Office Principles North has reinvigorated the Doncaster headquarters of furniture retailer, DFS into a flexible and collaborative workspace inspired by its Yorkshire roots.
The leading interior design consultancy has modernised the interior of the traditional three-storey office building on Adwick le Street following a 16 week refurbishment.
The project has created a comfortable, socially-oriented environment, with a fully inclusive design that reflects and celebrates the retailer’s heritage and craftsmanship.
It features a new accessible, open plan layout that promotes employee collaboration through a series of purpose-built office, catering, event and activity-based spaces.
Its centrepiece is a new coworking cafe bar and deli that delivers a ‘grab and go’ style food and beverage offering, with seating arrangements to encourage small informal meetings and larger ‘family-style’ gatherings.
A new welcoming reception area flows into a ground floor virtual store and touchdown space that can be reconfigured for events, launches or town hall gatherings, with seating for more than 80 people.
A wide range of furniture options increases the choice of places to meet and work, with high tables, a giant extendable sofa, couple seats, family gathering table, cosy club bench seats, wheelchair accessible meeting booths and a collection of DFS breakout furniture.
Wellness is at the heart of the design and is promoted through the addition of a new landscaped community garden. The space connects employees to the outdoors, with decked seating and house frame structures for meetings and social events, as well as an outdoor chef station.
The first, second and third floors all benefit from a workspace refresh, including a new Group Ops hub and reconfigured furniture, as well as breakout, meeting and additional activity-based workspaces. A new platform lift has been installed to improve connectivity from the ground floor to the first floor.
Office Principles has deconstructed and reimagined DFS’s product range, applying a naturally-derived colour palette, tactile surfaces, patterns and comfort throughout the space. They include warm fabrics and timber flooring, a handcrafted slatted feature wall and large scale wall and window branding, with lighting and materials selected according to their sustainability credentials.
Tina Batham, joint managing director of Office Principles North, said that the new workplace had created a ‘work life’ experience for DFS employees.
She said: “DFS is a brand based on great people, which is why this workplace refurbishment promotes collaboration and fosters a real sense of wellbeing and togetherness. We have placed a large emphasis on delivering well balanced floor plates that contain several distinct spaces, each with a deliberate function. They are unified by a design that reinforces the quality of craftsmanship that is a hallmark of DFS and allows employees to immerse themselves in the materials that underpin its product range. It’s an inviting and inclusive coworking space that will positively shape the way that the company’s employees eat, meet and work together for years to come.” Office Principles North was chosen to deliver the refurbishment of DFS in Doncaster, following a competitive tendering process.
