Office Refurbishment Project Commits to Sustainable Choices

A careful selection of finishes was chosen to utilise those that are designed with recycling and afterlife in mind. Some of the finishes include: FENIX – a durable material that has obtained various certifications related to interior design applications; Quartz – inherently eco-friendly since the natural quartz material that composes much of it comes directly from the earth; Tarkett carpet tiles – a global leader in sustainability.

The main sustainable features of the space include:

• Whole life carbon performance including contribution to the circular economy: low energy use achieved by choosing a newly refurbished CAT-A building; natural ventilation enabled by large external windows for ventilation during warm weather.
• Low carbon impact: due to the fact that employees are able to work from home, CO2 levels in the office will never reach or exceed maximum levels.
• Circularity (not simply recycling): in addition to recycling hubs throughout the office, afterlife considerations are taken into account for furniture and finishes.

• Waste avoidance: avoiding plastic bottles by installing an instant tap which generates hot/cold/sparkling water; minimising paper printing; keeping digital devices turned off when not in use; setting a short timing on PIR system; the company is going digital with most of their previous administration files, so there is no need for additional storage or new documents.
• Health and wellbeing of the occupants: to ensure the wellbeing of employees, the office space allows employees to utilize different types of spaces in the office to work and concentrate, as well as to facilitate collaboration within teams and individuals.
• Social value: as the office is located in Watford, it is close to most of its employees’ homes and helps to keep local economies thriving.

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4SPACE is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. Can you tell us how the company grew to this stage and what your visions are for the future? 

From humble beginnings, 4SPACE has grown from a small, humble office and a team of two to a buzzing design entity with over 20 employees with an expansive and vibrant office in the heart of Dubai.

Founders Firas Alsahin and Amjad Hourieh always dreamed big. They understand that dreams without goals are merely dreams. They set appropriate goals and put in place a comprehensive 10-year plan to provide a roadmap for the necessary steps to achieve success. By the tenth anniversary, Design Middle East Awards bestowed 4SPACE the prestigious boutique firm of the year award in 2022. 4SPACE continues to grow, and the team aims to be the top international architectural and interior design firm by 2032, with branches across Europe and Asia. They have various projects in the pipeline, including hype entertainment venues, government commercial spaces, unique food and beverage concepts and a hospitality project.

Within the next five years, 4SPACE intends to transform from a boutique design studio to a much larger design firm with at least 50 employees by 2027 and over 140 by 2032. They aspire to be one of the top five design firms within the region by 2027. They aim to have a sustainable business model and dynamic company structure so that the company can expand into new areas of business, clients and markets. 4SPACE targets companies and private clients seeking a one-of-a-kind design and superior service. They are adopting a new company structure, systems, workflow, techniques and a sophisticated hiring strategy to achieve these changes. They anticipate that 4SPACE will promote much of their team to take on additional responsibilities and be involved in managing this vision and development.

How have you found that projects, their requirements and client expectations have changed throughout your years in practice?

Client expectations and requirements vary depending on market trends. Pre-pandemic, clients wanted open and shared spaces for a collaborative environment. During the pandemic, privacy and partition-closed spaces became necessary, with the online market and cloud kitchen prevalent. Post-pandemic, clients want innovative and sustainable designs. 4SPACE created many mind-blowing ideas from various techniques and 3D software programmes. Because of these changes, the team at 4SPACE has adapted, followed trends, learned new softwares and techniques and explored a host of different materials and designs.

Do you think the Metaverse will impact the interior design profession? What opportunities could it present for interior designers?

The Metaverse is having an impressive impact on the design industry. Alsahin explains, “Brands and businesses will be more and more willing to be a part of the next big thing; they will need to exist where their customers exist and in order to achieve that, they need to invest in the virtual world”.

