Mix Interiors #221 - 2022

Issue 221 07 /08 2022

KAST EQUALLY SHARED, INDIVIDUALLY SHAPED

DESIGNERS & MANUFACTURERS OF WORKSPACE FURNITURE WWW.GOF.CO.UK

Mix Interiors Issue 221 36

Contents 14

Upfront

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Desert Island Desks

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Paradoxically Speaking

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In conversation with: Eric Jafari

News and highlights from the world of commercial interior design

Featuring M Moser’s Gurvinder Khurana

Neil Usher on the myth of the offices

The industry disruptor on his pioneering hospitality brand 54

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In conversation with: Lee Penson

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The Ask

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Case Study: Convene

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Case Study: BT

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Case Study: The Spine

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Case Study: 25hours Indre By

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Positive Impact: Oliver Heath

On the nonconformist future of the workplace

Tina Norden ponders designing for tribes

The first UK outpost for the brand, designed

by Woods Bagot

ID:SR’s new concept for the telecoms company

The AHR-designed northern home for The Royal College of Physicians

Martin Brudnizki goes against type with this Copenhagen hotel

A call for collective action and why the time is now

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Mix Interiors Issue 221 28

Contents cont.

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Mix Roundtable with Autex

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Creative Thinking

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Mix Roundtable with Amtico

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Events: 3daysofdesign

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Events: Mixology22

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Property

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Human Insight

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The Global Perspective

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Material Matters

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The Final Word

Designing for Difference

Steve Gale on the power of data

Is hub-and-spoke the future?

Highlights from Denmark and the legacy of Fritz Hansen

We recap the winners

Is there a future for refurb?

Chiara Vascotti on the tussle between urban and rural

Should brands and politics mix?

With Holloway Li’s Emily Mak and Ivy Aris

Mike Walley on wanting to do the right thing with furniture

Get in touch Managing editor Harry McKinley harry@mixinteriors.com Deputy Editor Chloé Petersen Snell chloe@mixinteriors.com Managing Director Marcie Incarico marcie@mixinteriors.com Director Leon March leon@mixinteriors.com Business Development Manager Kate Borastero kate@mixinteriors.com Head of Operations Lisa Jackson lisa@mixinteriors.com Designer Tamzin Bell Founding publisher Henry Pugh columnists

The Cover Logo

Inspired by Pedrali’s design ethos of continuity, Squire & Partners extended the wall tiling joints in the image so that they flow seamlessly to create the form of the Mix logo. squireandpartners.com

Cover Image

Designed by Sebastian Herkner, the Blume chair owes its distinctive appearance to a sophisticated flower-shaped profile in extruded aluminium. The steel structural element, placed under the seat to strengthen the chair and to secure the legs, is removable – meaning all the product’s components can be disassembled and disposed of at the end of their life cycle. pedrail.com

Steve Gale, David Thame Tina Norden, Mike Walley, Neil Usher, Chiara Vascotti

Address Unit 2 Abito, 85 Greengate, Manchester M3 7NA Telephone 0161 519 4850 Email editorial@mixinteriors.com Website www.mixinteriors.com Twitter @mixinteriors Instagram @mix.interiors LinkedIn Mix Interiors

Subscribe to Mix

To ensure that a regular copy of Mix Interiors reaches you or to request back issues, call 0161 519 4850 or email lisa@mixinteriors.com Annual Subscription Charges UK single 45.50, Europe 135 (airmail), Outside Europe 165 (airmail)

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Printed by S&G Print ISSN 1757-2371

Mix Interiors / Issue 221

Welcome

There’s an endless stream of snippy statements about the dangers of being too comfortable, in life and in work. They’re the sort of nameless affirmations that eternally cycle on LinkedIn or are plastered on inexpensive mugs: ‘great things never came from comfort zones’, ‘success in business means being comfortable with being uncomfortable’, you get the idea. These kinds of pseudo motivational statements have always made me squirm a tad; somehow both too earnest and too fluffy at the same time. Yet, when it comes to the power of challenging comfortable orthodoxy, even I have to admit there’s some truth to the trite.

This issue is testament to the benefits and needle-shifting influence of taking the uncomfortable path and championing disruptive ideas. We speak to Locke co-founder Eric Jafari, who discusses creating a design-led hospitality brand, founded with the goal of getting right what other hotels were getting wrong, and PENSON CEO Lee Penson chats the nonconformist future of the office. On the project front, we explore the first UK outpost of American workplace provider, Convene, an organisation on a mission to reimagine what the workday looks like and cater for that brave new vision. We also check into 25hours Indre By, in Copenhagen, where Martin Brudnizki subverts Scandinavian design tropes with an unconventionally colourful, pattern-filled scheme. So too our thought leadership features lean on the themes and concepts that will be agitating the commercial interior design sector – from a roundtable discussion on neurodivergence to collective action on the climate catastrophe, in a Positive Impact piece by Oliver Heath. Plus much more besides of course, all equally compelling and equally creative.

Interestingly, in these fluid and fickle times we can’t provide certainty or consensus. Even within these pages there’s disagreement on everything from whether there’s a future for offices at all to the viability of hub-and-spoke. What we can provide is insight and, perhaps, inspiration to follow the lead of our featured figures and take big swings, even if the risk is a miss. After all, every great idea starts with courage…and you can put that on a mug.

Harry McKinley Managing Editor

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Upfront

More to Choose

British tile manufacturer Johnson Tiles has extended its popular Kerastar range of commercial tiles with a variety of bright new tones, shapes and sizes. Available in both floor and wall tiles, the range uses up to 70% recycled content. Kerastar’s existing neutral colour palette has been bolstered with the addition of cool greys, warm reds and burnt oranges. Inspired by the natural world, the extended collection comprises 43 shades, 11 sizes, four finishes, four structures and three shapes.

“The colour palette takes inspiration from the limitless beauty of the natural world with shades including Fern, Sea and Sky,” comments designer Amy Pears.

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“Combining 43 shades with the bodied porcelain design and complementary fixtures and fittings, the range blends beauty and strength to withstand the heaviest of footfalls with unlimited and coordinated design options.”

Suitable for use both indoors and out, each shade is available in a selection of textured structures that achieve a PTV slip resistance rating of 36+ in both dry and wet areas.

As the popularity of geometric shapes continues to surge, a selection of shades within the Kerastar collection are now available in two hexagonal forms, and with small and large format square and rectangular styles are also available.

Johnson-tiles.com

Upfront

Stacks of Style Subtle in aesthetic yet generous in practicality, Twill is a new all-timber stacking chair designed by Gibson Karlo for Design by Them. With an extruded profile and neatly trimmed ends, the Twill Chair draws on the playful nostalgia of a fresh pack of plasticine. Stacking four chairs high and made from solid ash timber, Twill Chair is available in Natural, Black, Ultra Blue and Silk Grey.

“We love how the double profile looks and functions. It was inspired by plasticine strips and the repetition seen in Twill weaves,” say designers Gibson Karlo. “It creates a sense of ornament whilst creating strength in the legs and comfort in the backrest.”

Established in Australia in 2007, DesignByThem was founded by industrial designers Sarah Gibson and Nicholas Karlovasitis, offering a unique Australian perspective, timeless aesthetic and distinct playfulness across furniture, lighting and accessories.

Designbythem.com

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The Essentials Collection

Combining design and functionality The BACHMANN Essentials Collection is geared towards the key ideas of design and functionality.

It’s a range of BACHMANN products selected to provide architects and designers core functional and architectural power solutions for the workspace.

Showroom 45 St. John Street, Clerkenwell, EC1M 4AN sales-uk@bachmann.com 020 3998 1821 www.bachmann.com/en/essentials

Upfront

New Department

October 2022 will see the launch of a new work, wellness and social development in Leeds Dock, designed to support and bolster the region’s thriving media and creative scene. Part of All Work & Social’s portfolio, Department Leeds Dock will sit within a former casino as part of a waterside community that is also home to Sky and Channel 4, offering flexible workspace memberships, including hot desking, bespoke suites and large multi-purpose spaces and production studios. The social element of Department includes a cafe, cinema, community events, culture festivals, and a unique food, drink and retail concept, Department Store.

“Relationships with workspaces are completely different to how they were two years ago. Now, businesses need adaptability, flexibility and somewhere that is more than a workplace,” says Department Managing Director, Anthony Powell. “We’ve had great success in Manchester with the Department Bonded Warehouse community and we’re excited to be bringing our concept to Leeds to support the creative and media communities.”

Department has additional plans to open at London Road Fire Station near Manchester Piccadilly and Savile Row in London in 2023. departmentuk.com

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Upfront

Fixing Work In his upcoming tome, workplace industry leader and Mix columnist Neil Usher disassembles, challenges and sometimes bemoans the most common – and perhaps commonly grating – examples of ‘workspeak’. In the provocatively titled Unf*cking Work, he takes 12 ubiquitously deployed statements and explores their continued relevance – from ‘we are where we are to are’ to ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

If they’re unfit for purpose, he utilises his immense expertise in the sector to discuss what can be rebuilt from the rubble of each.

Published by ZSer0 Books, Unf*cking Work is released on 30th September and is available for pre-order now. johnhuntpublishing.com

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Partner content

All Locked UP

Ojmar, the European manufacturer of innovative high performance electronic and mechanical locks, has introduced OTS® PULSE, the latest addition to the wellknown family of locks. Designed for the corporate and leisure markets, it’s a wireless networked locking solution that operates in highly secure cloud software – using the latest battery technology and providing a life of up to 10 years before needing a simple battery replacement. This makes it one of the most efficient, longest-lasting systems available on the market. Fully plug-and-play, online, self-

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managed and wireless, the OTS® PULSE is designed for quick and easy installation, without complex and costly hardwiring. It does not require any servers, just a simple standard internet connection managed through a PC, tablet or smartphone. The cloud-based management system also allows administrators to monitor and manage users, as well as locker usage and occupancy, while providing instant reports in real-time. ojmar.com

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Gurvinder Khurana

Director M Moser Associates

Desert Island Desks What would our castaway industry figures take with them?

01 With over two decades of experience, Khurana is known as a leader in workplace design, regularly speaking at industry events and committee chair for programming at real estate networking group, CREW UK. As well as workplace, Khurana has been involved in hospitality, mixed-use schemes and, more recently, retail placemaking projects. She is a passionate voice on sustainability, wellbeing and diversity in design. In the studio, Khurana adds to M Moser’s focus on the design and delivery of low and zero carbon projects, and provides leadership on client accounts across Europe.

Miles Davis Blue in Green Candi Staton Young Hearts Run Free

Frank Sinatra Fly Me To The Moon Ella Fitzgerald and L ouis Armstrong Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

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03 Cocktail Connoisseurs Mojito cocktail maker I’ll need a refreshing drink in such a tropical setting, so this set would do nicely. It also has ingredients already in the box. A perfect drink as I watch the waves.

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05 Adidas X-21 Cross Trainer I’m being sensible with this one. In my head I arrive in style (in a Prada double satin dress), so I need to keep fit so I can still fit into the dress when I leave.

Madonna Vogue

and

02 A B&B Italia Bay outdoor sofa It’s big enough to sleep in, sit on and do everything I need to.

The perfect place for it would be under a large shady tree. If I’m feeling really Bear Grylls I will hunt for a chunk of old wood and carve out a makeshift table for item.

04 Sonos Roam Speaker So I can explore the island with total freedom while playing music. It’s waterproof, so the music will stay with me while I’m in the sea! The songs I’ve chosen will be the playlist for all my adventures.

