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Commercial Office Fit Out London
The commercial office fit out for the London office of Exela has been handed over. The Nasdaq listed global outsourcing business moved into its new Egham HQ office in the summer. This U.K. and Ireland headquarters building has over 11000 sq feet of floor space across three floors and the commercial fit out took just 5 weeks from start to finish in a fast-paced CAT B fit-out designed by Fusion Office Design.
The building is located opposite the famous Runnymede fields where the historical Magna Carta was sealed in 1215, marking the birth of constitutional democracy. Views from the building stretch across the fields to the distant River Thames yet is perfectly located for M25 and Heathrow.
“We chose this location to complement our commitment to democratic values, integrity, equality, mutual respect and freedom of thought, enabling each team member to be the best they can be” said Par Chadha, Chairman of SourceHOV. “We are fortunate we were able to locate to such a historic site.”
SourceHOV’s President of EMEA, Mark Fairchild added, “we are very pleased with our new location and our entire team is excited to welcome clients and partners to the new headquarters.”
The office design process coincided with very significant corporate change as the UK Banctec business and its US parent SourceHOV merged with another well known US business to become the listed Exela Technologies. The impact on the commercial office design scheme meant much of the new HQ interior had to be designed to meet a fluid set of targets. Flexible as always, Fusion worked closely alongside the UK Facilities and Property team to create an office interior which would be adaptable.
Chief amongst the requests was to retain as much of the sightlines from wing to wing in a staggered building. Fusion suggested enclosed meeting and shared teapoint spaces at the junctions of the building as a central hub but designed so as to avoid impinging on the open plan. The building has an initial design capacity of 112 staff with scope to increase this to 130 as new furniture is phased-in. The space ratio for the building as a whole is 85 sq feet per person and capacity has been installed at day 1 in terms of data cabling and floorboxes for the full contingent.
Reconfigurable Board room table design
The top floor works well as a high quality meeting and boardroom design. Two large board rooms offer capacity for over 30. The larger room is a multi purpose reconfigurable boardroom featuring tables in walnut veneer that are foldable conference tables. Matching walnut doors add to the sense of presence on the floor, mixed with large glass partition walls to maintain a sense of light and space.
The boardroom suite includes an on-floor refreshment area for tea and coffee facilities, ensuring drinks can be served, and cleared, without having to travel between floors. The boardroom breakout area is a great addition when meetings have a break and the zone relaxes the otherwise formal boardroom floor.
The breakout space can also work as an informal meeting spot when the meeting rooms aren’t in use for conversations that require some ad hoc privacy. The mix of seating uses lounge chairs, meeting chairs and higher bar-stool height chairs to add a sense of variation. A space which is mostly single-use, in this case meeting rooms, can be a little monotonous if furnished in a uniform way and the use of furniture at differing levels helps to soften this perception.
The prevailing tone and colour scheme for the commercial office interior design uses the natural palette of the building. Warm stone and paint colours and the natural brick red are adapted to the interior. A decidely un-office like brown-grey flooring is accented by richer, executive, walnut on the boardroom floor, and beech on the desks. Teapoints use a sophisticated gloss stone finish with wood laminate worktops and matched splashbacks. The overall effect is calm and blended, helped by the predominant white walls. The warm tones of the fit out design offset the expanse of white that could be quite stark and reflective with the bright LED lighting. Using ‘autumn’ tones really sets this new HQ apart from me-too office interior design schemes and gives the interior a comfortable but business-like feel.
The splashes of corporate Exela blue used on the desk screens add a little to the branding, but as mentioned the period of corporate transition that was a backdrop to the relocation meant less really was more.
Our role as the commercial fit out company involved a unified design and fit-out responsibility. The advantage for Exela meant great control of costs, rapid response to a developing set of targets, and instant implementation once the design brief was crystallised. We trust the images of this commercial office fit out also convey the subtle quality of the scheme. A commercial office fit out can be overun with layers of management and specialist advisors when in practice a coordinated and seamless delivery offers so many advanatges. The 5 week fit out, outstanding cost control and responsive service results in a project that met every objective. Including new office furniture the scheme was achieved for almost £20 per square foot which is amazing value for an HQ fit out.
Commercial office fit out is a great example of what can be achieved in a short timescale with client and design and build contractor working in unison. If you want more information on how Fusion achieved the commendable results get in touch and we’ll share the secrets.