We are delighted to offer conference delegates the opportunity to visit three very different and innovative workplaces in central London. You’ll find out about the thinking behind the design and hear from those managing and using the new spaces.
Places are available for Workplace Trends Conference delegates only, are strictly limited, and on a first-come-first-served basis, so do book your space early.
Greenlight Digital – Urban Vintage
Greenlight Digital is a digital marketing and analytics company with 130 people, serving over 50 leading brands in over 30 global markets.
Workplace consultants Peldon Rose moved them from their corporate environment at Broadgate Tower into a new tech hub in London’s Kings Cross, working with them for nearly a year before starting the build. Greenlight wanted something out of the ordinary – a workspace to inspire and retain existing staff as well as attract new top talent.
The company’s new home was an architecturally rich Victorian building with exposed brickwork, oak timber trusses and original period features. Peldon Rose used these elements as part of their design for a less corporate, more fluid workspace.
The office features a reception visible from the main entrance to the ground floor courtyard. This is the ‘shop window’ for the company, expressing a vibrant, exciting, eclectic urban industrial feel on a par with adjacent pubs and clubs.
There are a wide variety of, mostly, informal meeting options; a large open plan work area and a loft café breakout and social space which is the heart of the working environment.
Greenlight’s CEO said: ““The work environment that Peldon Rose delivered is more than we imagined it could be and completely delivers on the vision we shared from the beginning of the journey. Both staff and clients are blown away on a daily basis by the surroundings. It truly is a new home for our company.”
BBC – World-Class Broadcasting Hub
Renowned around the world for the quality of its output, the BBC is a British institution. A ten-year project has seen the refurbishment and restoration of the original 1932 Broadcasting House near Oxford Circus and the construction of a brand new 12-storey extension to link old Broadcasting House with the new ‘Peel Wing’. The new building was delivered on-air, on-schedule and £30m under-budget. New Broadcasting House consolidates 5,500 staff members from the broadcaster’s network.
HOK’s interior design for what onoffice magazine called one of the “largest, most complex” workplace schemes in London over the past 50 years maximizes use of space, incorporates new digital technology and creates a highly flexible environment that the BBC can easily adapt to meet its changing needs.
The scheme celebrates the distinct identity of each department within the unified BBC brand, which features a distinctive red and orange palette. This brand consistency allows the BBC to broadcast from most locations in the headquarters. Flexible workstation clusters with extra data and power outlets accommodate changing team sizes. Other formal work spaces include 57 meeting rooms and 72 touchdown areas.
The building provides a variety of spaces for informal collaboration. Quiet, one-on-one spaces are grouped around the perimeter of the two large atria. A series of back-to-back booths, or railway carriages, facing the atria provide collaborative space on each floor.
Interior Design magazine named the project as one of its Top 10 Design Projects of 2013.
Brand Union – Agile Working for Creativity
Brand Union, part of WPP Group, is a global brand agency with expertise in strategy, design, interaction, brand management and employee engagement. The agency has 500 people, across 25 offices working in every major market.
For its new London office Brand Union wanted a small agency feel but on a large scale, celebrating what they do and who they are. Architects BDG produced a scheme to refurbish 50,000 sq ft of office space, over five floors in Clerkenwell.
The building had been empty for over five years. The project included the installation of three staircases, a new entrance and reception floor, as well as the entire reconfiguration of the working space on all floors.
The building also accommodates fellow Brand Union companies and sister WPP companies who they work closely with. The new spaces encourage mingling; fostering a culture where people work across teams and disciplines. Brand Union wanted the shared facilities for working, meeting and socialising to reflect the tone of different interactions, from informal get togethers and formal internal meetings to client-facing situations for different types of companies.
The fit-out has achieved the BREEAM Very Good rating and Overbury’s work with BDG won the BCO’s London and the South East Fit Out of Workplace Award.
Booking Information
These tours are optional extras for delegates attending the Workplace Trends: Environments for Wellness & Health Conference on Wednesday 14 October. Tours take place on Thursday 15 October, cost £150 + VAT, and include lunch, refreshments and travel costs (by guided public transport). Times are being finalised, but the day is likely to run from 9.30am through to 4.30pm.