen

INTER-STELLAR

When our friend and occasional Mix contributor, Kristoff DuBose of Cirkularis8 told us that he had someone we simply had to meet, we didn’t ask too many questions – we simply said ‘Yes’.

A

ugust Petersen has the brilliant title of Experience Designer at Intercom. More than 500,000,000 conversations happen every month with help from Intercom, the rapidly growing customer messaging platform. When we say rapidly, maybe meteoric would be a better description. Today, the company's cutting-edge software is used by the likes of Spotify, Microsoft and Shopify.

August, we’re delighted to discover, has some forward-thinking ideas about the working landscape. He, in turn, is delighted to have found a like-minded partner, in Kristoff and his team at Cirkularis8, to transition Intercom out of WeWork and into a new Shoreditch space (we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this one!).

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Taking a seat outside a Clerkenwell bar on a temperate evening, we begin by asking August about the origins of Intercom itself – and quickly learn that those origins weren’t what we were expecting. ‘Intercom started in Ireland about seven years ago,’ August reveals. ‘They were software developers who had their own consultancy and would work out of this hipster coffee joint and they were interacting with the barista there – and in that interaction they realised that, ‘You know what?

We know this person really well, we have these great conversations and this great connection – and through that connection we forgive mistakes, we’re generous in ways that we aren’t with the other customers…why does that very tangible relationship exist online?’ So Intercom is basically

the product that emulates that relationship you have with that barista or a valet or whoever it is in your life that you’re in contact with regularly. The mission is to make the Internet personal – to give a more personal touch to your digital interaction. It’s evolved in a lot of ways, introducing a lot of new tools.’

Prior to joining Intercom, August tells us that he worked on projects for major established tech firms, including the expansion of the Dropbox HQ in San Francisco. ‘There is an obvious lavish attitude to how these firms treat space,’ he considers. ‘Intercom is different in that it is a little more rough and unrefined – intentionally. The core tenets of what an Intercom employee is all about is that people show up, they do hard work, they go

Profile | August Petersen

Opposite, this page & page 62: Intercom is now looking to bring its unique working and workplace philosophy to its own dedicated London space for the first time, having previously used a WeWork space.

home and they enjoy their life. The office is not a trap to exploit you to work for 12 hours a day. It’s not a trap to keep you single and focused purely on business – and I think comes from the Irish heritage. It’s very much family orientated. There’s a strong belief in work/life balance.

‘I first worked with Intercom for maybe a little over a year on a consultancy basis – we did a project in San Francisco and a project in Dublin, to expand those two facilities.

'They are very different cultures – more different than we expected initially. We were maybe a few weeks into working with the Dublin folks before we realised that the relationship was more complicated than we first thought.

'I would say that Intercom is positioned in a very different way in Dublin than it is in San Francisco.

In Dublin, it is almost an engineering-focused business – where all the core product development occurs. It is very lucrative and enticing to software developers – it is the cream of the crop for that market and recruits and retains the best talent. In San Francisco, from where the general business functions operate , the staff there almost accept that they are part of this huge tech market. They almost resent tech in a way that I really love! They want to work for a software company, they want to help build the future – they don’t want excessive lunch and dinner and all the extravagance that’s

piled onto the Silicon Valley ‘dream’ – the whole ‘techstravagance’.’

‘One of the greatest proofs of this concept is that, last July, our CEO decided that we all work a lot, we all do a great job – so let’s have one week where the entire company simply closes. So we took the week off, starting 1st July – mandatory closure. Everyone go and spend time with your family, go on vacation, get drunk…whatever you want to do. There will be no emailing you, no one to bug you. We’re closing completely. You can all go and get a bit of sanity! Why would someone close their entire operation for a week? When you think about it, closing the business for a week costs a lot of money – but it paid for itself, two-, three-, fourfold just to have everyone back energised, rested and relaxed. It was amazing.’

August goes on to tell us that Intercom also has a completely flexible approach to holiday entitlement, admitting that it does have certain stigmas about it, but for this firm and this culture, it clearly works. ‘It’s based on accountability and responsibility. People work hard,’ he says.

We move on to talk about the Intercom space in London – or more specifically, the unique philosophy behind it. In our domestic lives we approach space in a very different way – we’re going to live here for 40 years and then we’re going to pass it on to our kids. When it comes

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Profile | August Petersen

to commercial real estate, with such short lease times, we might live in a space for 12 months – and then we’re going to move on. When you approach space from that angle, it really changes your perspective. We should be viewing spaces as installations – more so than as some permanent setting. From a financial perspective, are you really going to spend X amount of money on a project and put it all into the architecture – which then needs to be demolished in a year and half? Or are you going to spend it on the furnishings and the artwork – which can be disassembled and moved.

This totally changes what the priorities are. From an architectural perspective, this shifts the onus; and we seek more from our furnishings, from our artwork, we seek more from the technology and we seek more from the people who are in that space. These are things that won’t get demolished in a year and a half.

‘Also, just think about the value, particularly to a fast-growing organisation. A move or a re-organisation suddenly becomes an exciting experience rather than something tiring and dreadful. ‘We’re growing, we’re moving forwards, we’re upgrading’. This should be the mindset.

‘There are already enough issues when you are a fast-growing company – and moving shouldn’t be one of them. There are stages in a company’s growth. You start out as friends of friends and everyone knows everyone to suddenly reaching a point where you walk down the hall and you don’t know anyone, you have nothing in common.

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How do you scale a culture from maybe 100 people to 500 people in a way that you don’t feel like strangers? Also, your hire someone who in six months might be hiring someone else – how do you make those values translate all the way through the business?

‘What we’re doing at Intercom is to try to develop new ways of communicating a space. We need to make sense of all the nonsense! There needs to be a medium between the idea of ‘we know what you need’ and a free-for-all. It’s not about dictating – it should be about translating ideas into something real. I think this is really critical to Intercom’s future. We’re doing some interesting pilots in San Francisco right now where we’re asking people what they think could be better about the space and then giving them the tools to help design that – and then we’ll make it happen.

‘One of the biggest things they’re interested in is creating an energy and a buzz around sales.

That’s fantastic for a sales organisation. So how do you create an office space that invites noise and energy? We want to give them that – we want a space where they can go nuts. It will be loud, it will be crazy and it will be disruptive. But this is sales – and this is important for that group. Don’t stifle it.

‘We’ve essentially taken that group – and turned how they work on its head. They now have a huge, disruptive lounge in the middle – then we have desks scattered around it in a messed up fashion.

It’s annoying, it’s energetic, it’s dynamic – when you walk in you automatically feel caught up in it all. I think it’s fantastic that we could do that for this specific part of the organisation.’

Hopefully we'll meet up with August and Kristoff again – and see these philosophies in action w

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Focus | The Tech Revolution

Technology & the Workplace

Which technological innovation or innovations will revolutionise the workplace in the next decade?

Sam Sahni, Principal, Strategy at Unispace, offers a number of possibilities.

T

he potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is undeniable. It promises to shake up a significant number of industries, but the workplace is one area where AI or machine learning is going to be prominent. The integration of AI will, in theory, allow us to crack that thorny issue of productivity and start pulling workplace data into shape. Getting a grip on performance data and understanding the outcome of successful workplace design will revolutionise our market.

‘People Analytics’ as some are already calling such data, hits that sweet spot where workplace, HR, and IT collide. This area is the future of the sector and the successful integration of technology carries massive potential benefits. Thus far, workplace professionals have relied on HR to offer human-level insight or to better understand ‘people and performance’. But if this kind of data on staff movement, attendance, productivity, choice of location, utilisation and collaboration is readily available, then it will empower the workplace discipline.

