City of London Insurance Company L43 East

Workplace

⥤ Overview

A high-spec, 11,000 sq ft scheme for a leading global insurance company, high up in a glass-and-steel tower in the heart of the City of London. The scheme included evocative cues inspired by the company’s Bermuda HQ location, as well as incorporating many wisdoms from the 3,000-year-old practice of Feng Shui.

The latter finds form in the site plan and the placing of key activities within that, as well as through intriguing curved wall and ‘dragon’s tail’ corridor shapes. Many bespoke fixtures and features, meanwhile, from sand and sea blue colouring to ripple-effect glass and wall treatments, scallop-edged bespoke joinery and bespoke, stalactite-inspired lights, refer to the colours, shapes and textures of Bermuda’s natural environment.     

⥤ Brief

The client asked the designers to create an office of 11,000 sq ft of net internal space from a site delivered in standard Cat A condition. The new space needed to have two functionally-separate office areas, incorporating 50 desk spaces each, plus an additional 10 executive desks in the south-facing section. The scheme also needed to include a suite of shared meeting facilities and support areas, ranging from tearooms and print rooms to washrooms and a yoga studio. Align Design and Architecture were given a very open brief when it came to the look and feel of the new scheme – and took part in a highly creative conceptualising process with the client on this.

⥤ Challenges

The scheme’s floor-to-ceiling semi-circular terrarium in the reception area features plants native to Bermuda and created for the scheme by Grow Tropicals. This was a very technically-challenging installation with, for example, an inbuilt misting system, reverse osmosis filtration and a deep base to hold all the necessary technology. Sliding doors allow for monthly maintenance access. The terrarium is in a bronze finish to the top and bottom, with vertical ridged timber panels directly below the glazed frontage.