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. 

Office Principles has delivered the refurbishment of a new 24/7 coworking space in the City of London on behalf of one of the UK’s fastest growing coworking providers.    The leading interior design consultancy has completed Work.Life’s new collaborative, community-led workspace, Farringdon at 120 Aldersgate, near Barbican. Office Principles has transformed 13,000 sq ft on the ground and first floor of the four-storey building, to create flexible and fully furnished, private offices. The new coworking location includes facilities designed for teams and entrepreneurs, with hot desking, meeting rooms, phone booths, a library and comfortable breakout spaces. Its design is characterised by the use of reeded and patterned glass, reflective of the site’s historic use as a crystal glass making workshop, the Glass House Yard in the 1800s. Crittall-style screens and decorative glass pendants complement the raw, industrial nature of the exposed concrete architecture. The effect is softened by the contrasting use of botanicals, geometric textiles, rich velvet textures, Scandinavian-style timbers and a pastel colour palette throughout. A ground floor bar provides a shared central space that connects with a series of open fronted work areas, with folding cross walls promoting collaboration and social interaction. At the heart of the space is a winter garden, with bifold doors opening out onto an external terrace and planting, with views up to the other floors of the building. A new central staircase connects the ground floor to the space above, with additional first floor workspaces, including quiet external seating areas, a fully equipped kitchen, Zoom rooms, laptop tables and seating.  Members also benefit from evening and weekend access to the building, as well as secure bicycle storage and showering facilities. Spaces can be branded and customised to suit member requirements.  Office Principles was chosen to deliver the 16-week refurbishment following a competitive tendering process.  Tom Parsons, sales director at Office Principles, said: “Farringdon is a fabulous new coworking space in one of London’s most exciting business districts. It truly embodies the Work.Life approach to changing the perception of the workplace, by enabling people to feel happy and fulfilled. We’ve delivered a warm, welcoming and personal environment for Work.Life members, with vibrant and sociable shared offices and amenities. It is always pleasing to have delivered a successful project, especially on behalf of a client that is helping to make work a better place.” Elliot Gold, co-founder of Work.Life, said: “There’s a huge correlation between happiness and productivity – engaged employees are not only better for individual wellbeing, but for business too. We’ve finely tuned our workspaces to create a personal experience designed to increase happiness for our members. Office Principles has helped to make our Farringdon space come alive. The high-quality, striking design was everything we wanted and more.”

An interior design consultancy that invested in new regional headquarters in the Midlands, has continued its expansion by securing seven new projects worth a combined contract value of more than £15 million. Office Principles, which recently signed a five-year lease on a standalone building at Coleshill Manor Office Campus, has been chosen to deliver the new projects across the Midlands and London. They include the design and refurbishment of 148 and 154 Great Charles Street in Birmingham city centre on behalf of Ergo Real Estate and the Solihull offices of utilities consultant, Xoserve. The new project appointments follow 18 months of continued success since the regional business was formed by joint managing directors, Gary Tailby and Tina Batham. Office Principles’ Birmingham-based team delivered £7.5 million of projects in its first year and a further £12.5 million in 2020. It plans to further expand its regional workforce to deliver the new projects, employing 18 staff. Gary Tailby, Office Principles in Birmingham, said: “This is a terrific way to start the year and gives us a platform from which to continue to grow our business. These new contract wins have been secured on the back of a successful 18 months during which we have consistently demonstrated the added value we bring in the design stage of a project and the highly skilled team we have in place to deliver on-site. We’re very much relishing the opportunity of reimagining spaces within some of our most recognisable regional buildings and delivering impressive new workplaces for a diverse range of clients.” Office Principles’ Birmingham-based team delivers multi-disciplinary design, consultancy and construction solutions across a variety of sectors within the built environment. The Midlands operation is supported by three established Office Principles sites in London, Reading and Manchester. For more information, please visit: https://officeprinciples.com/

Investment in Coleshill office will support continued growth of regional business Leading interior design consultancy Office Principles is celebrating 18 months of growth by investing in a new regional headquarters in the West Midlands. The firm has signed a five-year lease on a standalone building at Coleshill Manor Office Campus near the M42 and M6 motorways, that will support its ongoing expansion in the region.  Office Principles will design and deliver its own human-centric office fit out to incorporate industry leading technology, with a focus on biophilia, sustainability and employee wellbeing. It is expected to move into the refurbished office facility in early 2021. Formed less than two years ago by Gary Tailby and Tina Batham, Office Principles’ Birmingham-based team delivers multi-disciplinary design, consultancy and construction solutions across a variety of sectors within the built environment. The regional business has enjoyed immediate success, with its original team of seven employees delivering £7.5 million of projects in its first year, with a further £12.5 million secured in 2020. Its growth is set to continue next year, with 20 significant projects about to go to site or in the pre-construction phase and revenue forecast to hit £17.5 million. It plans to further expand its regional team to deliver the new projects, employing 18 staff.  Office Principles delivers services on behalf of regional clients including Anglian Water, Cooper Parry and Aegon Asset Management, as well as client consultants CBRE, Knight Frank, EMCOR and Gerald Eve. The Midlands operation is supported by three established Office Principles sites in London, Reading and Manchester. Gary Tailby, Office Principles in Birmingham, said: “We’re incredibly excited to be moving into new premises in the West Midlands. There is a real hunger to continue to grow the business here and I have been impressed by the level of support and commitment that is being invested. When Tina and I formed the Birmingham office, our vision was to secure new business on a negotiated basis through added value in the design phase of a project and build a highly skilled team to deliver on-site. It’s an approach that has been hugely successful. Investing in well connected new premises close to the motorway network, will enable us to capitalise on a growing workload and support our clients UK-wide. We are looking forward to delivering an impressive workplace of the future and have consulted with our people in creating an environment that allows them to work in whatever way they are most productive.” Established over 30 years ago, Office Principles specialises in office refurbishment, commercial fit out and corporate furniture systems. It delivers services on behalf of a wide range of leading UK and international companies including Visa, Twinings and BDO. For more information, please visit: https://officeprinciples.com/