Perhaps we will end up being the advisors on staff attraction and retention, as AI will allow us to

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observe and predict pressure points across the business?

Most practitioners understand that AI already has the ability to learn an employee’s preferences around desk height, lighting, temperature and conference settings – and to adjust accordingly.

Which, quite frankly, I think is a glorified SIRI or Alexa. I think what everyone really wants to know is: ‘Will AI shrink my need for space?’ or ‘Will my workspace look different because of AI?’ The real difference will begin when AI enables frictionless working beyond the physical workplace.

For example, we are working on combining calendar (meeting changes), transport (traffic/ trains) and weather (clear/ rain) data for a user, which will give them back an extra 15 minutes in the morning. How would you quantify an extra 15 minutes of sleep in the morning to better productivity during the day?

What are the challenges to the adoption of this kind of tech?

The heated debate around the use of personal data has raised red flags at tech companies around the world. And has only given greater onus to the

right to privacy and just how our data is being used. The workplace will be no different, and will possibly be more contentious.

Journalists at the Telegraph have already very publicly made their objections known to the use of workplace sensors and this is far from being the first example I have heard. The monitoring of employee data – while legitimate according to the vast majority of employment contracts – has to be handled very sensitively. This is particularly the case when external contractors are handling said data and, with AI, that may well be the case as that is where the expertise will lie. To properly gather and use data required for AI, firms must take a three-step approach: anonymising data, ensuring full transparency of what is available to view and where, and that they opt-in to the process.

It is the latter of the three points that is critical for our sector – from the early stages of strategy and planning, we will have to set our objectives clearly and communicate the benefits of AI and data collation to the business and its workers.

Retaining a sense of humanity in the workplace will be a significant challenge – the concept

Focus | The Tech Revolution

of machine learning already evokes a sense of dystopian dread among some people, rather like watching an episode of Black Mirror. This will fall to the workplace team of the near future to offer reassurance and extol the many potential benefits of AI. Access to and storage of data will also have to be re-addressed in light of the EU’s GDPR regulations. This policy has been put in place to try and ensure that we all have control and access to any personal data that is being stored by another party.

Google and Microsoft are best placed to lead machine learning in the workplace because they have data access to where people sit, who they talk to and certain productivity measures. There is significant value to be had in predictive analytics and to help anticipate costs around churn and future real estate cap ex.

Microsoft has already developed a workplace analytics tool that measures collaboration, while Google Analytics can assess which teams are collaborating within an organisation. Beacons and sensors can check-in people. IBM has Watson

to analyse and predict workplace trends. Data collection and intelligence mechanisms are already in place – the market is far more advanced than many realise!

So in what ways could our lives be revolutionised by technology, which currently seem unimaginable?

There are wonderful advances being made right now that entail the evolution of the frictionless workplace – an AI-enabled space that can guide you from entrance to workplace via the intelligent of selection of space for the work and the interactions you will undertake on a given day. The way the likes of IBM are heading, I understand that they will be able to deliver you the perfect coffee with a personalised selection of coffee beans.

When you factor in the likes of Biometrics, which will enable anything from activating entry to the door by silently scanning your retina, to checking on stress levels via vital signs, then the workplace sector promises to be a very exciting place over the next 20 years and more.

The introduction of tech like this will make the workplace a better place to be – and certainly far

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Focus | The Tech Revolution

removed from the light-deprived, concrete boxes that workers crawled home from in the 70’s and 80’s. However, the role of the workplace will not have moved too far from its original point – it is a space that brings people together, allowing ideas to collide, for concentration and for learning.

Tom Carroll at JLL recently wrote: ‘We expect more businesses to ‘humanise’ their workplace through digitisation and smart technologies, using employee satisfaction, performance and wellbeing as the new way to measure success.’ It seems counter-intuitive to envisage tech as a humanising force but that is what we must not lose sight of, however exciting technology might become.

On a very pragmatic level, an issue that has to be mastered is sucking-in data and project information to enable project teams to pull together and deliver better results for clients.

Given the way that so much of the sector has wrestled with BIM, it almost seems unfathomable that such a seemingly prosaic task could be mastered – but the benefits, for the client, would be manifold.

At Unispace, we have had a crack at this approach with our uniBIM product, which allows us to integrate different tech across the various phases of the project journey, from strategy to design and construction. The impact on both cost and project schedule is such that I would hazard the proper integration and use of tools such as this will be a holy grail for much of the sector over the next five years.

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From the perspective of progress there has always been a lag between technological inception and ultimate adoption

Will continued advances in technology mean the end of the workplace as we know it?

No. We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, it would seem – and we are going to find a new balance. From the perspective of progress there has always been a lag between technological inception and ultimate adoption.

Many pieces of tech that we are excited about now will fall by the wayside, some will be just plain wrong, and there will be left-field creations that will come late to the game. Just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done – the workplace is a place where humanity converges to produce something better; technology will enable this but cannot replace it.

Users who are concerned about privacy and a potential de-humanising effect on the workplace eye technologies such as AI wearily. From my perspective, AI will greatly enhance the client experience in the workplace. This is not just about big data but making the average working day more productive and enjoyable!

If access to data allows us to cut working commutes by 15 minutes, save time searching for a meeting room or tracking down lost documents, it can make the work experience better. This is the very positive, human outcome of greater access to data. Every day we waste time trying to access information that is buried across multiple different platforms. The availability of a single, intelligence data-source will provide a happy outcome for people and place. w

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Case Study | Halkin

Bright Blue It’s only a matter of 48 hours before Mixology – our annual Summer Ball. It feels a little strange to be walking past Old Billingsgate, especially seeing as we haven’t been since this time last year. There’s plenty of activity around the former fish market, as the venue’s team prepare for that night’s glittering event. By the looks on the faces of some of that team, it’s even stranger for them to see us! ‘What? Are we setting up for the right event here? It’s not Mixology until Thursday!’ We reassure them that we’re not here to see them ( just yet) and they need not worry.

Right Each floor has its own style Far Right The entrance to the coworking club

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Case Study | Halkin

T

he reason we have come to Lower Thames Street is that, somewhat ironically, we’re here to see an exciting new project right next door to Old Billy. For those of you who don't not know the area or are struggling to get their bearings, the Northern & Shell Building at 10 Lower Thames Street is the landmark blue glazed building situated on the north side of the Thames, which has until recently been occupied by Express Newspapers Group.

Resonate Interiors has transformed the interiors for this classic 80’s building (it was completed in 1985) for Halkin, the forward-thinking serviced office provider. Resonate was required to create a space

Southwark, what unifies all Halkin buildings is stunning design, the best tech and the promise of an intelligent, human service.

The Northern & Shell Building is undoubtedly the group’s most ambitious project to date – and Resonate’s Pernille Stafford can tell us more about its origins. ‘We’re actually in a Halkin building ourselves,’ she explains ‘Michael Kingshott – Halkin’s Chairman – is our landlord. One day, his son, Jonathan, gave me a call and asked me to come down to see him. He asked if we designed offices and when I said ‘Yes’, he said that he might have a business opportunity for me – and the rest is history!

‘We’ve since been doing lots of stuff together

that would appeal to many types of small to medium occupiers, to service their needs and provide a supportive environment to build their companies. In addition to this, Resonate was briefed to transform this dated space into a landmark facility and to create a ‘wow’ factor.

