A striking, two-storey, co-working space for new operator bubbleHUB, located within a characterful former pump house building in the centre of St Albans aimed at those living in the city, working in isolation, running small independent businesses or currently commuting into London.
To create a unique and aspirational space, responding to the historic building envelope and with a feel that is part private members’ club and part workspace with a relaxed, home-from-home feel, incorporating a touchdown, relaxation hub with events bar and hireable meeting room, as well as dedicated upper storey quieter work stations.
Working with all the challenges of the unknown in a former historic industrial building meant being prepared for surprises, as well as working around limitations. Ensuring maximum natural light ingress to the rear of the ground floor for example meant installing walk-on glazed panels at the rear of the first floor. Building fabric, including a portion of the Victorian foundations and existing brickwork, were exposed and made into features.
Brand Opus LLP relocation in London W1, completed March 2014 with 19,000 sqft of studio space over three floors
The brief was to create a home from where employees & clients alike could form an emotional connection. The space needs to allow them all to work in distinct environments based on activity and mood - just like home. All the teams had to be on one floor including the partners, who were slightly separate but still accessible and connected
These included a late client re-brand (two years into the project) and an extremely complex base build with the discovery of elements previously concealed.
During one of the early workshop design sessions we were discussing the proposed staircase geometry that has a graceful elliptical shape, which intertwines over two levels like DNA. The BrandOpus team noticed the similarity with the Fibonacci sequence, which they often use in their work on packaging and graphics. We decided to bring this influence directly into the scheme both in terms of space planning of the ground floor account management team (whose benches radiate from a Fibonacci spiral) and set into the timber flooring on the lower ground floor where a stainless steel band reflects the staircase geometry.
Align worked with Interactive Space on this scheme for marketing agency Story Worldwide; a company with offices over three continents, working in brand, content marketing, custom publishing, digital design and marketing – who were looking to move offices from Holland Park to a new space in Farringdon.
The existing space consisted of a main office with an overlooking galleried area and it was necessary to exit via the street to move between the two. Part of the brief was to solve this and to create better communication between the spaces, which we did by creating a new linking staircase and locating the reception and meeting spaces on the upper level.
We had to ensure that branding was present but subtle in the 3D iteration of the scheme, via plenty of usage of black (including lots of blackboard space for info exchange) balanced by delicate shots of yellow.
Workspace refurbishment for global health and hygiene company in Slough, covering 6,700 sq ft on a single storey. We inspired the company to push their boundaries with a very dynamic space with new and innovative designs, which utilise both the latest workspace technologies and design ideas.
To create a state-of-the-art virtual reality customer experience centre for user focus groups, comprised of a presentation suite, meeting rooms and sample retail environments from around the world, as well as creating a completely new design of the workspace for the global sales team that needed to match the company’s vision for increased cross-departmental collaboration and the stimulation of creative and inspiring solutions.
Designing an environment that would be comfortable for all people regardless of global geography.
A people-centred, smart, agile and biophilic project, comprised of 13,745 sq ft of new working, meeting, presentation and break-out space across 1.5 storeys of the City of London offices of an Australian Financial Services Group in order to meet a period of sustained growth and house three divisions of the company, totalling around 150-170 people.
‘Our objective here was not to just fit-out the space in line with the rest of the building, but to use people-centred design to challenge our thinking and create a number of new inspiring spaces. We aim to create and manage high performance work environments and client spaces that are a consistent representation of our global brand and our spaces are managed to the highest possible standard, reflecting our culture and aspirations.’
(Client Head of Infrastructure Technology and Business Services – EMEA)
Challenges included working with the red feature staircase within the existing building’s strong statement core; ensuring maximum natural light whilst respecting privacy and FCA compliance; creating a multi-use area which could be combined the breakout space beyond; creating a truly effective biophilic strategy and supporting the development of agile, activity-based working practices.
A dynamic, highly-functional and client-sensitive workspace project for global creative agency Spark44, located over two storeys of The White Collar Factory, the major new Old Street office and retail campus, described by developers Derwent London as ‘one of our most ambitious projects to date’.