Juke box

Camilla C abello Bam Bam

01 Le Creuset pan My shallow non-stick pan has been life-changing, so that’s definitely coming with me. It comes with a lid so I can save all my culinary creations from troublesome insects. As it’s just me, I’ll have less washing up to do, which will be amazing.

Ed Sheeran

06 A Daler-Rowney art piece set Being stranded is a great opportunity to re-explore my passion for painting and drawing. It will likely be one of the few times in my life that I don’t have deadlines. I will spend hours capturing my surroundings and painting my thoughts.

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Paradoxically Speaking with Neil Usher

It’s the Hype that Kills Us In the 2008 Disney animation Bolt, a canine actor – having spent his whole life on the set of a TV series and believing his ascribed superpowers to be real – sets out to rescue his owner from a threat he also mistakenly believes to be real. In what amounts to a fluffy road movie, he adorably lives and breathes his own hype.

understand, qualify and quantify what the office could do for us – over the last hundred or so years – we were too convinced it would always be around to attempt such a needless feat, and that our sole challenge would always be simply to improve it. The result is that without evidence, the myth prevails.

For many decades, so has the office. Inanimate as it is, and rarely cute, such a delusion has been of our perpetuation. And so the story runs: battling impossible odds, it has heroically and at times single-handedly generated innovation, stimulated creativity, fostered collaboration, built positive organisational culture and facilitated connection.

Our paradox therefore becomes: we need a fantastic workplace for all the things we seem to be able to do without it. While it’s understandable that we’re more likely to want to attend a quality office with a range of useful and intuitive settings, functional technology, first-rate services and timesaving amenities, we’re still focussed on the office itself. It’s no surprise, introspection has been a problem of the industry for as long as most of us can recall.

The global pandemic has been the denouement of this tale. As the threads have drawn together, the breathstifling realisation has dawned that we can actually, for the most part, do without the office. Even for all those previously-attributed impossible acts of derring-do. The difference between the office and Bolt, however, is that as observers we always knew the latter didn’t really have any superpowers. It was just a matter of time till the doe-eyed puppy found out.

Just as every plot demands its hero, as the pandemic recedes there’s a sense that the office is about to awaken; to save us. Our difficulty is we’re not all convinced we need saving, and for those that are, not entirely sure what from. When we had the chance to

For the narrative to change, for us to have that sensitive and slightly awkward conversation where we point out that those attributes, while entertaining, were always essentially fictional, we have to focus not on the space, but what it’s enabling. The superpowers may not belong to the office, but to the wonder of the togetherness of people, with all its inefficiency and unpredictability. Its challenge is to show itself as the optimum space for it to happen. Not for endless meetings, web calls or faux collaboration, but for proximity.

If it succeeds, just as the superpower of Bolt transpired to be not in his physical prowess but in the emotional bonds he forged and reinforced, the office still has a vital role in our present and future. Just not the one we hyped it would.

Neil Usher is Chief Workplace & Change Strategist at GoSpace AI and author of The Elemental Workplace and Elemental Change

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Designed to Disrupt Interview: Eric Jafari

Edyn’s chief development officer and creative director,

Eric Jafari, discusses the birth and growth of Locke, the ground-breaking aparthotel brand he co-founded.

Words: Dominic Lutyens

Eric Jafari might be the co-founder of aparthotel brand Locke, which places a huge premium on interior design hinging on individuality, flair and subtlety. But as he tells us, his background is in real estate not design or hospitality. Locke is part of hospitality group Edyn, which also operates bespoke serviced apartment brands, Cove and Saco. Jafari, who previously founded Bridgepoint Ventures, a boutique real-estate firm, is now Edyn’s chief development officer and creative director. This sees him lead a team managing acquisitions, asset management, construction, design, investment finance and planning.

Locke is a fast-expanding venture. Since it was founded in 2016, it has opened 12 stylish outposts in the UK and Europe, the latest being WunderLocke in Munich, opened this summer. The brand collaborates with highprofile interior design studios, including Fettle, Sella Concept and Grzywinski+Pons to date.

Yet design was a central part of Jafari’s childhood, he reveals with pride: “I was raised by a family obsessed with design. My father was a lead architect for Disney, designing Euro Disney in France and Tokyo Disney.

When we were little, we were dragged around the world for design inspiration. On a subconscious level, my father instilled in me that you can create a place that brings joy to people who go out of their way to go there. But it’s a rite of passage to take a different path to my parents, so I got into real estate.”

Even so, Jafari developed a passion for visiting what he describes as “forerunners of the design hotel movement”, namely the Delano in Miami (renovated in the 1990s

by Philippe Starck) and Borgo Egnazia in Puglia, Italy.

At one point, his interest was piqued by a hotel that modelled itself on a monastery – a silent retreat – that charged $1,000 a night.

When visiting a city where a new hotel had opened, he was equally keen to gain an intimate knowledge of the city’s culture: “I wanted to immerse myself in its underbelly, to go where the locals went. With respect to the hotels, I was interested in those whose design wasn’t derivative of something I’d seen elsewhere.”

In time, this would become a business credo for Jafari. A commitment to originality and a desire for his hotels to reflect the character of their locality – in all its richness – were key drivers behind his business. His first hotel was Urban Villa in Brentford, West London, which Jafari co-founded while heading up the real-estate investment and hotel development firm Union Hanover Securities (UHS). Urban Villa was created in response to its neighbourhood, offered extended stays and can be seen as the precursor to Locke, whose main goal was to embody unique qualities of the immediate vicinity.

Jafari had often encountered highly clichéd, crude attempts by hotels to reference a locality’s culture.

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Above image: The Holloway Li-design WunderLocke

“I’ve seen Union Jack or London Bridge motifs used in interiors to reference London or the UK,” he says, giving one example. He aimed instead to represent it in a more nuanced, multi-layered way. “I wanted to do something more subtle, to showcase something about the locality that guests wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.”

I spent a lot of time thinking what do people – such as urbanites from Paris, London or New York – really want when spending a lot of time away from home. I realised that for consumers, hotels aren’t just somewhere to sleep. You eat, work and play there, and you’re a part of the local community.”

When planning his earliest hotels, Jafari was partly guided by his analysis of what was lacking in many existing hotels. “One thing I realised, when trying to shape hotels for people staying for seven to 10 days, is that what a lot of hotels offered was irrelevant,” he says. “They often made the mistake of thinking they are places for sleeping in only.”

Jafari’s mission to discard tired conventions of hotel design and basic amenities in favour of more imaginative interiors and activities has earned him a reputation as a disrupter of the hospitality sector. His first Locke establishment, the 170-room Leman Locke in Aldgate, East London, opened in 2016 and offered a refreshing alternative to the anonymous style of many hotels. Its rooms were spacious – equipped with facilities more associated with apartments – and their décor nodded to the architectural style and culture of the neighbourhood.

“The rooms were very minimalist in style,” he recalls. “We were trying to embrace the austerity of East London.”

He points out that they have traditionally offered generic, one-size-fits all catering in the form of, say, chicken sandwiches. Many hotel interiors, he says, are unimaginative, synonymous with “sterile design environments”. They rarely swerved from the dull, default convention of “the reception desk placed front and centre – the first thing you see on entering a hotel.

When you walk into the rooms,” he continues, “all you see is a bed – the room’s main focus.

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Yet, in line with Locke’s desire to surprise its customers, their style wasn’t a predictable take on the industrial-chic aesthetic either: “We added a soft, pastel feel to the rooms, too, as we wanted to create spaces that felt like a sanctuary.”

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Each apartment at Leman Locke has a kitchen – allowing guests to cook their own food like they can at home – plus a washing machine and a dishwasher. But they also have the option of eating at its vegan eaterie, Alter.

On the face of it, Leman Locke was offering guests something they might not expect in hotels – selfsufficiency. But Jafari doesn’t see it like that. “We offer the best of both worlds: it’s like Soho House and Airbnb had a baby. You have the autonomy of being in your own apartment, yet your room is cleaned, you can go to the gym, eat at a restaurant.”

which has 107 rooms. “We looked at things that were missing from Leman Locke and put them into Buckle Street Studios, such as including smaller rooms too, for those who don’t necessarily need so much space.”

With Leman Locke, Jafari practised what he preached, providing guests with a wide range of activities, such as yoga and running classes. This idea was also sparked by his observation of another common failing in hotels: “When people stay at hotels for a long time, they’re often encouraged to indulge their worst habits – working on their bed or not going to the gym.”

As the Locke empire has expanded, so its repertoire of activities has grown to include all sorts of unexpected, specialist pursuits, some based on acquiring traditional skills, others geared towards pure creative fun. Jafari cites the popularity of collage-making at Bermonds Locke in Bermondsey London and gin-making and gin-tasting at London’s Kingsland Locke (it has a gin distillery on site).

WunderLocke also epitomises the brand’s desire to capture the multi-layered and sometimes seemingly contradictory character of the local area – in this case, up-and-coming Munich quarter, Sendling. Containing

According to Jafari, Leman Locke proved such a success that it led to the creation, some years later, of another Locke property adjacent to it, Buckle Street Studios,

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Jafari even added a co-working space at Buckle Street Studios, having received requests for these, mainly from corporate clients. “Many of them didn’t have an office space and needed one. Another reason why people hankered after them was because on long stays people experience loneliness, an issue rarely talked about.”

360 spacious, serviced apartments, its interiors have been created by London-based design studio Holloway Li, also responsible for the interiors of Bermonds Locke. Artist Wassily Kandinsky, who lived for some time in Munich, was the key inspiration behind the interior, specifically his idea that abstraction was a way to become closer to nature. This led Holloway Li to strip back the interior to reveal its raw concrete fabric (in a nod, perhaps, to pareddown abstraction), then introduce furniture and fabrics in natural colours and materials and an abundance of plants. Meanwhile, the apartments feature furniture and wall colours in subtle variations of blues and greens.

Image on opposite page: The Munich project features a distinctive colour story Above image: Buckle Street Studios, London

To research key interests among Sendling’s population, Locke commissioned a study. “We discovered there’s a very large wellness movement in the area that

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cares about food, too,” says Jafari. In light of this, WunderLocke has partnered with local, Michelinstarred restaurant Mural to open its own restaurant Mural Farmhouse, that prepares meals using vegetables and herbs grown on site. Yet there was an unexpected twist to the study’s findings, says Jafari: “There’s also a hedonistic undertone to Munich, which is surprising.

This demographic wants wellness, but not at the expense of going out. The same person doing yoga classes in the morning might want to party at night.”

So the hotel also boasts a cocktail bar that he describes as a “nod to the wild Italian disco days, epitomised

by Munich-based producer Giorgio Moroder, whose Musicland Studios recorded hits by Queen, Donna Summer and others”.

While Jafari’s modus operandi is to create establishments with a nuanced, complex and unique character, he acknowledges that it’s a highly challenging, financially risky strategy.

“Trying to create something new is incredibly painful,” he stresses. “What often happens is that when hoteliers

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open their first two hotels, the disruption happens with the first hotel. Any evolution after that is nominal because the hoteliers will have taken the design, codified it and ultimately come up with a strict set of brand standards. But I don’t blame them, as it’s hard to create something new, and many of us are risk-averse.”

As our conversation draws to a close, he neatly sums up his philosophy: “I would rather people walked into two of my hotels and said, ‘I loved the first one, but hated the second one’ than ‘They are nice, they remind me of one another’. If the latter happens, I feel I’ve failed because our consumers don’t like cookie-cutter places.