Founded in 2015 by experienced SEO providers Michael Kingshott and John Morley, Halkin is a dynamic venture at the forefront of a new generation of smart buildings. With 30 years’ combined property experience, the Halkin team has created a unique offering that reflects the current demand for design-led, community driven spaces. Each Halkin centre differs from the last – from the established, elegant Mayfair, to the vibrant, pioneering

– as well as this we’re looking at three other sites in London, as well as projects in Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Brussels. They currently have five sites in and around London.’

We ask Pernille about her initial thoughts when faced with the Northern & Shell Building. ‘What a hideous building!’ she laughs. ‘The building itself is split into sides, with the atrium in the middle. When you go into reception downstairs, into the 12-floor high atrium space, you just think, ‘Now there’s an architect with an ego!’ It’s unbelievable. We’re now working on that space – the big job here! It’s very much of its time right now, but we’re working through the floors themselves and then we’re tackling the atrium itself.

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Case Study | Halkin

Left The deck offers amazing views Below The stylish Halkin reception

‘We’ve done five floors in this building – it’s all serviced office space. The 4th floor is the coworking club, which has an amazing deck with views across the City and the Tower of London, which is perfect for entertaining or relaxing away from the office space.

‘The amazing artwork throughout the building comes from Michael Kingshott’s own collection.

Michael has so many ideas and so many plans – it’s very exciting to be working with him and the team here.’

The coworking club is elegant and eclectic, featuring a variety of comfortable club-like breakout settings, beautiful finishes, a carefully curated furniture selection and a quite brilliant contemporary take on a fireplace, with water and

When you go into reception downstairs, into the 12-floor high atrium space, you just think, ‘Now there’s an architect with an ego!’

light (apparently) replacing the fire – thankfully, on this warm June afternoon.

‘The furniture selection comes from Rainbow,’ Pernille tells us as we admire the various settings in front of us. ‘Once people get a membership here they can then come into the lounge here and use it as they wish.

‘Beyond this we have the terrace – and it’s a big terrace! They are currently constructing the club bar out here. It’s such a privilege to work on buildings such as this. We’ve been working with a great French contractor – and we really sort of

Mix 186 July 2018 | 71

make it up as we go along. It’s been a very informal process. There’s no project manager, no QS – it’s felt like a lovely family of people and we’ve been having a really good time! It’s been a great journey.’

We move up to the 6th and 7th floors, which have been re-designed by Resonate to provide smart new breakout spaces so that multiple occupants may use it for impromptu meetings or informal chats. Black framed partitioning, interesting wall graphics and stunning artwork from the client provides a professional yet comfortable atmosphere. The serviced office spaces themselves benefit from more of those amazing views across the Thames and the City, fantastic natural light and generous amounts of space. The furniture here, we’re told, is cleverly smaller than your typical workstation provision, with the majority of occupants utilising thin Above Take a cosy seat by the 'fireplace' Right Artwork comes from Michael Kingshott’s own collection Opposite Page Meeting rooms feature brilliant glazing manifestations

technology. The white furniture is matched with white walls, essentially creating a blank canvas for occupiers. There is a real mix of open plan working space, more cellular office space and meeting rooms throughout the floors, to cater for the needs of the variety of prospective clients looking to use the building. Noticeably, there is no Halkin branding anywhere to be seen.

The client lounge on the 8th floor has been fitted out with veneered walls, another stunning ‘fireplace’ and bespoke lighting and detailing throughout, providing a luxurious ambience.

‘Each floor is slightly different,’ Pernille tells us, ‘which is really nice. We didn’t just want to do loads and loads of the same, so we’ve designedin quite a lot of variety between the floors – each floor has s slightly different ‘theme’ with different manifestations and finishes, for example.

With so many exciting plans if the offing, both here at the Northern & Shell Building and further afield, we’re fortunate to be able to grab a coffee with Jonathan Kingshott, We ask him about the serviced office market itself. ‘If you look at the market here in London and in new York, where it is very mature and the people who use serviced offices are quite used to the concept, it is becoming more and more competitive and is more about the look, feel and quality of the

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Case Study | Halkin

facility – about the quality of the furniture and the technology,’ he considers. ‘That is why we have engaged with Resonate and invested a lot of money in the interiors – and also in audio visual equipment in all of our meeting rooms. We need to provide the latest state-of-the-art technology throughout.

‘This is, perhaps, a level of investment that we’ve haven’t made previously. It’s definitely paying dividends though – and we wouldn’t hesitate to make that decision again. I think that, by bringing a professional designer on board, we’ve been able to set ourselves apart from the competition and to create something unique.’

Speaking of investment, and bearing in mind the massive undertaking that is the atrium space, we ask Jonathan about the length of lease Halkin has here. ‘We’ve taken a 10-year lease,’ he tells us. ‘We’ve got just shy of 55,000 sq ft spread over five floors – so it is a big commitment for us. The team here has spent the last five months, round the clock, fitting out this space. We’ve got a very good working relationship with the landlord and, as a result of the quality of the work that we’ve undertaken on the floors that we occupy, we’ve also got involved in the work on the ground floor – it’s been a snowball effect. Everybody in the building is benefiting from this refurbishment, which is great for us all.’

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Case Study | Halkin

Does Jonathan see a very different clientele coming into this space compared to the other established Halkin facilities? ‘As you might expect, we are tending to attract more corporate organisations here, from the financial sector and the insurance sector,’ he considers. ‘If we go south of the river, to our Southwark facility, we do tend to get more creative companies and more start-up businesses.

‘One of our USP’s is to take on quite large spaces and one of the distinct advantages of doing that is that we can help accommodate the corporate letting market as well. So, if somebody is looking for a single floor of 10-12,000 sq ft, we can accommodate them. That helps us de-risk our exposure in the building.

‘The larger corporates are looking for a degree of flexibility and are only wanting to commit for periods of two or three years. Their businesses are changing and the whole we conduct business has also changed.

‘The whole mood has been lifted throughout the building,’ Jonathan enthuses as we say our goodbyes. ‘I think this is a really good example of, with the right design input, what can actually be achieved in what was an unloved, tired space.’ w Right Dynamic feature lighting in reception Below Central collaborative hub

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74 | Mix 186 July 2018

Review | MixInspired

Tomorrow’s World With the sun reflecting off the modern architecture of Manchester Spinningfields we could have been forgiven for forgetting that we were in the supposedly ‘grim’ North. In fact, just a week later, a number of the Mix team were in Chicago for NeoCon – and they certainly didn’t experience such beautiful weather.

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B

efore turning pink, we headed into the shade and cool of the XYZ Building and made our way up to the award-winning, critically acclaimed Shoosmiths Manchester HQ – the venue for our latest MixInspired event.

This was our 12th MixInspired – and our fourth in Manchester, the theme of this event was ‘The People Shaping Tomorrow's Workplace’.

We would of course like to thank Shoosmiths for allowing us to host in such an amazing space – and also a huge thank you to our sponsors,

Hodder + Partners, Carolyn Mellor, Owner & MD at homes4u and Tim Pinder, Chief Executive at Peaks & Plains Housing Trust. Here’s just a taste of what was said by our brilliant speakers.

With no less than three end users on our panel, we began by asking whether there is any downside to clients today being more knowledgeable and savvy – and, naturally, directed the question to the non-client first. ‘As an architect, I think the answer is quite simple,’ Stephen Hodder considered. ‘I’ve always made that case that what any architect

Colebrook Bosson Saunders and Spatial Office Environments.

