The Collinson Group

A central London office design and fit out using a hybrid D&B format combined with fixed fee open book pricing achieved the best of all worlds for The Collinson Group in relocating from two buildings into one new HQ in Houndsditch London EC3. The 35,000 sq ft space across 4 floors presented a great opportunity to enhance the team working environment.

Fusion carried out a fast paced office design London discovery phase, against a critical path of just two months from appointment to a start on site. Multiple office design options were presented, all paying attention to the base-build mechanical HVAC system that presented a challenge. Design development included finishes and materials, specification of new office furniture and integration of existing furniture from their current offices.

Our fit out project management role included assistance on achieving Landlords consent as part of the Lease completion. Alongside this Fusion managed the teams contributing to this London office fit-out (IT, Ops, SMT as well as the external building management and local authority) to ensure the demanding critical path was achieved.

The principle of the office layout design was to create hub zones on the largest open plan floors (teapoint, library zone, team meeting zone) together with smaller on-floor enclosed meeting rooms.

The fluid organisational backdrop included the addition of a new organisation (takeover of another business) at the same time as the designs were being finalised. This meant that plans had to be flexible right up to construction (and beyond). The final floor plans also contain a high degree of flexibility, seeking the minimum amount of fixed points and greatest use of flexible furniture solutions to ensure the office can be adapted to rapidly changing headcount.

The finished office fit out project accommodates 495 people along with a ground floor designated for meeting rooms and training/event space. Accommodation ratios are almost 60 sq ft per person and office fit out costs per square foot of £37.50 (£400 per square metre) including design fees, project management, additional furniture and fit-out. The remarkable element is an upgrade to the HVAC to add an additional cooling capacity of circa 100 Kw across the floors together with an upgrade to the fresh air ventilation (equivalent to £150,000 of additional plant) that is included in the overall fit-out cost per square metre.

Office fit out Works on site started in June and completed 17 weeks later in early September, on the agreed programme date. Fusion also project managed the physical relocation, jointly supervising the two subsequent move weekends.