Spatial Design

Client: Grant Thornton UK
Location: Euston Square, NW1

With 32 offices nationwide and more than 25,000 individual and 1,500 corporate clients it was important that the suite of meeting rooms at Grant Thornton’s London office reflected their professional corporate branding.

Spatial Design’s brief was to develop a concept that would flow throughout the entire top floor of this leading financial and business advisory company.

The existing layout was reconfigured to create a more efficient space, planned around the central core area. Incorporating the client’s requirement for a reception area, central boardroom, twelve large meeting rooms, five smaller meeting rooms, plus a staff restaurant and kitchen facility, the design-led interior is both functional and inspirational.

The colour palette was chosen around the natural hues of olive green, taupe and cream. This is reflected from the moment you step out of the lift doors into an imaginatively lit space of curving polished and glazed walls. Exit this area into the contemporary reception lobby with its olive leather seating and bespoke maple and glass reception desk. Leading off the reception is the central corridor and perimeter meeting rooms where a constant flow of light is enhanced by the materials used throughout the entire suite.

“Maximising the effect of the natural light by use of colour and texture is essential in creating the appropriate ambience for a facility of this nature” explains Spatial’s designer on this project, James Dow.

He continued, “This floor will be very busy as it services the five floors of offices below, so it was crucial that the area was bright and open. We have successfully housed a number of spacious meeting rooms on one floor as well as providing areas for relaxing and eating. In doing so we have created an exciting and professional environment which serves to reinforce the very strong existing company image”.

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Client: Logica
Location: Reading

An ‘environment to inspire’ was created by Spatial Design for multi-national IT solutions provider LogicaCMG, when they opened the doors to their ‘Ideas Hub’ in Reading. Located close to major commercial cities, including London, the brief was to design a central marketing communications centre. This is where key people from throughout the LogicaCMG network would join together in strategic teams to develop commercial ideas for potential and existing customers.

These teams would be supported by a permanently housed team of experts who would provide promotional and marketing support to these strategic teams.

With this in mind, flexible working was necessary to meet the needs of all the people who could be using the space. The solution was to create six meeting rooms with the opportunity to easily join smaller rooms should the need arise. The meeting rooms were built within sound-proofed opaque walls to allow the flow of light, but keep information safe. Spatial also designed a bespoke reception area in front of the sole entrance to the floor to control the access to these rooms. Not only does the reception area provide security, it also offers a fantastic first impression as an area to meet and greet.

James Dow, Spatial Director and Chief Designer for this project explained, “At the heart of this concept was the bringing together of key people from throughout the world in an environment that would inspire a collaboration of ideas. The visual impact starts as soon as the lift doors open and continues throughout the floor – a totally flexible and secure working environment which is light and contemporary. The result is a marriage between function and creativity and serves as a reminder that good design can fluently facilitate business.”

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Client: The Law College
Location: York

Imagine your eyes are closed and a voice tells you that you are in a law college library in the heart of a city that is steeped in historical events and medieval architecture. Your mind’s eye pictures dark woods and cobwebs and you can almost smell the stale, dry air.

When you open your eyes you are met with a sight that is so different from the one you had seen in your imagination: light veneers, bright colours and the latest technology. You are in the College of Law in York, the transformation of which is the brain child of Spatial Design.

Spread over two floors that harmonise with the College’s commercial awareness, the library provides students with a vibrant and stimulating study centre.

On entering, you are immediately welcomed by the bespoke, DDA compliant reception with its blue LED lighting and contrasting cold steel and rich veneers. Surrounding this is the soft seating area for more comfortable reading which adds a warm, ‘homely’ ambiance. Furthermore, the ground floor comprises the research area. This provides conventional book-based material housed in purpose built floor-to-ceiling bookcases and bespoke I.T points for on-line analysis in small clusters and at either end of the bookcases.

The first floor is devoted to quiet study with a separate silent area for the students. The potential austerity of this room is offset by the vivacious purple of the walls and seating, re-iterated by the tubular steel and maple tables. All these elements collectively create a feeling of being in a stylishly modern law firm, rather than in a building of study.

This college is part of a network that, together, form the largest provider of vocational legal education and training in Europe. Spatial Design has brought together an atmosphere for optimum learning in an enviable environment, leading the way for other colleges in need of regeneration.

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Client: York University
Location: Heslington Hall

Elegance, functionality and style were on the timetable for the University of York’s Heslington Hall reception area, when it was refurbished earlier this year. Spatial Design Ltd devised an interior solution that perfectly complemented their strikingly beautiful Elizabethan building.

Facilities Manager, Carol Nicholson, outlined that the regeneration from the early sixties style was necessary as Heslington Hall was not only the headquarters of the University, but was also a meeting and conference venue. “The exterior of the Hall is stunning,” explained Carol, “But inside needed updating to reflect a world class university. Operationally, it wasn’t the most practical area to work in. We wanted a concept that was in keeping with the age and distinction of the building but something that had a vibrant feel.”

The whole area is, Carol says “exactly as we were promised and shown in the 3D visuals. It is now a fabulous environment to work in, complies with the Disability Discrimination Act, and looks wonderful – the staff and customers are very impressed when they enter the building and it does project a very professional image. Who would have thought that a building steeped in tradition and history would lend itself so beautifully to this modernist interior with its sweeping shapes, clean lines and retro touches.”