The London office of Spark44 had grown substantially over recent years and needed to move on from an existing, fragmented space, no longer conducive to creativity or collaboration. The new workspace the company envisaged was to have a strong personality, without being either corporate or gimmicky, and house a variety of different departments with ease.
Located on the 11th and part of the 12th floors of the building, the design approach for the new Spark44 London office, which is uniquely dedicated to fulfilling creative projects for Jaguar Land Rover, sought to achieve a balance between respect for the new building’s proportions and base-build materiality; the specific needs and usage patterns of the agency’s London team and the over-riding brand principles of Spark44, including the incorporation of the mantra ‘Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Honest’ and a high-impact colour palette of red, grey, white and black.
Accountancy and business advisory firm Foxley Kingham celebrated its 50th year in business in 2019. At the same time, the company decided it had outgrown its central Luton premises, owned on freehold for 25 years, and it was the right time to move in order to provide for future growth and embrace the next 50 years of business success. The new premises needed to incorporate better facilities, offer room for expansion and provide increased car-parking spaces for staff.
In addition to offering multi-industry accountancy services, Foxley Kingham had also developed several specialist arms over the years. The design brief was to balance the company’s discreet, understated, confidential and to some degree segmented way of working with a new contemporary, pared-back and elegant materiality.
Space-planning was a major focus of the redesign, ensuring future in-built flexibility not only for potential growth, but to incorporate archive storage space, as the traditionally paper-heavy company continues its migration towards reduced use of paper. The main spatial challenge was that the building was fairly long and narrow, so that our scheme included a variety of sightlines and the removal of some pre-existing divisions.
A new workspace for Eden McCallum, as the leading management consultancy sought to re-locate its existing team into a more flexible workspace, whilst remaining in a central location in London’s west end. Having found a 6th floor space in Orion House on St Martin’s Lane, minutes from both Covent Garden and Leicester Square underground stations, the company came to align to space-plan and design the new 6,000 sq ft footprint.
With many of the firm’s senior partners and analysts spending a good proportion of the week out of the office, the brief was to create a workspace that combined fixed desking with more agile working practices, while also making it feel open and comfortable and creating a variety of productive working spaces.
Eden McCallum’s brand values and therefore its directive for its look and feel hadn’t changed since the first fit-out align had completed, in that a quiet, understated and sophisticated environment was requested, with an interesting, human-scale and unregimented feel. What was different was the challenge of creating a more flexible and agile office within the new footprint, whilst incorporating all the variety of staff requirements - from team to group, semi-private and private working - and ensuring it still felt spacious.
A 20,000 sq ft suite of offices that respond to a complex technical brief, at the same time as prioritising staff’s ergonomic needs, for a fast-growing scientific information company. The offices are located in the landmark AlphaBeta development in Finsbury Square, part of London’s burgeoning Tech City.
The brief revolved around enabling staff to work at their optimum level, especially when coding. This meant planning for single working, working in pairs and also in both smaller and larger groups with maximum flexibility and variety. The brief also requested specific areas where consumers could test new software and be observed in the process, as well as a range of break-out spaces and a central gathering space.
The timing was very challenging, working with a base build that wasn’t complete and a deadline that meant taking early possession. Part of the brief was to navigate a clear path between end-user needs and expectations and parent company design guidelines. Elsevier were very much seeking a showcase for their new technology flagship business, whilst Mendeley was seeking to push boundaries as a forward-thinking, fast-growing concern.
A striking, contemporary and elegant new workspace for a private equity firm, based in a six-storey building just off Trafalgar Square. The project specifically related to the redesign of its 7,500 sq ft first floor space, home to the firm’s support staff, including the finance, HR, marketing/communications and IT teams. The scheme had to be delivered in three phases, with staff moving round to allow normal working to continue throughout.
A flowing and open floorplan was a key part of the brief, as well as the inclusion of three closed meeting spaces; private offices for the company’s finance partner and HR head; open collaboration spaces and a kitchenette/tea-point area. Further aspects of the brief were to incorporate plenty of fresh, green planting and to reference the company’s branding colourway through bold splashes of colour. Finally, the brief asked for British suppliers and products to be used wherever possible.