We were delighted to find a packed house, full of the North West’s specification sector, who were eager to hear from our expert discussion panel of leading end users and designers, which comprised Nick Atkin, Group Chief Executive at Halton Housing, Stephen Hodder MBE, Chairman of

needs at the outset of any project is a really good brief – and I can’t emphasise that enough. If you get the brief right, you get the design right. We need to spend far more time developing a brief because that does lead to successful outcomes. To my mind, that means a knowledgeable client and an engaged client – and there are examples where we have worked with clients who haven’t been as

Review | MixInspired

Our Panellists Nick Atkin Group Chief Executive, Halton Housing Nick has driven the transformational change of Halton Housing to enable it to be best placed to meet the future opportunities and challenges the housing sector faces.

Included in the top 25 most influential people in housing, he is a keen advocate of innovation. He uses digital as an enabler to drive fundamental change in how businesses operate.

He is also a disruptor in the ‘future of work’ debate – and has been paperless for 16 years!

I’ve always made that case that what any architect needs at the outset of any project is a really good brief – and I can’t emphasise that enough. If you get the brief right, you get the design right.

Stephen Hodder MBE Chairman, Hodder + Partners Stephen Hodder MBE is Chairman of Manchesterbased architectural practice Hodder + Partners and formerly RIBA President.

He’s described architecture as 'a way of life' and believes that its successful delivery can now only truly be achieved through collaboration. The practice is currently working on projects including Gary Neville’s £200m Manchester city centre mixed-use scheme, St Michael’s, and the largest gardening project in Europe, RHS Garden Bridgewater.

Carolyn Mellor, Owner and MD, homes4u With Carolyn's roots in retail, she brings an eye for detail and a passion in customer service to the property industry. Creating a well trained team with a single vision and desire to be the best is Carolyn's measure of success.

Aside from homes4u, Carolyn is on the board of Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre , a building designed by Sir Norman Foster, which has won a number of awards over the last couple of years.

engaged and therefore the outcome has not been as successful. I applaud a knowledgeable client – and I applaud a very demanding client. That, for us, from personal experience, is when we produce our best work.

‘The client must be engaged not just from the beginning – but right the way through the process. I always think that the client is very much part of the team.’

So how engaged was Nick Atkin when it came to the Halton Housing project? ‘Very!’ he immediately replied. ‘I think the workspace is the most important thing – I think it is at the very heart

of an organisation’s culture and sets the tone in what a business wants to do. The move to our new workspace was the culmination of four years of culture change within the business; to work in a completely agile manner and to break away from desks. We found that the only reason our people really needed a desk was because they needed a screen to hang some fluffy animals from or to put a picture of their family on because they never see them, and they also needed a pedestal – which was the hardest thing to wrestle away from them, by the way – and all that was in them was some out of date Cup-a-Soup and some pens that didn’t work!

Tim Pinder, Chief Executive, Peaks & Plains Housing Trust Tim Pinder leads Macclesfield based Peaks & Plains Housing Trust; offering good quality affordable homes to those unable to access the highly priced East Cheshire market.

Tim is restless for change; whether that be in the way that services are delivered, the way staff are organised or in the way that the working environment is structured, designed and functions.

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Review | MixInspired

‘What we wanted as a client was someone to understand where we were going and what we could do, practically, to help us achieve that next step in terms of our cultural journey.’

‘I was very passionate about what I wanted to happen for our business – because I wanted something very different,’ Carolyn Mellor considered when discussing the evolution of leading estate agent homes4u’s work and retail spaces. ‘Our previous branch had been very different – this was 18 years ago, in 2000. We had a coffee shop at the entrance to the sales and lettings area. At that time there was no Internet access, so coffee was very much what was right back then.

‘With this new branch, which I felt was in one of the best positions in Manchester – facing the Hilton – what I wanted to do was to have something that really led, something that estate agents weren’t doing. I wanted to adapt to what people really want and need nowadays.

‘I had some ideas in my mind, but I needed someone to take those ideas out of my mind and put them on paper.’

‘In common with the others, I had a very clear view of what we wanted to achieve and I knew the right designer to help us achieve that,’ Peaks & Plains Tim Pinder told our audience, regarding the Mixology North award-winning project that has helped transform the Macclesfield-based business.

‘I didn’t go out to tender, I didn’t go to a framework – I knew the designer who was going to realise our dream for us. So, from that point of view, I was an incredibly engaged client. I was passionate, I was very clear in my old mind what success would look like – and I was confident I knew the person who would help me deliver that.

‘I’m pleased to here Stephen say that, from his side of the table, designers do appreciate clients

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Review | MixInspired

I think the workspace is the most important thing – I think it is at the very heart of an organisation’s culture and sets the tone in what a business wants to do.

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Review | MixInspired

We were occupying too much space at too high a rent, that was taking up a disproportionate amount of our overheads – and we needed to do something about it

80 | Mix 186 July 2018

Review | MixInspired

who do push them. I know from our residential work that if we don’t push designers we can end up with some pretty bland housing – but, when we turn the heat up, it is amazing what can be delivered.’

‘We do have to think about what we mean by ‘the client’,’ Stephen added. ‘When it comes down to workplace design, we’ve found that it is about evidence-based work – it is not just about engaging with the client, it is also about engaging with the people who are going to use the building – which I guess it what Tim and his team are doing. Very often, problems occur when there is a disconnect between the client and the people who are actually going to use the space.’

The panel were then asked what they felt were the key drivers behind workplace transformation.

‘The key driver for us was purely economic,’ Tim explained. ‘We were occupying too much space at too high a rent, that was taking up a

disproportionate amount of our overheads – and we needed to do something about it. To do something about it effectively, we needed to shrink our floor size. We occupied 60% of our multi-tenure building beforehand and we now occupy 37% and we’ve not lost any members of staff through that transition. By just really focusing on how much space we need, how it is configured, what it can do for us, how we want the space to look and feel – getting rid of C-suite offices and banks of formal desks – has helped us achieve that aim. As we own the building, it also meant that every square metre saved we were able to rent out and create extra income!’

‘I don’t think there’s a single driver for transformation,’ Stephen considered. ‘I think, inevitably, the big shift that we have seen is through technology. That has introduced a completely different approach to workplace design – through the flexibility it offers. Increasingly, it’s

also more about the individual. We’re finding that more clients and developers are concerned about the individual and are now offering the greater flexibility that the technology affords.’

Like Tim, cost was also a key driver for Nick and his business. ‘We previously had two offices, both of which were a compromise really,’ he explained.

‘We’ve now been able to create a much more imaginative and inspiring workplace environment, where people come to collaborate, rather than somewhere they just come to bang a keyboard for eight hours a day – and that’s at less cost!

One of the other things, for me, is recruitment and retention. This is a big thing for us. We’re stuck in between the bright lights of Liverpool and Manchester – nobody grows up saying ‘I want to work in Widnes!’ We wanted to create something different, somewhere people would value – somewhere people would feel better in and want to stay.’ w

Thanks to our Sponsors

Mix 186 July 2018 | 81

High Voltage When organising any event – as many of you will be all too aware – there are certain things that will always be out of your control. For the past 12 years, for example, despite the fact that we’ve had absolute and complete trust in our brilliant team, Mixology has made us scour every weather forecast and weather app – with fingers and toes firmly crossed for dry weather. This year, we needn’t have bothered. With no rain or poor weather in sight, we could (to a degree) relax.