What they look for is an immersion into a unique, indigenous experience.”

Above image: Leman Locke, the first Locke location

Can space feel what the people in it feel? comfort

With Gaia by Actiu is possible www.actiu.com/gaia

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Interview: Lee Penson

Licence to Thrill PENSON’s Lee Penson on eschewing the norm, the

future of the workplace and being big on everything.

Words: Chloé Petersen Snell

Penson’s eponymous studio specialises in commercial and residential architecture, interior design and experiential branding – even dipping their toes into the world of automotive and aviation interiors – all with a strategic and consultative approach. We speak to Lee virtually, with a background of dismantled racing cars and various motors strewn across his garage floor. There’s undoubtedly a metaphor in the pulled apart machinery waiting to be turned into something exciting. For 17 years, Penson has been looking for new ways of reworking the established, pushing against the typical 9-to-5 system.

“We started with a laptop and a printer bought from Curry’s in 2004. April Fool’s Day was the D Day – I moved house, left my previous business and on the dodgy carpet in a shared house in Tooting, PENSON was started. Eventually we moved into a business centre in Waterloo and from that little room something special matured and grew.”

Eventually the team settled in their HQ in Shad Thames, with plans to expand globally into New York and Beijing. Born from a frustration that typical practices weren’t looking at what buildings do for people’s lives, PENSON set out to be something different, moving away from the usual structure and approach many practices take.

“When PENSON was founded, we had to make our mark to stand out. We did this by working harder than ever, being more creative whilst ensuring our ideas cost less, were easier and less risky,” Penson says. “We basically stopped, thought about the norm and applied more common sense on all functional and practical matters, whilst also applying some visionary aesthetics.

We challenged the rules – not for the sake of challenging them with gimmicks, but on the simplicity of making life better for people. That’s the current trend in everything these days, but we were doing that nearly 20 years ago.The world is such a different place now,

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Above image: THG Ingenuity Campus, Manchester

but the world of design hasn’t really kept up with that in my in my view, and we still see a lot of regurgitation.

It frustrates me, but it also drives me and the team, because we want to see things being done differently.”

With all the gradual changes seen in the last decade, and even the dramatic ones in the past two years, in Penson’s eyes the industry is still slow to change.

“We feel our responsibilities as a brand are to really maximise the discovery, exploration and justification of what COVID can actually do for us all, out of the tragedy. For our brand and our team, COVID has provided a ‘licence to thrill’; it’s given us a layer of justification to solve challenges that change people’s lives and make things a little bit slicker and easier – from [automated] toilet doors to asking if we need office buildings at all anymore. It’s probably the most exciting time the design industry has ever had.”

The team are putting these concepts into action with a wide range of projects, ranging from new work with long-time clients The Hut Group and a nightclub-cumworkplace to bold new projects in the USA, including a chain of cannabis-focused hospitality concepts in California.

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PENSON is currently completing one of largest ever workplace campuses in the North West of the UK for one of the world’s biggest online beauty and wellness businesses, The Hut Group (THG). PENSON describes their relationship with the ecommerce giant over the past decade as a beautiful marriage, and the studio has acted as architect, interior designer, experiential creator and workplace strategist on a series of workplace, retail and F&B concepts. The new campus (THQ) in Manchester will represent 1.6m sq ft of commercial, workplace and hospitality space, while THG is investing over £1bn in the region over the next three years and supporting 10,000 jobs. The company’s new headquarters, spanning 16.8 acres, will be the UK’s largest bespoke office outside London, completing in 2024.

In the meantime, the studio has created a series of spaces for THG, serving as high-performing solutions for headcount issues for the interim period as well as testing out concepts for the big campus project.

THG Ingenuity Campus (TIC) is a brand-new creative studio and workplace next to Manchester Airport, providing 272,000 sq ft of highly bespoke and inspiring ‘village campus vibes’ for 1,400 creative minds.

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“THG Ingenuity Campus is the testbed for the bigger gig to come in the form of the main campus,” Penson explains. “But not wanting to make TIC subservient to THQ, Ingenuity Campus isn’t about game-changing interior design as such. It’s all about enabling people to change their lives inside and outside of the THG organisation, by simply giving them their malleability back. At this campus, the word ‘workplace’ is made redundant. Ingenuity Campus is special because it solves so many post-COVID issues, envisioned culturally and designed before we ever knew COVID existed. The campus has a village life atmosphere – it’s about people not just great design. It’s beautiful, highly sustainable and super economical to build and operate” The sustainability credentials are impressive, with furniture made from coffee bean waste and 3D printed recycled objects such as experimental bespoke door ironmongery, but also incorporating the simple effectiveness of making spaces cleaner and brighter to bounce light around, thus needing less energy for artificial lighting from the outset.

The studio recently worked on a project in London for a client who wanted an exciting proposition to

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attract and retain the best talent. The result is a multifunctional space that, at the press of a button, turns into a nightclub.

“This is very much the new breed of workplace and others are shortly to follow,” muses Penson. “To us, it’s not an office building anymore, it’s a life facilitator and a piece of inherent exercise equipment; it’s still a place that we all go to as every business still needs its heart and soul, and it’s epicentre. We are far from saying that this is the new standard for all workplaces, that’s the very key point here. Businesses should be designing much more unique buildings of their own, that stem from their brand values, considering their people, characters and beliefs. In other words, building a new business epicentre that isn’t a standard workplace format, it’s somewhere for people to come together and somewhere to unite a workforce.” Penson remains tight lipped about this project, for now.

Working across a number of hospitality concepts, from underwater pods to eco retreats, in Penson’s eyes the hospitality world can inform how we engage with our workspaces. “Workplace is going through a massive challenge and rightly so. For 25 years I have

been saying that restaurants, bars and clubs are creating lovely atmospheres, whereas offices were paying far less attention to feeling and emotion, despite the fact we spent more of our time there,” he says. “Now, in a post-COVID world where priorities have changed, businesses are looking for new ways to engage staff, build retention and increase staff satisfaction.”

The JO&JOE brand is a huge source of pride for PENSON which, alongside Accor, created the brand from top to bottom in 2016; from the real estate approach, to the design and F&B approach. Developed to disrupt the economy hospitality model, PENSON created the hotel as a hybrid, sitting between an open house, a hotel and a hostel – open to neighbours and travellers alike. Like the work with THG, Penson believes it’s about people first and design second: “The reason it’s such a successful brand is because it’s not changing anything on a gimmicky level, it’s actually got to the root of the cause in terms of giving things back to people, and as a result JO&JOE is going to be huge. We just announced 1300 locations across China.”

The Paris Gentilly location launched in 2019, targeting both ‘tripsters’ and locals with a street art concept and

Image on opposite page: Gaming HQ concept, London Below image: THQ Campus concept, completing 2024

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multiple event spaces encourage socialising and guest encounters, including a large ‘beer wall.’

Going one step further with guest experience and sector disruption, PENSON is busy creating an eco-hospitality brand, named after one of the planet’s most carbon consuming plant species. Due to launch in the next few months, Penson is confident this new approach to hospitality with be enormously popular, but also a genuinely sustainable ‘planet-cleanser’.

“We’re creating an ‘eco sexy’ brand, not by smothering buildings with plants, but approaching sustainability more intuitively,” he notes. “Directly linked to each location’s natural resources, character and story, encouraging guests to live the real-life immersive experience. Feeling the heat, smelling the air and truly absorbing the character of a place.” Watch this space.

“We refer to all things as ‘design and life’ rather than architecture and interior design,” Penson concludes.

“There is such a big opportunity and responsibility at this moment. I know that there’s something there as a different model, which is even better for organisations and people than the old format. And that’s what excites me, there’s something better there for everybody.” For Penson and his team, exploring new ways of living and working is nothing novel. The world is just ready to listen now.

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above image: JO&JOE, Paris Gentilly

The Ask with Tina Norden

Should We Be Designing for Hyper-Niche Tribes?

Talking about flexible design in the last column, my conclusion was that trying to design for everyone results in designing for no one. The discussion about designing for specific tribes (our new favourite word for customer groups in the post-age, post-gender era) is closely related to the same topics. I would argue that niche design for a very specific target group is actually a very good design approach, even if it sounds counter-intuitive when looking for maximum appeal – or, shall we say, maximum revenue.

There are a number of excellent examples where a hyper-focused stylistic approach has worked incredibly well, starting with the trailblazer Ace and onto the likes of the Hoxton and Mama Shelter, but also high-end propositions like One Hotel, all the way through to Aman Resorts. All of these have been phenomenally successful and not only with their target ‘tribe’.

The reason for this is simple: they have a clear message, a strong attitude and, as a result, a convincing and firmly defined identity and design. They know who they are, who they are aimed at and exude a seductive confidence – almost defying audiences not to like them if they are not in the tribe. Don’t like the artwork, the minimal design or the particular shade of pink (still the colour if Salone this year is anything to go by)? Well, tough, maybe it’s not for you. This appeals to the discerning guest today, certainly to a sufficiently large audience to fill their rooms and

public areas very nicely – and possibly keep away the type of guests they don’t desire. These types of spaces, if done right, appeal to their niche tribe but also those that aspire to be part of it, or simply like what it stands for or want to get a taste of its attitude.

As designers we have been long been talking about the all-important concept, a strong identity and narrative for our spaces. A client coming to us with a very clear brief and their target audience based on research, competition and brand development is the holy grail for designers and gives us the perfect starting point for a concept. Equally, a client with an open mind that allows time to develop the brief and ‘target tribe’ collaboratively, before we pick up the proverbial pencil, will have the same result.

One key part for this approach to be successful, however, is to be innovative; agile in the resulting design approach. Regurgitating trailblazing examples, lazy assumptions and actually trying too hard to please ‘our’ tribe will all fall flat with today’s educated audience.

They want to feel understood but not patronised; feel at home without being bored, yet be challenged and surprised. And if any of the earlier examples are anything to go by, if we can achieve that both with the design and the service, we will not only attract our tribe but many others will enjoy being part of it – even if they are not in the club.

Tina Norden is a partner at Conran and Partners, where she has been a member of the board since 2016

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A New Day Case study: Convene

At the first UK outpost of American workplace provider, Convene, the workday is reimagined. We explore why the Woods Bagot-designed space is the hotel of offices.

Words: Harry McKinley Photography: Jack Hobhouse

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Image on previous page: Arches are inspired by the City of London gates Above image: Informal seating areas sit in front of private meeting spaces

Convene’s first international outpost aims to change the way we work. It’s a towering ambition housed with an ambitious tower: 22 Bishopsgate, the UK’s second tallest building and a project of immense audacity and scale. For those unfamiliar, Convene is an American-headquartered provider of places to work, meet and host; a brand already well established in Stateside hubs such as New York, Chicago and Boston. As its seductive marketing collateral espouses, it was launched on the basis of a simple question: what if you ran an office building like a hotel?

In practice, that doesn’t mean bellboys and beds, but instead facilities that cater to a reimagined workday – from beginning to end. There’s coworking, of course, but also elevated F&B for breakfasts, lunches and even dinners on the go; there are abundant, slick meeting spaces; and, perhaps most impressively, events spaces outfitted with state-of-the-art technology for larger-scale corporate or social gatherings. That’s the broad sweep then, but how has this workplace innovator translated its bold concept for the Brits?