Alsahin believes that the Metaverse is a stepping stone to cultural evolution and a limitless capacity for art. There are many more opportunities for designers inclined to use 3D software programmes. They used to quote, “From sketch to reality” with the formation of Meta4SPACE, the mantra has changed to “From sketch to metaverse world”. Alsahin continues, “In the near future, users will be able to use augmented reality smart glasses, which are wearable computer-capable glasses that add extra information; ideally 3D images and information such as animations and videos, to the user’s real-world scenes by overlaying the computer-generated or digital information over the user’s real-world”. Now that everything is limitless and with the advent of various Metaverse environments, the industry will need skilled designers and architects who can master future virtual and AI technology. “Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technology will become important not just to present a designed space as a visualization method, but rather to be a designed form of space itself”.

What are the most notable achievements 4SPACE has accomplished over the past decade?

It takes many years to create something special. Over the last decade, 4SPACE has created a great team, has access to better technology and creating new goals. The team has received numerous awards and recognitions from internationally acclaimed award-winning bodies, including the SBID overall winner in 2018 and Design Middle East Awards boutique firm of the year 2022. With project requirements increasing, there is a new wave of employment opportunities post-pandemic. The new office space is fully automated and includes a new architecture company and Meta4SPACE and increasing staff levels. Power 50 nominated Alsahin for fourth place in this coveted award.

What key advice would you give to emerging designers for building a successful interior design business? 

As the old saying goes, “no man is an island”. Building a company in a foreign land has its challenges. Success requires sound finances, and self and team trust are hugely important. 4SPACE has created a great team, ensures that no one is self-sufficient and encourages the team to rely on and support each other. Together, the team has various goals, ensuring they achieve them no matter what. Alsahin and Hourieh encourage their teams to succeed, be inspired, share insights and do better each day. They understand that physical and mental health is important and inspire their teams to have a healthy work-life balance, enjoy the fruits of their labour and pay it forward.

Questions answered by Firas Alsahin, Co-Founder, 4SPACE.

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This week’s instalment of the Project of the Week series features a dynamic and creative office design by 2022 SBID Awards Finalist, TT Interior Office Design.

What was the client’s brief? 

This is a mobile and social gaming company popular with young people domestically. The company has many subsidiary product brands and cultivates e-sports teams for mobile games. Its slogan that there is no lonely playmate in the world is also recognized by many post-90s and post-00s players or employees.

What inspired the design of the project?

The pronoun derived from Quwan is full of fashion, passion, youth, creativity and endless fun. The original idea of the design was to integrate these elements into a carrier, a planet that could fully express and carry the expectations of one billion players around the world instead of Quwan. The Planet of Quwan, the Planet of Happiness.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

The toughest hurdle was the restriction of ceiling height that made it challenging to unify the lamp belt of the front desk ceiling. Another challenge was the installation and fixation of gypsum board ceiling, and relying on two fulcrum for support of the aluminum plate modeling of the spacecraft. Loading the stairs into the spacecraft and transporting the large modules to the site for assembly also brought about some troubles during the installation process.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

The design of the space fits it’s story concept perfectly and the theme embodies technology, fashion and change, the colorful atmosphere seeping through unified aluminum plate material and electronic dynamic light belt.

Why did you enter this project into the SBID Awards?

Since we won the SBID award last year, we wanted to show more excellent work to everyone and we hope that the reputation of SBID can help improve the value of our brand.

Questions answered by Ruby Chou, Founder, TT Interior Office Design.

PwC, a renowned professional services provider, has made a significant investment in the city of Belfast by relocating its offices to Merchant Square. The move to the city centre comes from a desire to not only support the growth of the company, but to signal its confidence in the area and encourage other businesses to take a similar initiative.

The new workplace is spread across 200,000 sq ft over nine floors and provides the regional hub for around 3,000 employees. The building is an amalgamation of three existing structures with a dramatic feature staircase linking floors four, five and six. The hope is that the new office will help to increase employee numbers over the next few years, meaning the design needed to have versatility as well as longevity. To meet both of these requirements, a wide range of KI furniture was specified by the lead interior designer, BDP.