The building has a Grade I-listed façade and a new-build structure directly behind that and has links to a famous eighteenth-century portrait and landscape painter. One element of the brief was to introduce some connection to the painter, but without creating anything pastiche. align suggested a graphic route, using some of the painter’s works in the form of floor-to-ceiling matt translucent film, applied to the glass walls of the three meeting rooms and the partner’s office.
A subtle and elegant suite of offices for airline giant Cathay Pacific in new airy and spacious premises, just east of Hammersmith Bridge. The 4th floor, 9,295 sq ft space faces the Thames directly, with views over to the famous Harrods Furniture Depository building opposite and serves as Cathay Pacific’s UK headquarters.
The opportunity to move represented a great opportunity to serve as a catalyst for change in workplace culture. One of the most important aspects of this was the possibility of promoting a greater sense of togetherness and communality, helping to move the workforce on from separated departments and rather formal meeting rooms to a connected and flowing series of spaces.
The Cathay Pacific company design ethos is ‘softly spoken, strongly felt’, pointing towards a language of tasteful, warm and considered sensory experiences, delivered with respectful grace and heartfelt hospitality. For align, it was an important part of the design concept stage to refer to the company’s brand values and translate them into 3D form, including liaising with a Feng Shui expert.
This leading Australian financial services group was looking to open new offices in Reading, with the location specifically chosen to attract the best graduate talent from the city’s university. The initial headcount would be just under 50 people, but the scheme had to allow for growth to up to double that size.
The bright, light and colourful space needed to embody progressive design values and be highly flexible, offering a variety of open plan working, meeting pods, phone booths and collaborative spaces on a single floorplate, without ever looking empty and vacant, even at initial half-headcount level.
The company had always been known for its signature feature staircases, often used as a gathering point for ‘Town Hall’ meetings. How to meet this challenge with a single storey floorplate? The answer was a suspended ‘stair to nowhere’: not only an eye-catching feature, but a fully structurally-engineered intervention, with extended stair depth, cushions and bookshelves and with ceiling sections removed so that it can function both as a meeting space and a place for staff to spend quiet time.
Japanese minimalism meets Star Trek in this relocation project for Dentsu (now Dentsu Aegis network / mcgarrybowen). They have 11,000 sqft of studio space over four floors of this building by Future Systems in London W1.
We were tasked with creating spaces for different parts of the business who were coming together for the first time. The space needed to create a wow, whilst remaining a virtually blank canvass on which to display the agency's work.
The building interior was curvaceous, delicate and in some areas hand-finished. There were also chilled beams providing an extremely efficient and energy-saving services solution, but which severely impacted our need to create privacy and presentation spaces.
A UK Investment Bank launching with a new, partnership-based business model after an MBO from a Dutch bank, effectively making it a modern business with a traditional twist, moving into their first 22,000 sq ft office space.
The brief, with a hospitality aspect as well as a traditional workplace remit, was to incorporate a suite of both meeting and fine dining spaces, supplied by a full catering kitchen, as well as further flexible meeting rooms, a more traditional trading floor and quieter areas for research.
As this was both a new company and a multi-headed client body, with almost all employees also shareholders, a number of initial workshops were needed to help define the company as an outward-facing entity, in order to arrive at the right look and feel for the scheme and to achieve the correct modern/traditional balance.
A relocation of the offices of the AAT, the professional body for accounting technicians, within the City of London in EC1. The new space measured 15,500 sq ft over two storeys. The resulting design was a major contributor in winning a Management Today ‘Change Management’ award.
The brief was to modernise the new offices and make the new brand, values and sense of youth into a focal point. The office had to offer complete transparency and be fully open-plan, with a fun and collaborative atmosphere and no allocated seats from the outset.
Our greatest challenges were changing people’s attitudes after 20 years of being in two buildings, arranged over 8 small floors and within lots of cellular offices. We undertook a company-wide critique of 156 people on the design and practicalities of the new space.