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Well, Convene 22 Bishopsgate is spread across a monumental two storeys – with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out across the City. There’s no mistaking the location, which is why tailoring the space to London and its residents was central. Woods Bagot was drafted in on interiors and, for Convene itself, it was crucial that that this first opening met the high bar already set by the capital’s flexible workplaces.

“It was so important that we were able to bring the standard achieved in the US over to the UK,” explains Peter O’Donnell, principal at Wood Bagot. “Users are met with an offer that’s like that of a 5-star hotel and the design has been influenced by the concept of the modern livery as – much like the livery companies of the City of London – this space will provide a platform for creators and innovators.”

Katie Timmerman, senior director, Design at Convene, expands: “The design nods to the rich history and heritage of the specific area – and of London – with a concept of old meets new.”

Left image: The statement wrought iron staircase Bottom image: A barista bar doubles as a cocktail bar in the evening

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The convergence of past, present and future is manifest multiple times within the project – not just in the design and through the surrounding urban skyline, but in the meeting of traditional and pioneering practices.

“We started the design process before the major changes that came with the pandemic,” says O’Donnell, “and Convene has been clever in assessing the space in terms of the value it holds beyond desks. There’s consideration for amenity and engagement, reinforcing the reasons people come into the City now – for connection and interaction. Technology and digital capabilities have played a fundamental role and are ingrained throughout the design. This means that any company using one of these spaces can ensure smooth and wholly flexible ways of working, something of key importance to business after the last two years.

I think this design and Convene’s approach overall to the future of work will become much more commonplace in office buildings, not only in London but beyond.”

The technological aspects emphasized by O’Donnell include – for those joining remotely or for from further flung climes – cameras capable of motion tracking a speaker across a stage and broadcast options for hybrid interactions. There’s even an AV team on site to deal with any prickly devices. In terms of capacity, these advanced events and meetings facilities include a 410-seater auditorium and four flexible ‘hubs’ that can be partitioned to create smaller areas. They feature Vitra ergonomic .03 chairs designed by Muller Van Severen and all have access to gallery-style spaces for breaks and breakouts.

In terms of the wider footprint, members and guests arrive into an airy third floor lobby with wrought iron staircase – a bespoke design by Woods Bagot. On this floor lies a membership workplace and a swish Spanish porcelain-clad barista bar that doubles as a cocktail bar come clocking off time. It’s bookable in the evening for private soirees. There are nine private rooms for client meetings, smaller hybrid conferences or private dining.

Client Convene Architect Woods Bagot (Convene), PLP Architecture (22 Bishopsgate) Interior Designer Woods Bagot Flooring Pyro+Echo Furniture Supplier Gubi, Arper, Muuto, &Tradition, Vitra, Stellar Works, Hay, Molteni, Icons of Denmark, +Halle Surfaces House of Hackney, Kvadrat, Massimo Copenhagen, HEM, Fabula Living, Christopher Farr, Timorous Beasties Lighting iGuzzini, Reggiani, KKDC, Erco Other Ben Eine

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Throughout, little expense has seemingly been spared on fixtures, fittings and finishes, with pieces by Molteni, & Tradition, Gubi, Arper and Stellar Works. There are fabrics by Kvadrat and House of Hackney, rugs

by Massimo Copenhagen and tiles from Pyro+Echo.

Designer John Lau was commissioned to devise the lighting narrative, deploying pieces by brands including iGuzzini and Reggiani. On the art front, Convene commissioned colourful works by local creators, inspired

by East London graffiti artist Ben Eine. If Convene is the ‘hotel’ of workplaces, then certainly a hospitality-level of attention has been lavished on the interiors.

For Convene, this first international location is a brave roll of the dice. London is neither uncompetitive nor inexpensive. Yet in investing in an offer of such scale, detail and originality, it’s clear the company doesn’t just want to break into the market, it wants to break the mould. With 22 Bishopsgate, it has certainly made a dent.

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Below image: Multi-functional spaces are fit for work or socialising

Connecting People Case Study: BT

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BT’s ID:SR-designed London HQ is a radical departure for the telecoms company, eschewing traditional workplace thinking in favour of innovation.

Words: Clare Dowdy Photography: Jack Hobhouse

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BT Group’s London HQ has upped sticks from St Paul’s to become the sole tenant of a new 328,000 sq ft, 18-storey building near Aldgate East station.

The move is part of the telecoms business’s efforts to radically rethink its estate – something that will see its number of UK offices slashed from more than 300 to around 30.

“Traditionally, their offices were above telephone exchanges and were no longer suitable,” says ID:SR partner, Rob Myers.

ID:SR’s remit with BT ranges from giving advice on building acquisition and due diligence, to detailed design delivery in the key locations (or ‘hubs’) of Bristol, Sheffield and Dundee, which will follow on from London.

The process for London started in 2019. “BT wanted the best experience for their staff through wellbeing,

inclusive design and technology,” says Myers. The firm’s original design then had a rethink informed by people’s experience of working from home, hence more variety, more digital connectivity and better acoustics.

“The thing that’s changed the most is the configuration of openplan,” says Myers. Cellular offices were ditched in favour of various working and seating environments, plenty of communal space and screens embedded into the furniture for hybrid, mixed presence meetings.

All told, the building can accommodate up to 3000 workers at one time. To achieve this, flexibility is the name of the game, hence the increased storage rooms for furniture.

Fixed work positions no longer dominate, instead there are many floors of mini neighbourhoods for specific teams. Before the pandemic, the design allotted

Image on previous page: Shared functional seating in a spacious arrivals area Below image: Flexible furniture arrangements allow for more dynamic working

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160 traditional desks to each of these floors. Since consulting with teams on the purpose of coming to the office, ID:SR has rethought that. So, on some floors, there are just 30 desk positions, but more than 300 ‘focus and collaborative’ work points.

Client BT

Neighbourhood floors are complemented by three ‘connect’ floors for coworking, collaborating and refuelling, at the top floor, middle and level two.

“Traditionally, BT buildings were very siloed,” Myers says.

Interior Designer ID:SR Sheppard Robson

With the interior design, the impression is of a good quality working environment populated by sensible, pleasing (rather than extravagant) furniture and fittings in natural tones with the occasional colour from the corporate palette. That effect is pulled off with Bolon and terrazzo flooring, purple Play Carriage booths from The Senator Group, Materia’s black Boullée poufs, and phone booths from Boss Design.

Staff and visitors arrive at a double-height reception space on the ground floor, which has a public café and retail spaces. ID:SR’s biggest change to Wilkinson Eyre’s base build is apparent here, with the addition of a staircase to encourage physical activity between floors. Meanwhile, the interior designers freed up space and sightlines around the reception area by moving the escalators to the side of the core.

The top ‘connect’ floor has black wood wall panelling, along with natural tones, a terrazzo floor and touches of the BT purple. A white staircase is in metal mesh with timber handrails – materials that suggest no-nonsense engineering rather than opulence.

Meanwhile, level 10’s ‘connect’ floor has a zone of bleacher seating for presentations.

Architect Wilkinson Eyre

Flooring Interface, Milliken, Bolon, Flooring Concepts Ltd, Forbo Flooring Concepts, Tarkett, Altro, Solus Tiles Furniture Day 2 Interiors, The Senator Group, Bisley, Boss Design UK, Staverton Surfaces Hi Macs, Formica, Clarus, Egger, Franke, Bosch, Miele, The Collective Agency, Lintex Lighting Reggiani, Lumino, Intralighting, IGuzzini, Durlum, Vode, Kemps Lighting, LEDFLEX, The Light Lab, Future Designs, SAS, Lucent Lighting, Vibia, Flos, Zero, Ubikubi, Foscarini, Muuto, Norman Copenhagen, Luna Klock & Hallgeir Homstvedt, Menu, Tooy, Lumina

Images on opposite page: Company slogans the brand colour provide design accents

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The two ‘we space’ floors house bigger meeting rooms, whose glazed doors and walls are covered with a film to give the effect of fluted glass. Like all the floors’ reception desks, these ones pick up on the circle element of BT’s branding, and are in pale wood.

The biggest of the two terraces is on level 15: the wellbeing floor. Here there is a big staff restaurant, with a buffet-style street food layout (hence the trestle benches, Solus’ thin, horizontal glazed tiles behind the tills in the bistro, and Madonna’s Holiday playing over the sound system). Myers sees this as “an active floor that people go to throughout the day, almost like a club.”

The rest are workspace (neighbourhood) floors, like level 11, which accommodates BT’s digital team. The colour scheme is light, and the brand is reflected in the lozenge ceiling lighting and more purple pods. To aid with flexibility and acoustics, some of the walls double as mobile white boards, and felt fins hang from the ceiling. More noise is absorbed by SonaSpray’s rough concrete effect on the exposed soffits. On these floors, ID:SR positioned meeting rooms and other rooms around the core, “because we wanted everyone to experience the views,” says Myers.

BT’s new HQ was already going to be a step change from its old address. But with the workers’ new behaviours and needs taken into account, it’s got the potential to lure people back in more often.

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Below image: Comfortable breakout areas

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Informed

by Nature Case Study: The Spine

For the northern home of The Royal College of Physicians, AHR Architects was tasked with creating a building that leaves its occupants healthier.

Words: Lauren Teague

Photography: Dan Hopkinson

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is an institution with over 500 years of history – founded by Royal Charter from King Henry VIII and the oldest medical college in England. All of this tradition has, until now, manifested within its Grade I listed London home, designed by Denys Lasdun in 1964. But as the institution began to outgrow the site, then-President Dame Jane Dacre saw an opportunity to reach beyond the capital, with Liverpool winning out.

The ‘Knowledge Quarter’ at Paddington Village is a campus district for some of the world’s most influential science, health and technology businesses. This vision was compelling to the RCP, whose spatial requirements included not only teaching space but facilities to run practical examinations with medical simulation spaces – something they had not previously been able to do in-house. Links to complementary industries became an important part of the development, with RCP taking half (75,000 sq ft) of the building and the remainder being let out to like-minded businesses.

AHR Architects was appointed to design the institution’s new northern home, The Spine. “The brief was one line,” says director Robert Hopkins; “for the occupants to be healthier when they walk out of the building than when they walked in. The project was all about embracing the RCP’s impact and reflecting on its incredible outcomes. When we won the competition, we worked with the client to turn the ethos and values of the college into architecture.” AHR approached The Spine as a project that would perform the antithesis of the more traditional London building, as a celebration of the institution’s future.

This meant promoting openness. The large café space upon entry, within the double-height entrance atrium, is accessible to the public. In fact, the ground floor is almost entirely permeable, with no physical barriers but instead a subtle change of flooring material – from oak to porcelain – that signifies the division between public and college areas. In place of the traditional black-box lecture theatres at the London site, AHR installed a cascading

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Image on previous page: A nature-inspired work / social space Above image: Desks provide flexibility

social stair that promotes the receiving and sharing of knowledge as an open and outward-looking activity.

Throughout the work floors there are three degrees of spatial privacy: public, semi-private (for invited visitors) and fully private member workspaces. On the thirteenth floor is a conference and event space with fine dining capabilities for up to 150 guests, and on twelfth floor an education centre.

One of the building’s most iconic features is its shining glazed façade. Manifestations that resemble the patterned surface of the human skin are formed using a mathematical formula that appears, at a glance, to be random. In fact, it is carefully constructed to combine aesthetic effect with environmental performance.