On four of the levels, KI’s Colonnade system is being used to create user-controlled, open-plan spaces which the teams can quickly customise depending on the immediate need. Each Colonnade comprises 800 Series cupboard and drawer units integrated with 800 Series Shelving. Semi-sheer Kvadrat Acoustic Drops curtains feature on each open side of the structure and divide up the space for meeting or work settings. To maximise the system’s flexibility, Colonnade Cube stools were also chosen as they can be neatly stored away within the unit’s structure. The stools are upholstered in a variety of fabrics and colours to best complement the Colonnade units.

Moveable easels hook over the overhead gantry rails at any point and these are accessorised with magnetic backed whiteboards which also store away neatly in the open shelving when they are not being used.

Two different colour schemes were specified for the Colonnade systems, one of which uses vibrant colours that echo the shipbuilding heritage of Belfast. Bright yellow powder coated easels pay homage to the nearby Harland and Wolff cranes, whilst bright blue and red powder coats emulate well-established maritime engineering colour schemes.

Annabelle Hadlow, project architect at BDP, said: “Materials and furniture specification is always important to PwC. We have a fantastic understanding of its design aspirations and how the offices reflect the cities in which they are located whilst providing functional and flexible spaces. For Merchant Square, the furniture was crucial in achieving the right, characteristic design and the right levels of adaptability across all floors.”

Throughout the office space, a variety of other KI designs provide seating and tables to support both the impromptu and more focused work practices that are required. These include Zig poseur height tables and Work2.1 Sit-Stand tables in a variety of finishes such as graphite Fenix tops on raw steel, black and yellow under-structures. These tables provide ideal settings for dropdown work and casual collaboration.

KI’s Take5 high back armchairs adorn multiple areas and are upholstered in a variety of fabrics and colours. Ruckus chairs on castors are located around collaboration tables and inside the Colonnades. The innovative design of the Ruckus is also ideal for sit-stand tables, allowing a person to either sit in the chair or perch on its backrest, depending on the height setting of the table.

Throughout the building are 800 Series personal lockers fitted with RFID wireless lock technology which can be remotely monitored and controlled by the facility management teams. Some larger versions are also located in the basement area to provide cloak and leisure storage. Other specifications of matching 800 Series cabinets, recycling units, and tambour cupboards – a PwC standard – can also be found in the back office service areas.

With the aim to turn this apartment into a truly luxurious gentleman’s private office, Juliettes Interiors was commissioned to design a working environment that wasn’t only practical and professional for Zoom and in-person meetings, but a space that was also strikingly beautiful and sophisticated. The option to stay late at the ‘office’ as well as provide an overnight base was also required, with a living-style zone added for maximum comfort.

Due to the apartment’s compact size, spatial planning was not an easy task, so Juliettes Interiors chose to introduce customised pieces of furniture to ensure the right flow was achieved throughout the space with each piece working in harmony together. In one small living space, Juliette and her team needed to create three zones: a living area, kitchen/dining and office.

With detail at its core, the design scheme needed to be cohesive. Dark tones and luxurious fabrics have been skilfully layered, paired with a variety of textures and bold brassware accessories – from the striking pendant light above the table to the dressing table in the bedroom. The large windows allow for plenty of natural light to flood the rooms, adding depth and interest to the dark décor.

The living area has been designed with a strong entertaining social element in mind, with a variety of different zones. Each zoned area was as important as the other. Bang & Olufsen equipment has been installed for a high-tech finish, ideal for meetings, and the client wanted a perfect backdrop from behind as a Zoom screen for international meetings. The office is set up in the living space at the centre of the apartment. A premium Italian leather desk and chair complement the dark wood and brass detailed designer desk, blending together for an incredibly opulent final product.

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In the 30 years since it was founded, TSAR Carpets create holistic compositions that empower its wide range of clientele — from commercial, hospitality, and residential customers — to achieve a cohesive architectural expression from the ground up. Born from a passion for textiles and enchanted by the hand-tufted technique, TSAR Carpets is continuously inspired by the German concept of the “gesamtkunstwerk,” meaning “a total work of art” — with TSAR Carpets founder David Sharpley describing the handtufting process as “painting with fibres.”

