Discovery wanted to create a regional office that offered excellent open plan space and make a feature of the views to the Somerset countryside via the full height glazed elevation. As with many offices there was also a need for meeting rooms / offices and staff break out facility. New furniture was required throughout. The project requirements had to be achieved within a strict budget.
To create the spacial requirements we cleverly designed the office to create two distinct zones. The open plan space was simply created by utilising the partitions that formed the offices and meeting rooms. The offices and meeting rooms partition configuration further created the staff breakout area and waiting area. By fully understanding the staff activities being undertaken in the office we were able to accurately specify the correct furniture with a desire to provide maximum circulation space to ensure a comfortable spacious environment. The use of the client’s strong brand guidelines provided a vibrant colour palette for wall colours, furniture fabrics and finishes.
The challenges of this project related to the existing construction of the building. The space was previously used as a gym and therefore retained a high open ceiling structure with exposed services and having a solid floor. We needed to install a new suspended ceiling and reuse the existing light fittings along with modifying the existing mechanical system. The desking layout was designed to enable perimeter power to be used to prevent the costly exercise of cutting in new floor boxes and prevent the need for trailing cables. With the careful design of room sizes we were able to maximise the use of the existing light fittings. The Office Design and Fit Out was completed to a 5 week project schedule.