At a macro level, from the streets below, the pattern sprawls equally across each of the four elevations and the ‘spots’ look the same. But each of the 23 million polygons is unique: a different shape, a different size, a different orientation. This, says Hopkins, enabled

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AHR to manipulate the design to respond to the natural elements: “On the south side, more of the surface area is covered in order to reduce solar gain, whereas on the north side, the pattern is less dense.” As the sunlight streams through, they also create the effect of dappled light – like sunbeams through a forest – which induces a calming effect, that reduces stress and stimulates a positive impact on the creative parts of the brain.

This is one of many ways in which the building’s materiality is used to nourish neurodiversity and stimulate wellness for its occupiers. AHR used scientific evidence to make decisions about the building’s design that would create the best possible internal working environment.

“The client was incredibly open minded. When we started, there was yet to be a WELL Platinum building,” says Hopkins. “We pitched to the client the idea of pushing towards the highest possible standard of wellbeing and, because it’s grounded in research and data, the client was genuinely excited and interested in how the decisions we

Image on opposite page: A curved staircase provides a lobby focal point Left image: The distinctive exterior design

Client Royal College of Physicians, Liverpool City Council Architect & Interior Designer AHR Flooring Mandarin Stone, Lamett, Tarkett, Forbo, CTD Furniture Supplier Boss Design, Frovi, Herman Miller, Senator, Hitch Mylius, Naughtone, Ocee, Orangebox, Pedrali, Spacestor, BA Joinery Surfaces Clayworks, Fade, BA Joinery Lighting Chiara, iGuzzini, Tala, Vibia, Marset, Grok, Bocci, KKDC, Architectural FX Other Signage, Urban Planters

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were making were backed by science. Everything we did – from material choices to air ventilation systems – was done not just to achieve a WELL Platinum rating but to push the science as far as we could.”

All of the materials used throughout the building were chosen for their honesty and wellness properties: claywork walls provide a rich texture, while the use of Johnson Air Pure paint throughout neutralises formaldehyde; carpets are born from recycled fishing nets in a structure which pulls dust particles from the air; and biophilic gardens are used throughout each of the three double height spaces at the south of the building – known as ‘the lungs’ of the building – backed up by a 1989 Clean Air Study that looked into the effects of photosynthesis on improving oxygen quality and the ability of plants to remove toxins from the air.

In every way, The Spine promotes wellness, openness and the sharing of knowledge. Intelligent choices, backed up by science, challenged AHR to think differently. And these are lessons that Hopkins says he’ll take into future projects: “My design process has changed a lot through working with the college. Their scientific minds allowed us to push the boundaries by making choices backed up by data and research at every point of the project and the building is all the better for it.”

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Case Study: 25hours Indre By

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen

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At 25hours Indre By, Martin Brudnizki Design Studio crafts an eclectic and joyful celebration of the Danish capital’s old and new.

Words: Chloé Petersen Snell Photography: Stephan Lemke

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The sun is shining on Copenhagen, a city once again named the best place to live in the world. Flinging open its doors to the public earlier this year, 25hours Hotel Indre By has found its home in the middle of the Danish capital – Indre By meaning, quite literally, inner city. The 19th century building once housed a porcelain factory, a paper mill and later a university –a new building has now been added to the original three, which have been thoughtfully renovated to blend seamlessly into the bright tonality of the surrounding architecture of Copenhagen.

The hotel is 25hours’ first Scandinavian foray – having opened a slew of properties across Europe and, more recently, Dubai – and is also the first collaboration with celebrated Swedish designer Martin Brudnizki, who founded his eponymous London studio in 2000.

With a stylist mother and mechanical engineer father, Brudnizki uses his dual understanding of aesthetics and practical application to create award-winning hospitality interiors across the world.

Working with 25hours, MBDS took inspiration from the building’s halcyon days as a university as the starting point for Indre By, using the notion of ‘coming of age’ to inform the interior design. “The original hotel building is beautiful and steeped in history,” says Brudnizki. “We loved the juxtaposition between hands-on, mechanical work and romantic academia and were keen to ensure this was woven into our wider design narrative.”

MBDS designed the 243 rooms in two styles, Passion and Knowledge – with Knowledge Rooms decorated with authentic reproductions of notes by Tycho Brahe and Charles Darwin.

On the ground floor, a series of themed communal spaces can be discovered as guests explore the hotel.

Nooks layered with colourful, eclectic fabrics and furniture include a reading room, co-working space, wellbeing area and secret garden.

“Taking inspiration from the original concept of a college – and tying the project to its academic roots – we’ve built on the idea of the hotel being like a campus, where everything is available in a central location,” says Brudnizki. “We feel this concept works even better now that we are living in a postpandemic world, especially with the co-working spaces that are available.”

Located on the ground floor next to the café, restaurant and bars is the conference area. Here, the ‘Opinion’, ‘Style’ and ‘F**k Everything’ rooms can accommodate meetings of up to 15 people, while the ‘Vinyl Room’, ‘Doubt’ co-working space and ‘Gigantic’ suites can be used as breakout rooms or for relaxed get-togethers.

“25hours Hotels is a brand with a very strong identity,” says Brudnizki. “It is wholly unique and recognisable across Europe and we wanted to take that and create a

Image on previous page: In the reception area a sculpture crafted from books refers to the building’s history as a paper mill.

Top image on opposite page: The Assembly Room provides a central meeting point within a triple-height atrium.

Bottom image on opposite page: The NENI restaurant sits within a courtyard with retractable roof

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space that would retain a true sense of 25hours whilst reflecting Copenhagen.

“We quickly realised that despite the city’s chilly location, the streets emanate a warmth and playfulness thanks to the colourful buildings and their differing styles. We’ve really enjoyed playing with that idea and creating a space that may surprise those visiting Copenhagen. For so long people have considered Scandinavian design to be pared back and muted in tone, however we’ve been excited to introduce our interpretation, which we firmly believe is rooted in colour and pattern.”

The Assembly Hall is the central meeting point – a place for a quick coffee in the morning, a snack after a stroll through the city or a drink before jumping into Copenhagen’s nightlife. The triple height space is awash with brilliant natural light and features a central bar, with bespoke Pierre Frey curtains and dramatic wall hangings, creating small pockets for socialising around the lobby.

“The lobby area was a space that we knew needed to be highly impactful,” says Brudnizki. “The space created a great canvas to work on and so we incorporated hanging light fixtures which draw the eye skywards.

Eclectic rugs and a mix of fabrics rounds off our layered approach to the hotel and set the tone for what lies beyond the reception desk.”

The NENI restaurant is the seventh in the 25hours group, offering sharing dishes from Israeli chef Haya Molcho in a courtyard dining room complete with retractable roof. Plush banquette seating and twinkling lights sit against murals that reference Tel Aviv.

This new addition to the city’s hotel offering presents a new type of ‘hygge’, creating an eclectic and lighthearted bolthole for a different generation of traveller – cityhopping digital nomads. “A free-spirited traveller with a sense of adventure, with few responsibilities but a yearning for learning and discovering cultures and people,” considers Brudnizki. “But these are also travellers who want to be surrounded by comfort and style and can also appreciate a good night’s sleep.”

Top image on opposite page: A ‘Knowledge’ themed guest room is decorated with notes by Tycho Brahe and Charles Darwin Bottom image on oppposite page: Hidden spots can be discovered throughout the hotel, including the eclectic Love Library

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Positive Impact with Oliver Heath

Time to Act Oliver Heath is a global design authority, with

particular expertise in biophilic and human-centered interiors. He discusses why change is essential and why the greatest impact will come through collective action.

In the battle against climate change there is simply no opting out and no neutrality. We need to be united in our efforts to go beyond merely being sustainable and become regenerative – for the benefit of both the planet and all life on it. With the construction industry responsible for nearly 40% of global CO2 emissions, we have an important role to play and the interiors industry cannot afford to stand by and watch.

To create buildings fit for the future our actions must take a dual approach; recognising the impact the spaces we design have on both the environment and on the people who occupy them.

Interior design has historically felt quite insulated from tackling sustainability, at least to the degree of our exterior collaborators, architects. This is largely due to the focus falling on the embodied carbon of materials such as concrete, glass and steel which each eat-up a

larger proportion of the carbon footprint of a build and are traditionally the responsibility of architects. In comparison, it makes the carbon footprint attributed to interior finishings seem relatively modest.

However, this doesn’t mean that we are exempt from tackling sustainability head-on. Regardless of which field you work in, climate change inevitably affects us all. In fact, when you start to consider interior fitouts in relation to overall longevity, a very different picture begins to emerge. Buildings can have a lifespan of at least 50-100 years, dependant on location, conditions and the initial quality of the build and materials used.

The structure, which is all too often fabricated using carbon heavyweights such as steel and concrete, has the most longevity, followed closely by the skin of the building and then the internal electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems. The lifespan of interior

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furnishings and finishings however, is rather fleeting, spatially aging at a much faster rate than their external counterparts – typically spending less than a decade in situ, before being rather unceremoniously ripped out and finding their way into landfill.

Cyclically renovating, revamping and refitting the interiors of buildings is a long-established modus operandi of our practice, and there isn’t yet a method or the tools dedicated to translating it into carbon terms. As a member of the design industry, I firmly believe we must do better. That is why our practice, Oliver Heath Design, is one of the founding signatories of Interior Design Declares − an industry recognised initiative comprised of 150 signatories committed to addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency.

Interior Design Declares practices a ‘no shame’ policy, encouraging all members of our community to sign up, regardless of whether signatories meet every part of the radical commitment to change. For many, signing up can act as a catalyst to spark positive action within their organisations and practices.

But we not only need our designs to become more carbon-considerate, they also need to adopt a more human-centric approach. This makes sense when you consider we are only just beginning to enter postpandemic life, many of us with new sets of needs and our resilience somewhat wounded by unprecedented change and uncertainty. At our practice we take a Biophilic Design approach, an evidence-based output which stems from our innate attraction to natural environments. The aim is to reduce occupant stress, aid physical and mental recuperation, and to cultivate positive connections between people and spaces – enhancing communities.

The majority of us have had positive experiences within nature. By recognising our connection to natural environments as a universal design ethos, our approach seeks to illicit similar positive responses to the built environment, through using direct and indirect references to nature as design strategies.

By adopting this approach, we hope to create more supportive environments for occupants and additionally ecologically safeguard and promote biodiversity wherever possible.

It is important to remember that human-centric design doesn’t operate exclusively however, and needs to work hand-in-hand with carbon aspirations – each with equal weighting in the creation of space. As specifiers we have the unique opportunity to research, ask difficult questions of a product’s green credentials, and demand more from companies through both direct feedback and through our choice of FF&E – using our pockets to protest.

To say that the practice of interiors needs to change for people and planet is a given. Our time to act is not now, it was years ago. By coming together to collectively change, we stand a better chance to go beyond just reducing the negative impact our industry has on the environment but to create a regenerative approach, one that will set a better precedent for future practices and better spaces for people and planet.

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Images on opposite page: Interface showroom

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Roundtable

Designing for Difference In partnership with Autex, we look at designing for diversity, unpick why good design is inclusive design, and ask what more can be done to ensure that our workspaces are actually working for everyone.