Known for their design work in both the public and private sector, the award-winning Melbourne-based architecture firm Lyons enlisted TSAR Carpets to install approximately 104.34 m2 of its signature freeform hand-tufted carpet in its office space, providing a colour-forward palette full of flair and panache.

Firm founder Carey Lyon chose to work with TSAR again to outfit the office after his immense satisfaction with the custom hand-tufted carpet he sourced for his private residence, proving that TSAR Carpets’ unparalleled flooring proficiency can be applied to a variety of applications, functions and environments.

Private residence design

The home of Carey Lyon required exceptional hand-tufted flooring for four various spaces in his home, including a hallway, sitting area, lounge and study. Carey turned to the TSAR Carpets team for its expertise and honest advice. As a brand that is not afraid to take risks, TSAR’s company-owned value chain allows the team to continually experiment and perfect a multitude of construction techniques.

Working closely with TSAR’s team, Carey designed the carpet’s pattern, which is based on standard cartographic symbols for a swamp. (Used on maps, cartographic symbols are coloured lines that serve as legends to denote areas of vegetation, water, and contours, etc.) The aim of the design was to summon the history of the old wetland landscapes of the Yaluk-ut Weelam people of Port Phillip Bay who were lost under the ‘reclaimed’ swamplands of Elwood. To bring the swamp landscape to life, colour was another thoughtful consideration and Carey and the team reviewed several different custom poms before settling on brown and blue shades that best matched the carpet’s marshy theme.

The challenge of flooring the irregular shape of each of the four unique areas within Carey’s home presented the team with an opportunity to achieve custom solutions — the exact placement of each blue swamp-like “pond” was a highly meticulous and diligent feat, which the team was able to execute in a timely and thorough manner.

“Optimal performance and product longevity is the impetus for all of our designs and projects. We understand the custom process thoroughly and treat every project with care,” says Sharpley.

Office design

With the office, Carey and the Lyons team returned to TSAR as they were seeking a flooring partner who could provide a cohesive, durable and innovative design for its highly-trafficked lobby, library and four meeting rooms. Like Carey’s home, the team gravitated towards a hand-tufted solution due to its high-quality utility and material ability to produce stunning patterns.

“TSAR Carpets treats every custom project with care and detail. We were excited to once again partner with the team thanks to the company’s incredible technical proficiency and emphasis on performance,” says Carey Lyon.

Originally the design brief called for a continuous rainbow appearance featuring more than 58 colours, but due to budget constraints TSAR and Lyons teams joined forces to find a happy solution that balanced aesthetics, budget and performance, ensuring Lyons received the most desirable product. In the end, the client was overjoyed with the final result: An original selection of energetic and colorful flooring compositions featuring a one-of-a-kind point of view.

“Comfort and connection don’t just belong in the home. I was thrilled to incorporate TSAR’s exquisite flooring into our office environment to provide our employees and visitors with a sense of optimism and day-to-day joy,” says Carey Lyon.

“Clients continue to work with us because we value performance and value, just as much as we appreciate the incorporation of bold colors, patterns, and forms,” says Sharpley.

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In this week’s interview with SBID Awards Interior Design judge, Head of Cities Solutions Europe at Jacobs and Co-Chair of the ULI UK Infrastructure and Urban Development Council, Carlo Castelli discusses the change in development of post-pandemic cities, highlights the benefits of holistic approach to design, and shares valuable insight for designing workplaces that attract employees to come back to the office.

What is the importance of holistic and collaborative design thinking? How does it generate value for its users, customers and wider communities?

Thinking holistically about design ensures social, environmental and cultural considerations are embedded into solutions. We have a great opportunity to blur the boundaries between inside and outside, public and private by creating hybrid spaces. For example, in Union Street, Aberdeen, we created a flexible urban space capable of supporting on-street activities and allowing ground floor activities to spill out on streets, all while considering inclusive design. We see the street being multi-functional, resilient and contributing to the wider transformational change in Aberdeen.