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Review | Mixology

T

he perfect weather ensured a packed terrace once again, with Mixology guests enjoying a cocktail and a glass of fizz by the river – just one of the many reasons we love Old Billingsgate so much!

For Mixology18 we wanted to give our guests even more – and following those idyllic riverside drinks and the delicious dinner, we unveiled the amazing High on Heels quintet of talented female musicians who joined our Editor, Mick, on stage and played live throughout the awards ceremony (yes, those ‘stings’ really were played live!) prior to accompanying superstar DJ, Seb Fontaine, on stage later in the evening.

There were also more highlights than ever from the much-anticipated Mixology awards, which saw a number of our winners celebrate on stage ‘mob-handed’, including MCM, who scooped Design Practice of the Year, Brixton’s Rawside, who won the Manufacturer of the Year award and Modus, who picked up the Design & Build Company of the Year.

Mixology ‘Chief Judge’ Mark Simpson was deservedly presented with the Henry Pugh Outstanding Contribution Award – receiving his award with a bit of typically punk attitude. We love that!

There were a total of five major project categories, with awards going to Gensler, Perkins+Will, Squire and Partners, tp bennett and Manalo & White – a real who’s who of UK design. The night’s big product award winners included Orangebox, Tecno SpA, Herman Miller, Panaz and J+J Flooring, while Jones & Partners were presented with the Product Design Team award and Umbrella collected the award for Furniture Provider of the Year.

We couldn’t do it all ourselves, of course, and there are a number of people we need to thank for their contributions.

Firstly, a huge thank you to all our sponsors – we really couldn’t do it without you.

We’d like to say a big thank you to Morgan for the matchday programme – and thanks to Connection for the ever-popular photo booth.

We’d also like to say a huge thank you to our awards judges for their time, efforts and expertise.

So thank you to Caroline Cundall, Director of Interior Design at InterContinental Hotels Group, Reward Gateway founder Glenn Elliott, Sjjdc’s Simon Jackson, Penkeths’ Mark Penketh, BSI Group HR Director, Sally Sellars, BDP’s Mark Simpson, Criteo’s Head of Workplace Experience, Mike Walley and last, but no means least, Neil Usher, Executive Consultant at Unispace and workessence.

Once the award ceremony was over, the dancefloor immediately filled as Seb Fontaine and the girls from High on Heels produced a seminal Mixology set. Oh what a night!

Mix 186 July 2018 | 83

Review | Mixology

Young Designer of the Year

Product of the Year - Flooring

Product of the Year - Surfaces

In association with The Furniture Maker’s Company sponsored by KI

J+J Flooring Group - Tri-Plex

Panaz – Patternistas for Panaz

sponsored by William Hands

sponsored by CMD

WINNERS

Felix Smith – Northumbria University

The standard of this year's entries was probably the highest we've received. The award was voted for online by Mix readers, with Felix being a clear winner, delivering a product that is fresh and innovative - while also managing to be sophisticated and professional.

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This was a clear winner with our judges, offering something of great quality and a very good price point for the commercial market.

The judges were unanimous in their choice of winner in this category. Featuring retro designs that appeal to a wide range of sectors, this product is incredibly versatile and offers something a bit different.

Review | Mixology

sponsored by Interface

Tecno Spa – W80 IOT

This highly engineered product, which is both elegant and innovative in design, was another stand-out winner for our judges.

Product of the Year - Loose Furniture

Product of the Year - Task Furniture

Orangebox – Fielding Tables

Herman Miller – Cosm

sponsored by IdeaPaint

The judges loved the design of this product, along with the variations offered to users. In a market with lots of ‘me-too’ products, it was refreshing to see something stand out from the crowd.

sponsored by Havwoods

In such a crowded market, our judges found a clear winner, describing Cosm as a game changer in task seating. Sleek, innovative, beautiful…just some of the adjectives used to describe this product.

WINNERS

Product of the Year Lighting, Technology & Interior Accessories

Mix 186 July 2018 | 85

Review | Mixology

SMALL Commercial Interiors Project of the Year

MEDIUM Commercial Interiors Project of the Year

LARGE Commercial Interiors Project of the Year

Genlser – Hyundai Capital UK

Perkins+Will London – The Economist

Squire and Partners – The Department Store

WINNERS

sponsored by Connection

The judges agreed that this new space offers contemporary, flexible working through a variety of different settings, tailored for an expanding workforce and helping to accelerate innovation for a forward-thinking client.

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sponsored by Office Furniture London

The judges were won over by this project, commenting on how the space was really considered. The designers had really thought about how people collaborate – and designed the space to meet those needs.

sponsored by Colebrook Bosson Saunders

The judges were all in agreement that this design was the clear winner, commenting that they all wanted to work there themselves! It doesn’t get much better than that!

Award winning comfort for everyone No matter who sat in the chair before you, how long you’ll be in it, or what you’ll be doing, Cosm gives you instant comfort – anywhere you work. www.hermanmiller.com

a desk is…

… a table that works really hard. So we called ours, ‘Worktable’.

Rawside Furniture is a London-based, designer, builder and lover of the most practical office furniture on Planet Earth Winner of the Mixology 2018 Manufacturer of the Year Award www.rawside.co ~ hello@rawside.co ~

@rawside

Studio: The Undercroft, Kennington Park, 1-3 Brixton Road, London SW9 6DE Factory: The Old MOT Centre, 17 Cranmer Road, London, SW9 6EJ

Review | Mixology

Public Sector Interiors Project of the Year

Hospitality Interiors Project of the Year

Design & Build Company of the Year

tp bennett – TfL, 5 Endeavour Way, London

Manalo & White with Tala Fustok/Culture in Architecture The Mandrake Hotel

Modus Workspace

The judges commented on the openness of the design and particularly liked the nod to the heritage throughout. They also agreed that tp bennett had made great use of finishes throughout, which helped to make this project a clear winner.

sponsored by Cosentino

The judges found this an exciting project, commenting on how cool and interesting it is.

They also felt that the hotel has an eclectic feel and can offer the guest a real experience thanks to the design.

sponsored by Johnson Tiles

WINNERS

sponsored by Camira

The judges commented on this company’s really strong business growth in the past 12 months, along with a great integrated approach to their people strategy and some truly impressive projects – making them a clear winner in this category.

Mix 186 July 2018 | 89

Review | Mixology

Furniture Provider of the Year

Product Designer/Design Team of the Year

Manufacturer of the Year

Umbrella Furniture

Jones & Partners

Rawside

WINNERS

sponsored by Koleksiyon

As a business run by a knowledgeable, passionate and multi-disciplined team, our winner offers a diverse furniture selection that has seen it win a number of impressive projects over the past 12 months.

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sponsored by MF Design Studios

The judges were really impressed by the fact that Jones & Partners has now designed and manufactured over 100 commercially successful projects, for a list of over 30 clients globally – and continues to deliver outstanding solutions.

sponsored by ThirdWay Trust

The judges felt this business has come a long way in a short space of time – but have also kept true to themselves. Genuine authenticity, along with a great client list and a really positive ethos made these guys stand-out winners.

Review | Mixology

sponsored by KI

MCM

Our judges felt that MCM has enjoyed a particularly impressive past 12 months, completing critically acclaimed projects, with the project for Havas picking up the BCO Best Fit Out of Workplace in London award.

The Henry Pugh Outstanding Contribution Award sponsored by Orangebox

Mark Simpson

Our winner boasts over 30 years in the business and is the only person to have been part of every Mixology judging panel since the event’s inception. Recently promoted to Principal at BDP, Mark is one of the bestknown designers in the UK – and remains a great friend of Mix Interiors.