Autex

Collin Burry Design Director & Principal

Iain Casagranda Development Director

Maria Martinez Interior Designer

Mariko Raouf Interior Designer

Michelle Wilkie Director

Muriel Altunaga Strategy Leader EMEA

Sam Sahni Regional Principal, Strategy, EMEA

Alice Atiola Senior A&D Consultant

AECOM

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Gensler

tp bennett

Gleeds

HLW

BDP

Unispace

In partnership with

Words: Harry McKinley

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Neurodivergence: a term coined in the late 1990s yet more present – and more prominent – today than ever before. Its ascendance into the public consciousness is due partly to social media, but also increasingly mainstream advocacy by those who wish neurodiversity to factor into how services are provided and, even, how spaces are designed.

A whippet quick explanation: put simply, someone who is neurodivergent learns and processes information differently. In more specific cases this could mean a diagnosis of conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia or autism, yet broadly speaking it’s thought that between 15% and 40% of the general population could fall within the neurodivergence spectrum. It also typically means a greater sensitivity to certain types of environmental stimuli, in comparison to someone who is ‘neurotypical’ – think colour, lighting and acoustics.

that there are different personas but, in probably the last two years, we’ve seen those personas morph into profiles – profiles that we want our workspaces to cater for. Neurodiversity has become a big part of that and I’m not sure leadership understands the potential for business, if they were to deploy neurodiversity properly. But the question remains, from a practical design standpoint: how do you test a space for neurodiverse people? We haven’t gone into the depth of that because we’re still beginning to understand what it means and how that relates to solutions. We need to be talking about it more and there needs to be more education.”

What does this mean for how we conceive of and create workspaces, however? Well, it’s this that we’ve come together to discuss – at the Clerkenwell home of Autex, a global provider of acoustic solutions.

“Education is crucial,” continues Autex’s Alice Atiola, “because that lack of understanding leads to a lack of emphasis and a lack of importance placed upon it in the design. We know that the likes of acoustics is one of the central aspects to creating more productive and more pleasant working environments for those who are neurodiverse, and yet it’s these types of things that get removed from a specification when they’re costed.”

“We’ve been saying for the past 30 years that one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to the office,” says Unispace’s Sam Sahni. “We’ve always recognised

Some organisations, however, are arguably ahead of the curve. “Let me firstly say that one of the greatest misconceptions is that if you’re neurodiverse you have a

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disability, when it’s the spaces that create the disability,” explains tp bennett’s Michelle Wilkie. “That creates a responsibility on the part of the designer actually, which is why we have neurodiversity checklists now. They take into account basics like spatial planning – for example, just making sure that you don’t have a retreat zone right next to a bank of desks; it’s things like contrast lighting and acoustics, as already mentioned. They may seem obvious but they’re not obvious to a lot of people, and having that handbook, for want of a better term, ensures these elements are considered. We’ve even won a few projects recently talking about neurodiversity and how it’s built into our design process.”

For Gensler’s Collin Bury, it’s not just his own organisation that is carrying the mantle for

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neurodiverse-considerate spaces, some clients are holding themselves accountable.

“A UK-based bank that we work with audits each aspect of our designs,” he explains. “They audit the lighting, the colour palette, the patterns and so on, to make sure that everything is inclusive. It’s not the standard yet, but it does demonstrate a change in thinking and I hope more organisations will embrace this idea.”

“Because the focus has too often been on the how the person can improve,” elaborates Atiola, “rather than on how the environment can help the person improve.”

For all of the innovators, pioneers and early-adopters, however, there’s consensus around the table that the industry as whole is in its very early stages of

understanding this type of diversity, let alone creating for it. From those who are leading the way, however, there are lessons for all.

“We’ve been working on a government project,” says Mariko Raouf, Aecom, “which means inclusivity and neurodiversity were unusually already on the agenda – even five years ago. What that means is that we’ve been thinking about real world applications for a long time now: pattern, lighting, smell and sound. We’re working on a zoning project now, where one zone features ocean sounds, another a forest, for example. Smells are being introduced that complement these. In our projects we’ve created colour journeys and colour zones, also, that impact on how we feel in those areas. A good lesson though is that, to a degree, everyone ‘carries’ a spectrum of some

kind, whether that’s neurodiversity or not, and successful spaces accommodate as much diversity as possible.”

Thinking about how non-traditional design cues can be used to improve the experience of the neurodiverse is key for HLW’s Muriel Altunaga, as she explains: “These elements aren’t just about creating mood or moments of calm, they can have practical functions. When someone processes information differently, think about how colour can be used for wayfinding or for accenting facilities; it’s about using design in a clever way and making sure that the aesthetic serves a function.”

Giving users control of their surroundings and factoring in adaptability are also ways in which individual needs, as well as the requirements of the many, can be considered.

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“The future of the workplace is in the ability to customise the environment,” says BDP’s Maria Martinez. “We are all affected by different things and, with neurodiversity, that’s even more acute. It isn’t about giving users one option then, it’s about variety and, actually, giving those users the ability to create something more bespoke within a space or spaces.”

“It’s the triangulation between broader profiles, working styles and individual needs for those who sit within the neurodiversity spectrum,” agrees Iain Casagranda, Gleeds. “It’s taking it seriously enough to essentially ask: What do you need to perform and what do you need to feel good about yourself? Then giving them the kind of support to understand themselves, their needs and understand what’s available from a menu of design and usability options. The industry has no option but to adapt to this and I think the answer, as with most things, is more imaginative designs solutions.”

Our table is ready to rise the occasion, seeing creating for neurodiversity not as a challenge but an opportunity: “As designers, we have the opportunity to create a new world in the workplace and we have an opportunity to remove the stigma around neurodiversity, unlock its potential and see what that looks like,” says Wilkie, as Burry nods in agreement and continues: “Our future is immensely bright as an industry and we’re on the precipice of something amazing. We can even lead the way because it takes creative people to envision a future that a lot of people can’t.”

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Acoustics and neurodiversity: •

Neurodiverse people are particularly susceptible to sound levels and poor acoustic conditions can manifest in reduced productivity and even an inability to communicate with colleagues as effectively. For those with more severe ‘hypersensitivity’, acoustic overload can result in physical discomfort – including migraines.

•

While loud, discordant noise is a commonly recognised issue, less considered is silence – with studies showing that the neurodiverse are also susceptible to a lack of ambient noise.

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A 2018 study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found just 1 in 10 HR professionals considered neurodivergence in their organisation’s management strategies.

•

Several techniques can be deployed to create an acoustically-considered environment. The zoning of spaces allows for the creation of high and low stimulation areas: panels, curtains and moveable acoustic pods are examples of flexible solutions. In open plan spaces, breaking up the distances that sound waves can travel is key to creating a space that is inclusive and conducive to productivity and wellbeing for all.

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Creative Thinking with Steve Gale

The Future is Data Everyone in the workplace business needs reliable information to plan ahead – especially now – but our workplace data inputs have been patchy in the past.

They were originally configured for specific purposes, like maintaining ventilation outputs or controlling access security, not for complex analysis to improve design and performance. This is changing fast, however.

The burning workplace issues can be summed up in three questions - how much will employees love home working in the long term? How much should an organisation coax people back to the office? And how can we comply with ESG reporting regulations, especially energy consumption? To answer these questions we need high quality data and analytics, but in commercial buildings the relevant technology is in the dark ages, even compared to modern cars and mobile phones. Today’s building management systems, with very few exceptions, are nowhere near as clever.

Buildings have systems and devices churning out data in their own formats, but when you need to analyse these unconnected inputs things easily get out of control. For a long time we’ve had inputs from Outlook, Wi-Fi logons, desk bookings, access data and leave applications, as well as environmental factors like temperature and lighting levels. Now we are adding desk sensors, room people counters, energy sub-metering and air quality monitors, as well as third party data from weather and transport sources. It is becoming more chaotic as suppliers of sensors and monitors jostle for space to fill the growing demand for information.

As late adopters, the workplace sector should take a hard look at the technology that has transformed other industries, where intelligent use of digital technology is mainstream, rather than a backwater. Data is useless unless it can be accessed, sorted and analysed, so the need for integration is a hot topic. So how can we join all this up and get real value from our data? The answer is to get it into one place, in the same format. We will call this one place a technology platform.

Your smartphone is a good example – evolving from a portable telephone into a single point of contact for reference, communication and control. It made other devices redundant: radios, alarm clocks, TVs, torches, cameras, libraries and more every day. Access to the internet with cloud storage, remote processing and artificial intelligence has removed the ceiling to development. It is a platform for infinite customisation.

Workplace technology must now travel the same road.

The inputs need to originate in or be translated into the same format, then the data can be stored on an accessible cloud server. When we connect our existing building management system to all the other inputs we begin to see the bigger picture. Managers could automate environmental control and reduce energy consumption.

Occupants could book desks or rooms, see which spaces are available and view indices of air quality. Portfolio managers could assess space needs and optimum locations. Critically, tenants could visualise accurate occupation behaviour to commission workplace designs that offer flexibility where needed, and the type of spaces that make employees happy. The power of intelligent data use is within our grasp.

Steve Gale is head of business intelligence at M Moser Associates

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Roundtable

Is Hub-and-Spoke the Future?

In partnership with Amtico, we explore what it takes to develop creative hubs, discuss how workspaces beyond our capitals can continue to nurture community, and ask if decentralisation is ultimately the pathway to better results and happier teams.

Lucy Martin Project Consultant

Lucy Symons Mid-Weight Designer

Melanie Meale Director

Melody Hill Head Design

Michaela Churchill Oliver Roberts Interior Designer Commerical Project Claremont Specialist

Sarah Pasquall Interior Designer

Tony Matters Founder & Creative Director

McFeggan Brown

Interaction

Amtico

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Steer Design

AWW

AMH Projects

Faber Design

In partnership with

Words: Harry McKinley

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There’s more to Bristol than Banksy. While this city has, in recent years, garnered a reputation as something of a hipster honeypot, it’s also been ranked as one of the UK’s top startup destinations and is among the fastest growing tech hubs in the country. Satellite offices for colossal, often London-headquartered companies are sprouting, while a boom in co-working spaces nods to a demand for flexible, remote working. It’s an apt setting.

We’ve assembled in the Pivot + Mark building, home to AWW, to discuss hub-and-spoke and decentralised working – a hot topic for the post-COVID age, when seasides, suburbs and regional centres are proving more appealing for many than life in our dense capitals.

“I think it’s important to put these new ways of working in context,” explains McFeggan Brown’s Lucy Martin. “Because for many there was previously no flexibility at all. What we think of as office culture now didn’t exist before the pandemic. It was expected that everything would happen in a very static way in one office and, actually, our team structures didn’t allow for anything else. So the change has been seismic and, in terms what

the future is, we’re still going to be feeling our way for a while and seeing what actually works in practice.”

For Amtico’s Oliver Roberts, however, decentralisation was – perhaps unusually – already the norm. Based in Devon, he oversees a broad region with only occasional jaunts to the UK showroom in London.

“I’ve always worked remotely and never had an office,” he says. “So I’ve experienced first-hand how more flexible and less centralised working models can be successful.

The reality is, a meeting in a coffee shop in a regional location, like here in Bristol, can be just as productive as in a main office.”

Melanie Meale, Steer Design, notes that while the office has played a crucial role, design firms have long championed diversity of working practice in terms of how much time employees actually spend there.

“We’ve been pushing for clients to work in a more agile manner since before the pandemic; angling to design environments that facilitated that and even arguing with

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them,” she opines. “But I don’t think many of us – in our industries – were doing five days a week, 9-to-5 in the traditional office space, because we knew the benefits of doing things differently. And it’s arguably the dismantling of that five-days-in-the-office week that helps to make a case for satellite (or spoke) workplaces, that are closer to home and allow people more balance.”