Taking an integrated design approach means all these considerations are used to create a space which is flexible for those using it on a daily basis and is a sustainable addition to the community. It also means that we can create and measure wellbeing and quality of life value substantially changing the way we look at projects and programmes.

When thinking about the future of the built environment, how can we expect our cities to develop? What are the post-pandemic considerations?

Cities have existed for millennia and consistently maintain a fundamental role in our society. They will become more resilient, with the influence of the changing climate and increasing technological innovation.

Successful cities in the future will celebrate social, environmental and cultural differences. We don’t have to choose between a ‘working from home’ or ‘15 minutes city’ model. We can embrace complexity and recognise individual lifestyle choices within inclusive societal progress.

The way we live, work and play has fundamentally changed. How do you think new lifestyle trends will continue to impact on the design industry? What are the opportunities?

Live, work and play conditions have changed globally. The pandemic and environmental concerns have seen a significant change in how people view work-life balance and commuting. As we come out of the last two years there’s a significant appetite for flexibility in our spaces. For example, unused shipping containers units are being converted into retail units, and workshop space, rooftops into urban farm, and ground floor spaces into housing. This allows for creativity and flexibility in our designs, as well as optimising space usage and future proofing our cities. It is critical to imbed generosity into our buildings and places.

The opportunity for designers is to use their innovative thinking to create solutions that contribute to the challenges we are facing. They are often uniquely placed to work from ideation all the way to delivery so they can meaningfully work with the entire value chain to create better cities and places, integrating nature-based solutions and circularity early into their designs.  With nature at the forefront of design, we can plan and develop climate-smart, nature-positive building and infrastructure solutions which enhance quality of life and make our future more resilient.

How has your approach to the design of workspaces evolved? Why is the role of interior design so important when it comes to bringing employees back into the office?

During the past two years, workers have become used to working away from the traditional office, so there needs to be a draw to bring them back. Quality, variety and generosity are now key. Workplaces need to provide enhanced environmental quality and a greater variety of spaces. Improvement in interior design can also allow for a boost in employees’ health and wellbeing.

Design of workplace should include elements of nature, natural lighting, diverse spaces, and areas for employees to relax and manage anxiety about their return to the office. There should now be heavier emphasis on the type of spaces needed for collaboration. Offices should offer a broader range of experiences than sitting at a desk all day, something people could easily do from home. Workplace design should also facilitate work-life balance and promote a sense of community to encourage employees to return.

Finally, what advice can you give to designers entering the SBID Awards?

For me, what really matters is to work with stakeholders and communities and that designers are true to themselves, values and passions. Passion goes a long way in my mind and that needs to be communicated to our changing audiences.

Questions answered by Carlo Castelli, Head of Cities Solutions Europe, Jacobs and Co-Chair, ULI UK Infrastructure and Urban Development Council.

This week’s instalment of Project of the Week series features a modern high-tech office and urban farm design by 2021 SBID Awards Finalist, Wolter & Yu.

Within a factory in an industrial district of Hong Kong is the future of farming – a high-tech urban aquaponics farm, sustainably growing high quality vegetables and flowers.
Part office and part grow room, the design takes the concept of flexibility and mobility to the extreme: Ceiling-mounted, bi-folding glass panels create a private meeting room when needed, but opens up the whole room for other needs. Dry erasable paint, is applied across the entire office wall, facilitating the free flow of ideas. Height-adjustable desks and ergonomic chairs create comfort for employees, behind HDTVs displaying operational metrics.

The plant room uses 3D printed plant walls mounted onto movable archival track shelves to create dense vertical grow farms. Nutrient rich water from a fish tank and electricity to power perpendicular panels of light are funnelled across the ceiling and down each movable shelf. This allows the farm to adjust the distance between each light panel according to the requirement of different types of vegetation, while excess water is filtered and returned to the fish tank, creating a closed ecosystem. The result is a sustainable, compact, flexible office and urban farm design. You can view a virtual tour here.

What was the client’s brief? 

