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Arup,Watford office, London

Published: 04-Mar-2010

For new offices within a shared building, the identity of the client company had to stand out, while a pleasing work environment was naturally provided for staff of the highly rated employer Arup.

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Key Facts

Project: Arup,Watford office
Designer: MoreySmith
Client: Arup
Size: 2,000 sq m
Completion time: 15 weeks

Project Description

Having charted at a very respectable 41st in The Sunday Times list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2008, design and engineering consultancy Arup did even better in 2009, moving up to 39th.

The company, which has 9,000 staff in 86 offices worldwide, is renowned for the consideration it shows employees, and it certainly has the right idea when it comes to the design of its offices, too.

New offices in Clarendon Road, Watford, is MoreySmith’s second project for Arup (the first was the company’s London HQ in Fitzrovia completed last year) and the sleek, ultra-modern style of this office is sure to be an inspiration to those who work here. So stylish and well-finished is the scheme that it’s hard to believe the building had stood empty since it was built a decade ago.

Arup occupies the ground and first floors of the building, with the other three floors accommodating other companies, so it was important to establish a strong sense of Arup’s identity. With this in mind, MoreySmith added a staircase behind a double-height wall with large glazed sections so that the Arup office is visible from the building’s main reception.

A cafe and breakout space is the hub of the office; here, a palette of orange, yellow and white predominates. The cafe area has translucent screens, white walls, and a white composite stone floor while the breakout space, furnished with Jennifer Newman Angle tables mounted on wheels, has a floor of reclaimed Hoxton gallery oak.

Both spaces have Catifa 53 chairs, upholstered in vinyl in the cafe and soft fabrics in the breakout area, with the assorted colours chosen by MoreySmith.

Giving an informal feel to these zones, a deconstructed ceiling features exposed services and bespoke galvanised mesh rafts. A bar in the cafe is made of dark smoked oak clad with live edge acrylic and is topped with white stone.

Flexibility was the keyword in the main workspace, where bespoke acrylic screens, which can be written on during presentations and discussions, also feature magnetic displays. These panels provide colour and also function as informal dividers.

Mobile team tables and flexible layouts mean the office can be reconfigured to suit the different requirements of any project.

Kinnarps supplied bespoke desks. Full-height glazing at the front of the building allows natural light to flood into the space, and large sliding glass doors maximize brightness while brightly coloured graphics add colour and verve.

The Imprint Chair, designed by Peter & Johannes and made entirely of recycled material, has been used in the informal areas of the open-plan office.

So how has the scheme been received? Director of Arup, Dick Lee says: ‘MoreySmith had the capability to match our tight programme needs, but most importantly we felt that their creative ability and innovative aspiration as designers would challenge us in the way we view our working environment.’ And looking at the finished office, I’d have to say that’s just what it does.

Project Suppliers:

Furniture:

• B&B Italia-www.bebitalia.it

• Hiddenink-www.hiddenink.co.uk

• InForm Furniture-www.informfurniture.co.uk

• Jennifer Newman-www.jennifernewman.com

• Kinnarps– www.kinnarps.com

• Kusch – www.kusch.com

• SCP Contracts– www.scp.co.uk

Lighting:

• Erco– www.erco.com

• Modular– www.modularinternational.com

This article was first published in FX Magazine.

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