WINNERS

Design Practice of the Year

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THE OTH O B O T O PH Sponsored by

BOLD FURNITURE FOR MODERN PLacEs

Alfresco Bench

Showroom 8 Clerkenwell Green London EC1R 0DE

jennifernewman.com

Review | NeoCon

One L of a Show This year marked the 50th anniversary of NeoCon and, although we’ve yet to meet anyone who’s visited all 50, we know plenty who feel as though they’ve been to every edition. The queues for the ‘elevators’ alone will do that to a person.

C

ertainly, by mid-week, when the majority of British visitors to the show are heading home, there are moans and groans of weariness and exhaustion. Then again, that will happen if you’re burning the candle at both ends.

And lets face it, everyone’s going to be burning said candle – this is Chicago after all.

Yessiree, all the queuing in the world is forgiven once you regain your shizzle and remember that

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you’re in the Windy City. It’s a bit like the furniture fair equivalent of giving a child a treat for being so good at the dentist!

Don’t get us wrong, we genuinely like NeoCon. No, love NeoCon. It might be way too busy (which is clearly not a problem for the showrooms and exhibitors looking to show off their latest kit), difficult to navigate and too big to properly get through in just two or three days, but it is also

a showcase for a large number of the most impressive furniture manufacturers on the planet.

And we shouldn’t be complaining about too much!

We should also be aware that this is a different show from the NeoCon we first visited way back when. So much more of what is on show is relevant to the UK market (much of which is following in the wake, of course) and even the average visitor is not who we first encountered. Back then, as we recall,

Review | NeoCon

we were forced to squeeze into a lift (elevator) at the Merchandise Mart with half a dozen (you couldn’t fit many more in) large American chaps with equally large voices, all clad in plaid in chinos.

Today, we’re nestled amongst cool girls with piercings and tattoos!

In the short(ish) time we do have at the Mart, we are also able to detect a number of emerging (and re-emerging) trends when it comes to product.

Firstly, European influence is everywhere – from the most American of American firms through to, well, the Europeans. In line with this, wood is very much the favoured material at this year’s show, featuring on a huge proportion of the new tables and chairs launched.

As you might expect, there are a lot of soft seating products to admire, together with one or two impressive task chair introductions and

We’re not ones to work too hard on the Sabbath, but we’re more than happy to take a good look at the dramatic and immersive installation by London-based designer Benjamin Hubert. NeoCon marks a new look for the Allermuir brand, whose collaborations with the likes of PearsonLloyd, Mark Gabbertas and Wolfgang CR Mezger are bang on trend for the show. Axyl, Oran and Turo all receive plenty of attention from the early-bird visitors – and

some intriguing acoustic solutions. Furthermore, the phone booth is incredibly prominent, with Framery claiming the prize for monopolisation – although it is also great to see Mark Bailey on the 7th floor, constantly busy with clients, who clearly see his ‘beefed up’ Mikomax booth as an excellent alternative – and so they should!

While we can almost hear the groans from the Irish bars as the Cubs get hammered on Sunday afternoon, we’re using our heads for once and getting our badges for the show sorted, before heading up to see our friends from Allermuir, who are hosting pre-show drinks (and a fabulous spread of food) in their superb 3rd floor showroom.

quite rightly so.

Main pic: Steelcase This page, clockwise, from left: Allermuir, Muuto, Senator, Humanscale,

Mix 186 July 2018 | 95

Mix Design Collective Educate

I Engage I Experience

Part of Mix Week Manchester 4th - 6th December 2018 INNSIDE Manchester

Thank you to our partners:

Mix Desig n Collective is free for y ou to attend

Celebrating the best national and international design experience. Mix Design Collective is a must-attend, three-day event during Mix Week Manchester.

Experiences and Designers Heart Space

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For more info and to register: www.mixdesigncollective.co.uk

Review | NeoCon

Left BuzziSpace Below: Boss Bottom left: Herman Miller

Suspending time and belief for just a minute or two, we should mention that (over the next couple of days) we also visit the Senator showroom, which featured the impressive Pailo – a softer approach to more formal bench desking systems that explores new ways to introduce fabric into the workplace.

Staying with leading UK brands, taking centre stage at the Boss showroom is the incredibly versatile and stylish ATOM, created by Simon Pengelly. The company is also unveiling Mango – a personal workspace with an acoustic privacy screen and multi-positional writing tablet for quiet and private working.

We move into Monday – and that means several thousand people join us, eager to get a first peek at the industry’s latest innovations.

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The newly expanded and redesigned Steelcase Chicago WorkLife, which picks up the Best Large Showroom and Best of Competition at NeoCon 2018, is also probably the most talked-about showroom throughout the week. We’ve made no secret of our admiration for the Silq chair (which is displayed floating in mid-air) and here it is joined by a number of other impressive newbies. We really like the sit/stand Mackinac Collection, which also appears to float and is shown with beautiful timber tops, while the B-Free Cube also turns our heads.

In total, Steelcase and its family of brands scooped six Best of NeoCon Awards, an Interior Design HiP Award and a #MetropolisLikes Award – making them the Michael Phelps of Chicago.

The showroom brings together Steelcase, Coalesse and Turnstone, along with an extensive new network of partners for the first time. Two distinct areas complement one another and are smartly designed to highlight a new vision for the future of work. WorkLife demonstrates how a ‘smart + connected’ workplace can improve the employee experience and drive innovation, while the all-new Steelcase WorkCafé features a dynamic array of spaces designed to support the wellbeing of people and to foster connections.

Herman Miller is every bit as busy as Steelcase – both in terms of visitors and new products.

Interestingly, we’ve already heard a couple of negative reports about the curated nature of Miller’s showroom. We disagree. We applaud anything that makes navigating such a ridiculously busy space easier. Having recently added Maars and Hay to its family of brands, Miller is demonstrating its full breadth of products and capabilities at NeoCon 2018. It’s also good to see some kit from our own Naughtone, who tell us

they’re delighted to have been approached to show their own latest seating creations. Naughtone’s own showroom looks the business – with new products in cool, acid finishes turning many an American head.

We’re particularly intrigued by Overlay – a system of sub-architectural, movable walls that can create freestanding rooms – while recent Mixology award winner Cosm is difficult to find, so dense is the crowd of visitors around it.

Review | NeoCon

Humanscale weren’t shy on the new product front either. New executive seating range, Summa, exudes luxurious simplicity. With auto-recline and tension automatically established by the

iteration of the Rockwell Unscripted Sawhorse Table, won a Best of NeoCon Gold, while over at the HiP Awards, Marc Newson's Aluminum Side Chair scoops the award for the Workplace: Guest

hospitality and casual work in freestanding spaces or along perimeter walls. We also like the Borough lounge pieces, by Studio TK. This modular seating collection comprises elements that bring the home

user’s weight, Summa offers seamless support and comfort for the boardroom. Smart Ocean, meanwhile, is the embodiment of Humanscale’s commitment to sustainable manufacturing.

Incorporating almost two pounds of recycled NetPlus material, Smart Ocean is hailed as the first ergonomic chair built with this recycled material.

Further introductions include impressive task lighting, monitor arm and intelligent technology tools.