“Employers realise now, more than ever, that the happier the employee is, the more productive they’ll be,” AMH Projects’ Melody Hill says. “Comfort has to come first and if an employer is expecting people to commute into a central office, in a city like London, five days a week when they live elsewhere, they’re going to lose staff and even find it difficult to recruit.”

The concept of work-life balance is widely credited to psychologist and engineer Lillian Moller Gilbreth – whose work in the early 1900s and onwards reshaped how we consider wellbeing as it pertains to productivity.

In short, it’s far from new. And yet, perhaps the biggest pandemic pivot isn’t the rethink in working environments and their geography, but in the power balance between employees and employer – the former now demanding better and, having shown that it works, getting it.

“That recruitment point is important,” continues AWW’s Sarah Pasquall. “There’s been a redressing of the balance between company and employee and to get the best graduates onboard it’s vital to offer workplaces that are appealing to be in and don’t necessarily involve the kind of commute that has previously been standard.”

Hub-and-spoke, then. Another term that isn’t new, but which has been thrown into prominence in recent times.

Essentially, companies can operate a central ‘hub’, a more traditional office space, where workers can collaborate, congregate and avail of amenities in a destination of relative scale; while, in tandem, ‘spokes’ could be smaller satellite offices, coworking spaces, coffee shops or even – as one more fluid definition encompasses – our homes.

creep into the rest of the day when there isn’t that clear distinction between being ‘at work’ and being ‘at home’ or even close to home. I think it’s necessary for companies to have a focal point and an identity. We also have to ask: if employees aren’t all coming into the same office regularly, what impact does that have on the culture?”

The positives, seemingly, are bountiful and well documented: less time and money spent on commuting for employees; an ability to reach and tap talent in other parts of the country for employers; and a greater emphasis on agility, that allows both employee and employer to respond and adapt quickly to changing market forces. But what of the negatives?

“But the culture of offices needed to change,” Martin continues. “The days of designing with rows upon rows of desks is gone and never coming back. We do need to come together, but we don’t necessarily need to come together all the time.”

“It’s really important that we’re able to switch off,” says Interaction’s Lucy Symons. “Work begins to

For Faber Design’s Tony Matters, identity building is still an issue. He works primarily in hospitality design – a sector increasingly being looked at and learnt from to arguably lead workplaces out of the doldrums.

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“In hospitality design, there’s a focus on creating experiences and atmospheres; on building ID. We are seeing a merging of workplace and hospitality, but in a satellite office or coworking space it’s difficult to create integration or a consistent company culture. Hubs where everyone is sitting around eating lunch together are where that’s built. It’s fantastic that companies are seeing the benefit of investing in social spaces, but people need to be there, together, for them to make sense as environments for spontaneity and collaboration.”

Michaela Churchill, Claremont, offers an alternative perspective: “A company culture and identity isn’t just about environment, it comes through being part of a team, through feeling invested. I’m based here as part of a Bristol team, but our head office is in Manchester.

That means we make communication a priority in a way that, actually, it sometimes isn’t if everyone is in the same building together.”

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As conversation draws to a close it’s clear the room is torn; that we are living in a time of discovery and experimentation and the best route forward is still unclear. For Roberts, hub-and-spoke worked then and works now, so long as ‘collaboration is managed’; for Meale, the management of culture is key but it’s a positive step forward; while for Hill it’s a terrific halfway house between all-remote and all-office working: “Travelling for an hour and a half into a city like London isn’t always ideal. So if someone has the flexibility to work closer to home at a smaller office, or even at home, then they’ll undoubtedly be happier. And if that means that when they do have to come into the ‘hub’, they do it with a smile, then who wouldn’t want that?”

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3daysofdesign Denmark’s leading design event returned this year to showcase new products, installations and big ideas across 200+ citywide exhibitions. Here we choose a few of our highlights.

&Tradition Studies of a Table &Tradition’s exhibition invited five design studios from across the globe to push the boundaries of what is considered to be the archetypal table. Designers All the Way to Paris, Studio Raw Material, Teruhiro Yanagihara, Stellenbosch Art Foundry and Spiritual Objects were chosen for their vision, to construct a product which represents their home countries.

Muuto Oslo Lounge Chair The latest addition to the Anderrsen & Voll-designed Oslo collection, the Lounge Chair comprises a low and deep shell that is elevated by an embracing back that envelops and supports. Another highlight was the Tom Chung-designed Piton lamp, which borrows its design language and functionality from traditional flashlights and mountaineering equipment.

Blå Station RUT Designed by Bernstrand & Borselius, RUT is a square modular sofa system with exposed oak supports. Squares can be assembled in a variety of configurations to offer different seating possibilities, and can be interspaced with armrests, writing tablets and electricity.

Tarkett X STUDIO Rens Color Blocked A collaboration between Tarkett and Studio RENS breathes new life into carpet tiles that would otherwise be obsolete or rejected because of colour defects. By manually dying the tiles red, all previous hues and nuances work together in harmony regardless of previous colours, producing new shades and tones each time.

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Hej days Fritz Hansen has recognised 150 years of design with the Anniversary Collection, celebrating Danish design and the past and future of the iconic brand.

Select pieces of Fritz Hansen’s most famous designs have been reinterpreted with the use of special fabrics, colours and materials, including new versions of Arne Jacobsen’s Series 7TM, the EggTM, the SwanTM, and the LillyTM chair, as well as a PK61 table in Norwegian marble sourced near the Arctic Circle. The collections look to the future, without forgetting the Danish tradition of simplicity.

Head of Design, Marie-Louise Høstbo works strategically to curate collections, develop products and continue to shape Fritz Hansen’s legacy of exceptional and timeless design.

“Instead of just pointing out one single piece, in the collection we have created a curation of pieces that connect across time. A lot of our pieces in the collection started out being for the commercial market, but today we use these products in our homes. Coming back to work after lockdown, we need to be in a welcoming space and adding these more personal items in into our commercial office spaces or lounge areas can help with this.”

Designed in the 50s and 60s, there is an enduring quality to the Anniversary Collection, brought to life by modern fabrics from Raf Simons for Kvadrat and Sørenson. For Høstbo, the lasting nature of Scandinavian and Nordic design is deeply engrained.

“From our early days as cabinet makers, we were striving to be innovative with our craftsmanship, with a focus on the human body and its surroundings. Nordic countries are places where light is very important – the light can be different every minute; every hour. The organic shapes in the furniture caress the light coming in and emphasise the shape of the human body.”

Fritz Hansen’s new collections and anniversary celebrations were presented during 3daysofdesign, inside a dramatic pavilion in Designmuseum Denmark’s garden.

Taking a Nordic approach to design using daylight and honest materials, the structure was built in collaboration with architects Henning Larsen and will eventually be repurposed at Fritz Hansen’s headquarters.

To read more about Fritz Hansen’s anniversary collection visit mixinteriors.com.

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Mixology22

Mixology22 Winners With almost 1500 guests, this year’s swish awards ceremony at Evolution London saw an international suite of both nominees and winners; an opportunity for the sector to celebrate another year of innovation, creativity and intelligent problem solving across a variety of arenas, from workplace to hospitality.

Massive Thanks to our Sponsors

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Each of our winners was selected by a highly influential panel of judges, representing leaders from every facet of the commercial interior design industry.

With bookings now open for Mixology North 22 (1st December), here, we recap the victors.

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01

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Product of the Year 01 Flooring

03 Loose Furniture

05 Surfaces

02 Lighting

04 Seating

06 Task Furniture

IVC Commercial Imperfection Fritz Hansen The Clam

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Techo Ahrend Qabin Pedrali Blume

Autex Acoustics Acoustic Timber Tecno UNICA

If you’re only reading us in print, you’re only getting half the story.

Find us online mixinteriors.com Follow us mix.interiors

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01

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04

Product of the Year

Project of the Year

01 Technology & Accessories

03 Bar & Leisure Interiors

Manufacturer of the Year

04 Design & Build

CMD Miro

02 Tarkett

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Liqui Group Brew92 King’s Road, Jeddah Modus Workspace Numis, London

05 Hotel Interiors

Goddard Littlefair Mondrian Shoreditch, London

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Project of the Year 01 Living Interiors

03 Public Sector & Cultural Interiors

05 Workplace Interiors > 5000 - 15000 sq ft

02 Positive Impact

04 Workplace Interiors < 5000 sq ft

06 Workplace Interiors > 15000 - 30000 sq ft

74 The Headline, Leeds BDP Wren Urban Nest, Dublin

NBBJ University Enterprise Zone, London Coalbrook and Holloway Li The Market Building, London

Conran and Partners Great Sutton Street, London

Squire & Partners The Department Store Studios, London

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01

02

03

Project of the Year

Design Practice of the Year

01 Workplace Interiors > 30000 - 70000 sq ft

03 HLW

Perkins&Will Beazley, London

02 Workplace Interiors > 70000 sq ft

Gensler McCann Worldgroup

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Mixology North22 will be back bigger and better than ever on 1 December 2022 at Manchester Central. Award entries open on 30 August, and ticket bookings are now available at mixinteriors.com.

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Property

The Last of the Fixer-Uppers?

If you’re expecting the next few years to be dominated by a heavy work-stream of office refurbishments, think again.

Words: David Thame

Refurbishment is the office development market’s breakglass-in-emergency option. Or so the old wisdom says.

Refurbishment is definitely cheaper and always quicker.

In a recession that means two very big ticks. It also means lower rents than new-build for cost-conscious tenants. Everyone wins.

pipeline of new workspace. But this time it could be a little different. The reasons are many and complex, and the consequences equally fluid.

So first, the reasons, then what it might mean for your working life in the next few years.

The appeal, then, is obvious. If the economy is tanking and the future looks uncertain, there’s no sense in investing heavily in the monumental risk of new-build floorspace. Besides, occupiers are likely to be costconscious and would probably prefer a budget option.

Barry Jessup is managing director at Socius Development, a mixed-use developer with a string of schemes underway including 185,000 sq ft of new workspace in Cambridge, 180,000 sq ft in Bristol, and much else besides in the capital and the regions. Jessup’s view is that (some) of the old wisdom no longer works.

No surprises that in the last three or four recessions or mini-recessions, refurbishment became the big workstream for property developers, landlords, brokers and designers – and everyone else who depends on a steady

“We’ve got very different market drivers than earlier downturns, meaning we’ve got a lot of focus on sustainability and on the post-COVID reaction to the workplace, and that changes things,” he says.

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“The fact is that between the two it means office occupiers are obliged to find new offices to meet their human resources and sustainability targets in a market with historically low levels of vacant office space. And at the same time a lot of older potentially refurbish able floorspace is either too expensive to get up to those standards, or simply impossible to get up to those standards.”

In other words, making refurbishment work in the world of BREEAM Excellent ratings and Well certification is more demanding, expensive and complicated. Office refurbishment is no longer the relatively easy option it was in 1996, 2001 or 2010. “In the past, you could maybe give it a lick of paint and off you go, but not now,” Jessup jokes.

If landlords and developers find refurbishment a shade less appealing, does that mean that cost-conscious

occupiers will share their view? Won’t there still be plenty of businesses who prefer (relatively) cheap and (relatively) cheerful to the expensive commitment of new-build floorspace?

Well yes, some will. But any business with an eye to post-recession survival probably won’t, Jessup thinks.

In the meantime, developers, investors and landlords have priorities of their own if they are to survive a downturn. Top of the list is not frittering time or money on projects that won’t deliver the right rate of return.