The brief for Full Nature was to convert a 180sqm unit in an old high-rise factory building in Hong Kong, into a high-tech urban farm that specialises in growing sustainable, aquaponic vegetables and edible flowers. The office is divided into 4 areas: 1. Entrance corridor, pantry & print zone; 2. Office Area (work zone & meeting zone); 3. Farm / Grow Area and 4. Washrooms & Shower.

The design responds to the client’s objective to find ways to improve sustainable farming. While aquaponics uses fewer resources compared to traditional farming, the design is a multidisciplinary approach to create use space more efficiently by introducing flexibility for both the company and the product. More importantly, we created a scalable modular system for the grow area by tackling product as well as spatial design.

What inspired the design of the project?

The words flexibility and mobility really drove the concept – instead of creating spaces that are dedicated to hosting clients and visitors, or plant rooms with corridors between each rack of plants planted in soil, we sought an intersection of design: hospitality, office and coworking, product, agriculture, and technology. For example, by using 3D printing to create vertical pockets of vegetation, we reduced the amount of soil needed, vertical water pipes mean no excess water would pool in one area but not another, and the amount of light and electricity required to run the whole farm was significantly reduced. It is definitely an unconventional project. We ventured into a collaboration where Full Nature had the urban farming know how, and we brought in our design knowledge, to create a comfortable office design that was also doing something good for our planet.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

Definitely space – one of the biggest tasks was to increase as much production as possible, without the detriment to the office and its employees. We wanted people to also feel happy to work there, and for guests to come in and feel in awe of the product. So we used only glass to divide the office room from the plant room: Every day you are going to work in an industrial building but no view, but you get greenery and bright warm light coming through while you work! The other difficulty was when we were designing the movable track system – trying to get water and electricity connected to long heavy shelves that move is very difficult and took some trial and error. We created prototypes with 3D printing to test out our ideas until we found a solution that worked.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

The nature of the project is unique, current and forward-thinking. It’s not every day a client who wants to improve farming approaches you and says ‘I want to increase efficiency of my office and farm, but also make it look good!’ It’s a project that responds to current global issues, sustainability, limitation of resources and space. When we first started talking about this project, we found it was so well received amongst industry leaders but also the general public, so it’s a great feeling to have our design doing something good for our city, and having the great response to it afterwards.

Why did you enter this project into the SBID Awards?

The esteemed SBID awards is well known, well regarded and well received. We wanted to share our experience and work with other designers and industry leaders. Being an SBID  finalist is an honour, and we look forward to entering other interesting projects in the near future!

Questions answered by Christina Yu, Lead Designer, Wolter & Yu.

This week’s instalment of Project of the Week series features a modern industrial office design by 2021 SBID Awards Finalist, JN Interior Designs.

What was the client’s brief? 

The brief was to design a really funky and cool space to attract the best/most talented people to work for this new and exciting tech finance company.

What inspired the design of the project?

When I looked at the initial space it was your typical office style set of rooms, although in bad need of repair and renovation. However there were some unique features that caught my eye such as the exposed brick pillars. There was a false ceiling in place, part of which was falling down so I could see there was a huge expanse of room above it. This gave me the inspiration to take down the false ceilings and create a really high loft style industrial type design which also made a small space seem much larger.

What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?

The main office space was not huge so there was a lot to fit in to a small area to not only make it look nice but function for both now and a future expanding business. Removing the false ceiling created an amazing airy space and meant that additional design and storage features could be incorporated, such as a separate mezzanine office with pull-out filing and storage units underneath.

What was your team’s highlight of the project?

Seeing the design features come together; such as the Floor-to-ceiling glass partition walls, graffiti art mural and a 3m high bubble wall go in, as these elements set the tone for a really funky creative work space.

Why did you enter this project into the SBID Awards?

The SBID Awards are one of the most prestigious global interior design Awards and to receive recognition from being chosen as even a finalist is a real honour. Therefore, I wanted to enter the awards as I was extremely proud of the finished project and the hurdles we overcame to deliver a successfully designed space that my client was amazed with and truly exceeded his expectations for what could be done with the space.

Questions answered by Jennifer Neill, Owner, JN Interior Designs.