Perkins+Will London Office

The design strategy was developed with full transparency and regular engagement with Perkins+Will employees at all levels. This included regular town hall meetings, lunchtime drop-in sessions and specialised workshops to gather likes and dislikes and priorities for the new space. This created a brief led by Perkins+Will staff that dictated the need for a space that increases collaboration, enables choice, optimises sustainability, and promotes health and wellbeing. The project team chose the White Chapel building for its excellent transportation connections, large column-free floorplates, generous floor to ceiling heights, and modern hospitality-based client hosting facilities. The move relocates around 170 staff members to Aldgate from the firm’s former location in Old Street. The move to the 26,000 sq ft space, owned by Derwent London, took place in March 2017. Designed by Perkins+Will, the new studio is tailored exactly to the needs of its employees. This is evident throughout, with each and every feature enabling users to work freely and more effectively. The result is a light, spacious and open office that enhances productivity, creativity, collaboration and wellbeing. Dedicated areas for working, collaboration, client hosting and meeting are configured around a central atrium and cafeteria, encouraging intuitive movement in a natural, dynamic environment that fosters creativity and teambuilding. The new reception area is one the key features of the space, providing staff and clients with a warm and welcoming sense of arrival. Featuring a 16-metre long reception desk which serves as a model display unit, the space is the result of an internal design competition that invited submissions from Perkins+Will employees. The winning entry was decided by a specialist panel who invited the winner to collaborate with the Project Team to develop the final design. The model shop has a prominent presence in the reception area and thus creates an immediate welcome into our creative environment. In working areas, the number of shared spaces and integrated technologies have been increased to offer a greater variety of workspace types including active, quiet, private, collaborative and social. Agile desking empowers staff with more choice over how and where they work. With no assigned workstations, there is a free and varied selection of settings. Workspaces respond to the unique needs of different activities or stages in the project, and all desks have universal laptop connections to encourage fluid team allocation and user choice. Critical to this setup is a high-speed Wi-Fi connection which is provided across the office and throughout the building. All employees are assigned a key-secured private locker that provides secure storage for personal items. Dedicated storage space is now provided for project work, and a clear desk policy introduced to keep personal desks and workstations tidy and clutter free. Large-scale projections have been introduced to allow designers to showcase their work, supported by wireless collaboration tools and a multitude of spaces for pin-ups and brainstorming sessions. A Virtual Reality Cave is equipped with the latest VR technologies to enable designers and clients to ‘walk through’ the designed spaces at any time in the design process. With fully agile, reconfigurable spaces and over 4,500 sq ft set aside for subletting or expansion, the space is futureproofed and ready to expand as the practice grows. Pre and post workplace effectiveness surveys were conducted to ensure end-user satisfaction was maximised. This included a confidential, standardised workplace effectiveness survey known as the Leesman Index to measure how well the new space satisfies its users. The survey gathers data based on functionality and effectiveness from corporate workplaces around the world. Launched in 2010, it is the largest independent collection of workplace effectiveness globally, with data from over 2,300 workplaces across 67 countries. The data collected from this research confirms that employee satisfaction, performance and productivity have all risen, so much so that the new space now ranks in the top 10% of all workplaces surveyed. This is apparent on a day-to-day basis with staff feeling noticeably more energised and connected to their new space. To help staff feel at home in their new space and the surrounding area, Perkins+Will’s change management team developed a downloadable mobile app as an alternative to a traditional welcome pack. The app included details of local amenities such as restaurants, transport hubs and public parks to help employees adjust quickly to their new professional home. Located just outside Shoreditch on the edge of the City of London, the introduction of Perkins+Will adds to the new creative economy currently playing a pivotal role in the regeneration of Aldgate and Whitechapel. The nearby Aldgate campus of the London Metropolitan University is home to the Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design. Given the close connection of disciplines, Perkins+Will reached out to the university to see how the business could support and engage students. Undergraduates were invited into the studio, with workshops tailored to support their projects. While this relationship is still in its infancy, the hope is that it will grow with the school to support its students for years to come. The space is currently awaiting LEED V4 GOLD certification and is the second European project to receive Fitwel certification for its inclusion of evidence-based design and policy strategies that support the physical, mental and social health of its occupants. Healthy, nontoxic and sustainable materials were used throughout the fit-out, avoiding those on Perkins+Will’s Precautionary List. Perkins+Will developed the list, working with clients and manufacturers, to find alternatives that use the fewest possible toxic substances. It ensures precautionary principles are applied when selecting and specifying products and materials, helping minimise the negative effect these materials may have on the users of all projects we design. Further sustainability achievements include: • 98% of the construction waste was diverted from land fill. • Reused furniture: accounted for 54% of total project material cost. • FSC certified timbers used in new constructions • Take-back scheme: for close loop recycling contract on all carpet installed • Reused materials: 100% of raised access floor, retained 98% of existing external blinds, and retained 83% of existing ceilings including mechanical equipment in those areas.