The ever-popular Knoll showroom’s focus was Hospitality at Work, illustrating the power of bringing together the Knoll constellation of designdriven brands within an immersive workspace planning solution for commercial, healthcare and education spaces. The showroom featured five themed spaces that illustrated Hospitality at Work – Welcoming Environments, User-Directed Experiences, Flexible Solutions, Material Variety and Residential Aesthetic. At the 2018 Best of NeoCon Awards, Knoll benching solutions sweep the category – and we can see why. Rockwell Unscripted Sawhorse Workbench, an enhanced

Seating category. It also might just be our favourite new product at the entire show.

Finnish brand Muuto has taken over one side of the Knoll space – with the cool new Outline collection quite rightly receiving plenty of attention.

Moving on, Canadian giant Teknion features Banqs, a PearsonLloyd designed collection of sofas with screens, tables and accessories. It smartly creates banquettes and linear booths for public and corporate applications, satisfying the need for

into the workplace.

We hope no one at KI takes offence, but the last thing we expect upon entering the showroom is to see large-scale tattoo branding everywhere.

We quickly learn that the reason behind this cool change of tack is that the company is launching the Tattoo Collection, which provides a platform of solutions that allows users to move, manipulate and modify their personal and collective spaces.

This innovative approach to a systems-like solution

Clockwise, from top left: Senator, Herman Miller, Boss, Steelcase, Humanscale

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Review | NeoCon

Left: Okamura Middle: Boss Bottom: Allermuir

encourages higher levels of personal privacy,

them due to the number of clients surrounding

interaction, ideation and reflection. It’s very good.

Haworth is another to tap into European talent and influence. The new Soji task chair is designed

by Haworth’s own Arne Dassen, who was born and raised in Germany, while the stylish Maari seating collection comes from Oviedo’s Patricia Urquiola.

The Euro-collaborations don’t stop with furniture either. Shaw Contract is showing the brilliant Inside Shapes collection. Developed by über-cool Scandinavian design firm, Form Us With Love, the inventive floor tile collection features four shapes, a myriad of colours and 17 premixes. This is real ‘go play’ stuff the interior designer.

While we really like the nature-inspired Textured Sky collection, new products are not the only things making the good folk at Milliken happy this NeoCon. They are (quite rightly) proud to announce that their space is the first showroom in the Merchandise Mart to receive WELL Certification, along with being the first WELL Certified Platinum space in Chicago. Impressive stuff.

Sticking with global flooring companies, it’s good to see the guys from Interface (who, like us, will be Howling at the Moon later tonight) – who have brought a few design friends out with them.

Back at the show, Interface introduces Visual Code, a carpet tile collection, and Drawn Lines, a luxury vinyl tile collection, which both pull inspiration from technology and nature. Whether displayed on their own or paired together, the products offer a colourful, engaging environment for a range of spaces such as corporate offices, healthcare and education.

Elsewhere, we’re impressed by the BuzziSpace showroom, which features some fantastic seating, acoustic and lighting products, while we spot Tom and Luke, aka PearsonLloyd, in the elegant Andreu World showroom – but can’t get anywhere near

them. Shame not to catch up, but great to see such enthusiasm for their latest creations. The British design duo is presenting Ruta, a debut collection for the acclaimed Spanish furniture brand, featuring a range of upholstered sofas, armchairs, ottomans and tables.

LUCTRA are dipping their toes in American waters, showing their luminaires in the Inscape showroom. The space is an immersive biophilic habitat with products and technologies that go beyond the usual green walls and large windows – with the biodynamic LUCTRA luminaires adding plenty to the environment (no pun intended). For the record, we love the RockIt Bench!

So, Chicago doesn’t disappoint. Then again, Chicago never disappoints. We meet up with the guys from Hunters, The Furniture Practice, Senator, PwC’s Carl Gearing, Jones & Partners, BDP’s Mark Simpson, Knoll’s David Cunningham, the aforementioned Mark Bailey…European influence everywhere! w

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Review | Workplace Week New York

New York Times

The design industry can have a hugely positive impact on people and broader business performance by understanding emotional and spatial journeys, and by funnelling this crucial insight into curating workplaces that support the totality of the employee experience.

This was the central theme that emerged from this summer’s Workplace Week New York.

F

ollowing a successful six years in the UK, Workplace Week 2018 landed in the States this June. The philanthropic event, which is run by global workplace consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) and supported by the International Facility Management Association Workplace Evolutionaries Group, showcased workplace innovation and creativity, with all proceeds donated to the I Have A Dream

As the pioneer of Wellness Real Estate, DELOS was a stand-out tour. The organisation showcased its workplace at 860 Washington Street, in the heart of New York City’s Meatpacking District. The office, which illustrates how best practice meets the highest building certification standards, features a multifunctional lab space to process wellness data from a network of environmental sensors throughout the space, and an enhanced circadian lighting

Foundation – New York (IHDF-NY).

Big names including Ted Moudis Associates, HOK, Workplace Fabric and Allsteel participated in the week-long programme of fringe events. Experts offered insights into how designers and architects can link space, design and technology to drive a positive and productive workplace culture.

Also marking its Stateside debut between the fringe events was the Workplace Trends conference.

Featuring neuroscientists, psychologists and workplace specialists, the impressive speaker line-up offered delegates the chance to become familiar with the latest research, containing the clues to effective, evidence-based design.

Andrew Mawson, the leader of AWA, set out the research that supports the rationale for transitioning to modern ways of working. Arjun Kaicker, from Zaha Hadid Architects, looked at how algorithms and machine learning are creating unprecedented opportunities to design workplaces that enhance wellbeing and performance. Following Neil Usher’s entertaining breakdown of his book, The Elemental Workplace: The 12 Elements for Creating a Fantastic Workplace for Everyone, Leesman’s Tim Oldman took the audience through a data-dive of the world’s largest workplace effectiveness database, which contains more than 300,000 employee responses.

The dynamic programme of events also included a busy schedule of ‘working workplace’ tours across the city. A dozen organisations, including WeWork, Delos Living, Structure Tone, Nickelodeon, Neuberger Berman, Willis Towers Watson and Deloitte, opened their doors to showcase their design and operational strategies. By adopting various approaches to reenergising their workplace and branding stories, the organisations participating in Workplace Week revealed how their design teams had optimised occupant health, wellbeing and performance.

experience.

Learning from and applying the DELOS insight, Structure Tone’s Manhattan headquarters achieved the first WELL Certification in New York City in the spring of 2017. Designed by Gensler and developed with the health and wellness of employees at its centre, the 82,000 sq ft office space incorporates innovative wellness features and designs throughout to make the space more collaborative and to provide the best opportunities for employees to interact with the built environment.

In November, Workplace Week London will be back for its seventh year. Expanding on the learning from across the Atlantic, the programme will explore how the architecture and design community, in partnership with the real estate, facilities management and human resources spheres, can boost productivity and improve the user experience through being playful with space. w

For more information about this year’s event, visit – https://www.workplaceweek.com/ workplace-week/london/london-2018/

Delos Living

Structure Tone

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SELECTIONS

True-to-life surfaces from UNILIN, division panels Through proprietary technologies and an innovative approach to product research and

Play a little with INVISTA Antron Carpet Fibre Owing much to the soaring popularity of the Bauhaus movement and its bold use of geometric shapes and strong colour, Play sees bold

development, UNILIN panels stand apart for incredible authenticity, with surface finishes that are almost imperceptible from the materials they replicate. Whether taking on the imperfections of craft and nature in texture or employing technology to reduce light reflectance for a better black, UNILIN panels introduces a true-to-life look and feel that is unparalleled. unilinpanels.com

and vibrant shades prevail through blocking.