“If the economy is smaller tomorrow than it was today, we have to be very selective. That doesn’t mean turning the tap off and not developing, because there is real demand for good workspace and that demand is not going away. But it does mean being sensitive on price, aware of investors’ views of debt and gilts, and keeping our eyes open,” says Jessup.

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The COVID pandemic stress-tested the office market, he tells us, and it survived – more or less. We know plenty of employers and employees really do value going to the office. “Unless there is a proper economic collapse – a depression – the labour market is going to remain tight, which means employers have to provide good workspace,” Jessup continues.

So there ought to be no reason for panic. But some locations and styles of office will work, others less so, and on the whole refurbished space is harder to make appealing.

To be fair, it’s not all one way. There are some modest impulses towards refurbishment. Developers and investors have sustainability targets of their own, and repurposing the embodied carbon in an existing building scores higher points than building new. Whilst many acknowledge the moral impulse to refurbish, plenty caveat this with the observation that not all older buildings are aesthetically or structurally viable. If there is a push for refurbishment – and there might be – it could come from occupiers as much as landlords, and it will come in the form of upgraded fitouts rather than wholesale work on the fabric and common spaces.

Alex Herrmann is Head of Building Consultancy at MAPP, the business that manages £15bn of commercial property on behalf of many of the UK’s largest landlords and investors.

“We have already seen tenants undertaking refurbishments of existing space rather than waiting to lease end which has been the norm,” he says. “Landlords see the need to provide space to attract new occupiers and are actively enhancing the specification of floor plates and common areas, such as more collaboration areas, events spaces and wellness features in order to not be left behind by the market.”

The conclusion is that refurbishment is not a deadletter – there are times, places and people for whom it will be the right option. But as a template to be applied everywhere, as was the case in previous downturns, office refurbishment may have had its day.

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Why London might be different London might be the exception to the rule that refurbishment will become less prevalent in the coming downturn than it was in past downturns.

Data published in the latest Global Cities Survey suggests that extraordinary demand for good London workspace will mean pressure on landlords and investors to provide as much floorspace as they can – and meeting that need will inevitably mean a lot of refurbishment.

The data – which compares London to Paris, Berlin, New York and Hong Kong – shows London West End rents rising sharply as 2022 began, up 12%, with the City up by 8%.

The UK capital recorded its highest employment rate compared to competitors in the first quarter of this year, signalling the city’s economic turnaround. London employment is now more than 11 percentage points ahead of New York compared to 2019 benchmarks.

And whilst New York (Midtown) and Hong Kong have acres of empty office workspace (21% and 10.9% vacancy rates respectively), in London the figure gyrates about 8-9% – as per the report prepared by the London Property Alliance.

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Human Insight with Chiara Vascotto

Reinventing Rural and Urban Covid has shifted the way we see and interact with rural and urban spaces, with new synergies across the two camps. At the heart of our choices of where and how to live is the same desire for simpler, more sustainable ways of life.

For sure, towns are enjoying at least the prospect of a rosier second act. As many professionals move to smaller cities, new possibilities and needs emerge.

Previous capital dwellers bring with them the desire for diversity of culture, retail and entertainment.

At the height of the pandemic, we got up close and personal with our four walls and had to face spaces that were often cramped or unfit for purpose. Suddenly, urban dwellers had to live with all the challenges of the city, with none of its perks.

For staunch urbanites, access to the outdoors continues to be precious. Demand for properties with balconies, patios and outdoor spaces have skyrocketed.

Parks and river walks remain full. And with today’s economic strain, nature will remain an inexpensive resource to tap into, from picnics to jogging.

Commercial enterprises are factoring this in and claiming every inch of external space available to them for al fresco dining, outdoor fitness and work meetings.

Those who could, escaped to the country, at least briefly. Those who couldn’t, longed for a sense of spaciousness in their homes and found solace in the outdoors. Open spaces became the key to our safety and our sanity. We rediscovered nature as it became the only place to exercise, relax and socialize.

At the same time, remote working began to stretch the commuter belt to new horizons. By August 2020, one in seven Londoners wanted out of the capital. Many predicted a large-scale relocation to villages and towns.

Two years on, how have things changed? Figures challenge the once predicted big city exodus, and hordes of urbanites frolicking in meadows are yet to be spotted in our villages. Rather, we are seeing a rebalancing and blending of these worlds. A hybrid model of sorts. You might say we’re seeing an urbanising of the rural and a re-wilding of the city.

Avoiding public transport has also meant a rediscovery of local neighbourhoods. And whilst talk of the 15-minute city is gaining ground amongst planners, individuals are crafting their own ways to enjoy and support local businesses, further incentivised by the rising cost of fuel.

In a way, what is happening in villages and big cities are different executions of the same brief. At its core, a shared desire for a more meaningful, sustainable life. We seek greater connection with nature and with each other. We want to live in less alienating spaces.

We need simple solutions that will make our money go further. And with intention, and clever design, these can be achieved anywhere.

Chiara is an anthropologist working in consumer insights and branding, and is part of Hologram, a design and research collective

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The Global Perspective with Harry McKinley

Should Brands and Politics Mix? I recently hosted a European design conference on Tenerife. The sun was shining, the breeze tepid and the resort smart; the type of place most go to escape the worries of the world, drink margaritas and sink into the sand, book in hand. I offered the delegates no such respite, helming a panel on politics – or more specifically, on the question of whether design and politics should mix.

The room was divided. For some, we should adopt the royal approach – keeping schtum on sensitive matters.

For others, it’s important that any business centred on the human experience has something to say, even if that sometimes means fomenting disagreement and risking a less-than-positive reaction.

It has always seemed, to me at least, that politics – in its broadest sense – remains the great taboo within our industry at large. Brands that are happy to wax lyrical about sustainability, retreat when negative critique of Saudi arises; studios that dedicate pages of marketing spiel to their charity endeavours, break out in a cold sweat if their work in China is questioned. Wade into specific social issues and it becomes even more contentious.

Recent times, however, have forced the hand of many.

Marriott, as an example, announced in June that it was exiting Russia after over two decades, citing operational challenges and sharing a wish for peace – something of a milquetoast statement that was met with a mixed response.

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Other hospitality brands have been more intentioned.

When the US Supreme Court controversially overturned Roe v Wade, The Standard hotel group quickly released a treatise on its social channels denouncing the decision as ‘shameful’ and even encouraging protest.

One could argue that the big difference between these two juggernauts of the hotel realm is not courage, but demographics – the latter aiming to appeal to a younger, more creative, more culturally plugged-in guest. If the majority of Marriott’s portfolio was the stay of choice for global millennials, I wonder if they would have been screaming ‘Slava Ukraini!’ from the rooftops?

Perhaps the question is less whether brands and politics should mix and more, whether they can afford not to.

By most metrics we know that consumers are becoming increasingly values-centric and that the culture and positioning of brands is driving choice as much as actual product and offer. If we want to align ourselves with businesses that share our beliefs and ideals, however superficially, is silence ever satisfactory?

It has its pitfalls, of course. As an outside illustration, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s was recently forced to roll back a poorly judged near-boycott of Israel, due to public backlash, divestment from the company and even the threat of legal challenges by US states. It proved divisive, unpopular and ultimately left the brand with egg on its face. Because that’s the problem with politics: it deals in subjects on which we disagree. But if, as the saying goes, you can’t please ‘em all, do the potential rewards of weighing in ultimately outweigh the risks?

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Material Matters Holloway Li is an interior architecture practice based in London, crafting cinematic

spaces with a bold and experimental vision. Latest projects include WunderLocke, a new aparthotel in Munich; Entrée, an artisan bakery in London; and The Market Building, an experimental showroom for Coalbrook in Clerkenwell. Designers Emily Mak and Ivy Aris offer up four of their go-to materials.

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Passivated Zinc Typically used as a process to protect metals from rust and corrosion, we took interest in the visual qualities passivation creates and sought to utilise its iridescent, prismatic finish to evoke the image of the desert sky in Bermonds Locke Hotel. This experiment prompted continued explorations on metals and its processes on various subsequent projects, including controlled, intentional rustication and other bespoke finishes.

Fibreglass Originating from the idea of concrete furniture, we sought to create a lightweight, movable alternative using a natural sand aggragate in fibreglass to appear as concrete. We have since further developed this material for our upcoming furniture objects, introducing vibrant colours and recycled aggregates to create bespoke, expressive and bold finishes.

‘Bric’ Tiles Employed in a few of our recent projects, the porcelain floor tile works to inject an air of domesticity into a commercial setting. Where a traditional brick couldn’t perform to the technical requirements needed, this material enabled the blurring of the boundary between a classically warmer residential aesthetic with the function of a high performing hospitality space, challenging our preconceptions of the typical materials used in the typologies.

Cobogo Hollow Bricks A material the studio is keen to use is Cobogo Hollow Bricks by Cobolondon. Originating from Brazil, the ceramic brick articulates a duality the studio explores conceptually; being functional (allowing light and air to pass in hotter climates as a structural element) whilst being visually appealing (coupled with the fabulous range of glazed colours they come in.)

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The Final Word with Mike Walley

The Furniture Questions As the great rethink on workplaces continues apace, like many companies we are adopting working practices that will demand less space. We have been fortunate to be able to take advantage of leases ending and visionary landlords to reduce our portfolio footprint. But this leaves us with a knotty problem: what should we do with large amounts of excess furniture?

Occasionally, we have been able to construct the property exit deal to include the furniture and the landlord or new tenant will keep it. This certainly saves the cost and effort of disposing of it. We have also used brokers, to whom we sold the furniture. Although, funnily, it always seemed to cost the same sum of money to remove the items as we had earnt selling them.

and we also have a requirement to report on our activities in many of the jurisdictions in which we operate. We want to be sure that the materials we caused to be constructed into furniture are recycled in the best possible way. If we walk away from it or sell it or even give it to a deserving cause, we cannot be sure it will not just end up in landfill at the end of its useful life. It is impossible to put caveats on how it should be handled in the scenarios I mentioned, so we only have one option and that is to recycle it directly. I confess to being somewhat embarrassed about disposing of perfectly good furniture, but until the manufacturers create an end-to-end lifecycle for furniture (like some carpet manufacturers have) I am left with no option.

Sometimes we would donate desks and chairs to schools, charities and other organisations that could make good use of them. Whilst this seemed, on the face of it, a good thing to do, it is becoming much more difficult. The reason being, as some of the downsizing is quite large, we have flooded all our local schools and charities with furniture and within a 20mile radius of our downsized locations all teachers and charity workers are sitting on good Interstuhle chairs and leaning on Steelcase desks. The main – and more serious – reason is that we lose control of the furniture and how it is handled at end of life.

I was able recently to furnish my NYC office with refurbished furniture and it worked very well, but I do understand the manufacturers’ reluctance to move away from ‘new’ furniture and facilitate a market in refurbished product (imagine ‘Approved-Used Desks’).

It is said that the market for refurbished Aeron Chairs is now larger than the market for new ones, so there is potential for the higher end products to have an extended life. I would like to see manufacturers step in and create ways to help us do the right thing – refurbishing and reselling, re-engineering older products and facilitating the recycling of end-of-life product.

Like many companies we are very aware of our responsibilities regarding our environmental footprint

In the meantime, anyone interested in 650 pedestals?

Collection only.

Mike Walley is Senior Director of Global Real Estate & Workplace Strategy at Criteo

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