Underlining our growing focus on wellbeing in the workplace, the theme captures the fun of design, contributing to spaces that facilitate escape from the everyday and instil a sense of happiness in the workplace. Driven by its role as a mood influencer, Play is dominated by cheerful tones across the spectrum. www.antron.eu

Celebrate Variety with Vita Décor Using direct digital print technology to place wood and tile effects directly onto the face of natural cork, Vita Décor delivers a distinct look that brings the universal familiarity and adaptability of these materials with a subtle cork texture beneath. No matter what the design, all Vita Décor floors share the same performance, harnessing cork’s unique attributes to ensure great sound absorption, underfoot comfort and thermal insulation. granorte.co.uk

A Transperfect transformation After the recent fit-out of its European headquarters in the newly renovated Aldgate House, London, global business translation company, Transperfect, is enjoying the design and performance of carpet tiles from modulyss.

Specified by interior design and fit-out experts, GTA Interior, three designs from modulyss are now in use in the meeting rooms and open plan offices of Transperfect, meeting the need for a hardwearing floor product that works with the industrial concrete finishes and exposed services www.modulyss.com

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Wayfinding just got easier Modern flooring means that a myriad of choices and finishes are now available, with some beautiful results. However, without an encyclopedic knowledge of installation methods, it can be difficult to accommodate multi-flooring types into one design. With the new Paragon Carpets Duera luxury vinyl flooring, the 5mm thickness allows the product to be installed alongside over 300 Paragon carpet tile ranges, with no additional sub-floor preparation. Create amazing wayfinding flooring schemes with no seams or inlay strips. www.paragon-carpets.co.uk

Armstrong launches its ultimate ceilings and walls guide The ultimate guide to ceiling and wall solutions is now available from leading UK manufacturer, Armstrong.

The company’s new Main Line brochure makes it even easier for architects and designers to specify ceiling and wall solutions thanks to a simplified but inspiring layout. The catalogue illustrates, with stunning architectural photography and technical drawings, the interior solutions that help to enhance comfort, save time, improve building efficiency and overall performance, and create beautiful spaces for office, education, health, retail and transport applications. www.armstrongceilings.co.uk

SELECTIONS

Interface offers carbon neutral flooring across entire global product portfolio Interface, the worldwide modular flooring company and global leader in sustainability, is the first global

Premium workspace accessed by Tormax invisible automation Creating a contemporary entrance befitting the transformed Power Road Studios in Chiswick,

Kick-Start Publishing launches new flooring guide The Specifier’s Guide to Flooring has now been launched in the UK. Described as an 'expert at

flooring manufacturer to declare that all of its products– including all carpet tiles and luxury vinyl tiles – are carbon neutral across the entire product lifecycle. The company is now offering its Carbon Neutral Floors programme as standard to every customer, at no extra cost, to help them meet their own sustainability goals, while also allowing them to reduce the emissions impact of their projects or spaces. www.interface.com/carbonneutral.

TORMAX worked with IDF Aluminium Ltd to provide invisible automation to two sets of automatic glass swing doors. Located in sealed casings beneath the floor, the TORMAX iMotion 1401 operators deliver unparalleled reliability, requiring minimal maintenance to ensure a long and trouble-free lifespan. 'Our iMotion range of door operators really are second to none,' Simon Roberts, MD at TORMAX tells us. www.tormax.co.uk

your elbow', the new definitive guide provides a specification tool for architects, designers, facilities managers and specifiers on all aspects of flooring.

It includes commentary from the most prominent names in the industry and explores key materials – from carpet to vinyl, ancillary products and accessories – providing a rich resource in hardcopy format and also online at: http://www.specifiersguide.co.uk

A breath of fresh air for flooring Tarkett has launched DESSO AirMaster Earth & Tones, offering the latest in design, environmental and wellbeing features. The new range combines a fresh colour palette with DESSO AirMaster’s patented technology, which is designed to reduce the amount of fine dust in the indoor air. Featuring the first-to-market low antimony primary backing, Colback Gold, the carpet tiles were designed in close collaboration with performance materials expert Low & Bonar with Cradle to Cradle principles in mind. www.desso.co.uk

Stylish Bethan Designed by Studio Verco, Bethan features a modern, sleek design, with the choice of slender solid wire epoxy coated coloured, chrome sled frame and arms or with contemporary solid oak legs. The ergonomically shaped re-curve ply shell features elegantly tailored upholstery, providing superior comfort, without detracting from the minimal form of the design. www.verco.co.uk

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The Last Word | Opinion

2018 IS A GOOD YEAR TO BE A WOMAN 6th February 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, the legislation that enabled all men and some women over the age of 30 to vote for the first time and paved the way for universal suffrage 10 years later, Emma Macleod, Associate Director at Hurley Palmer Flatt, informs us.

I

t is also the centenary of the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918, which permitted women over the age of 21 (the same age as for men) to stand for election as an MP (November), and women have been represented

Emma Macleod is an Associate Director at leading multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Hurley Palmer Flatt www.hurleypalmerflatt.com

in the House of Lords for 60 years.

Now, in 2018, we can see women represented across all sectors. It may not be 50/50 but only the course of time will allow us to achieve a true equilibrium.

Women in the Construction Industry is such a hot topic just now and with Women in Engineering Day taking place recently (23 June 2018), it presented an ideal opportunity to take a step back and reflect. As a female engineer, I count myself so fortunate, over the course of my career, to have worked alongside colleagues and industry peers and never felt any personal barriers. In fact, it is only with recent media coverage that I have realised how passionate some people are about this subject and feel that there needs to be a change.

When I consider my own experience in the industry, I have worked with relatively few females. Those I have worked with tended to work in other areas, away from engineering, such as architecture and interior design. Our office in Glasgow is probably something of an exception to the norm, with 33% of the engineers being female – and has been that way for around five years. Compare this to 11% of females across engineering, according to a 2017 survey by the Women’s Engineering Society. The obvious question that springs to mind is ‘Why?’ Possibly it is the culture within the office, the opportunities available to all and the collaboration across the office, creating a sense of equality. This question was one of many considered by Kaela Fenn-Smith when she spoke at our recent staff conference, following on from the insightful presentation at the BCO Conference in May. She discussed her career and the challenges she faced leading

a team and ensuring that everyone was equal and had a voice. Our working life is a major part of our existence, why shouldn’t we set the bar high? Time spent working is time away from our families. For companies to ask the best of their employees they need to provide a good working environment that promotes a work/life balance and makes it easier to say goodbye to our loved ones each morning.

I think there are two great things about encouraging women into engineering. Firstly, it helps to address the skills shortage that exists in the industry and, secondly, it lets individuals know about the great opportunities that exist for them. I do, however, think that we need to approach this subject and movement to equality with caution. It can’t be seen to be a box-ticking exercise. Kaela quoted Vanessa Myers, who delivered a TED Talk on overcoming bias: ‘Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.’ Being seen to be diverse is not enough. To have any worth, companies need to take this a step further, create opportunities for their staff and allow unconscious bias to be overcome.

In the race to promote women in engineering, there is one aspect we must not forget; men in engineering. We can’t allow ourselves to push the equality agenda into the boundaries of inequality. As mentioned earlier, one of the benefits of promoting women in engineering is to increase and expand the skillset. Keeping that in mind, companies need to ensure they employ the right people for the right reasons and not just to meet targets. Men need to be involved in this shift and are not to be left behind. The aim is equality in the true sense of the word and improving working life for everyone.

The ultimate goal is that there should be less need for Women in Engineering societies as we will all just be Engineers. w

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