Specialist Group completed the Joinery fit out at the ICG Headquarters and we recently spoke to the lead designers on the project HLW’s Fleur Peck and Ashley Thomas-Pate, for an industry insight.

The appeal of a faster moving architectural process with shorter projects and the opportunity to really engage with the client and the ultimate users of a building is a strong draw for architects like Fleur Peck and  Ashley Thomas-Pate. Their personalities and professional roles are totally focused on designing for people in a way which delivers a better working experience.

The ICG Building

“ICG’s London Office was originally set up to support 1:1 working. As the teams return to work, this concept has remained in place, however the design has built in flexibility and support spaces to sustain agile and flexible working practices in the future. What really brought this building to life for them was to maximise the use of space away from the desk areas, like the clubhouse and collaboration zone. These spaces create opportunities for working as a team in different environments and the potential for high value interaction, ideal in a hybrid working environment and when staff fully return to the office. We are seeing more and more clients putting this new balance of space allocation at the top of their design briefs.”

The Next Big Thing 

Prior to the pandemic, the next big thing occupying the news and professional debates was “Sustainability”. Now as we head towards the third pandemic year with some semblance of control the sustainability issue is fast resurfacing as a leading global issue, something Ashley has already experienced:

“We are already facing the challenge of a project aiming for net zero Carbon and this ICG project was an example where they wanted sustainability certification and had already addressed sustainability in the base build. For the interiors we advised them on what approach would be the best for their project including essentials  like FSC certified timber. We also introduced more unique ideas, like the material produced with recycled yogurt pots which we incorporated into the design! Using new materials can be challenging for designers and contractors but can be overcome when we all work with an open approach to change.”

Fleur comments: “Overall, in terms of net zero, HLW has a sustainability action plan and we’ve signed up for the AIA 2030s, so all of our new projects are going to try and be Net Zero by 2030. Our approach to this needs to be at the start of every new project and even if clients aren’t going for certification, we still need to make sure the project is sustainable all the way. Climate change is a real crisis and we can’t turn back time, so we have to do something right now.”

Tell the Story 

It might be assumed that corporate design trends follow one of a number of trends. Cities are made distinctive by their skylines so should we expect the location to exercise a design trend in individual cities? Interestingly the experience at HLW is that the business is driven by a passion expressed as “Our work tells your story”. Fleur explains: ‘It doesn’t matter whether we’re working on a project in London, Paris or wherever, it’s always about the client not the city or what our last design was or what we perceive the latest trends to be, ultimately every project we undertake is a direct reflection of our understanding of our client, their culture, future vision and where they want to be at that time and in that place. Taking the time to get to know your client, asking the right questions and engaging in a level that really unravels the opportunities and challenges they face today and need to solve tomorrow is fundamental to creating a robust and solid brief from which to build the design.”

Ashley: “So, the big story of this building is that it builds connections. ICG was previously split across a number of London offices but they wanted to bring everyone together in the one location. The new collaborative spaces allow ICG’s people to come together in one site, connect and have the conversations that they couldn’t previously have.”

Working with Specialist

The complexity of a project like ICG should not be understated and that is before you factor in the restraints brought about by the pandemic during the project, which provided additional challenges.

Ashley: “Working with Specialist was great. I had a few face to face meetings with them right at the beginning and we got through quite a lot of the workshops before the pandemic hit. We established really clear communications where they would identify issues that could negatively affect the design and discuss options with us in depth rather than just calling me up and asking me what did I prefer. Their response rates were impressive, Conor always picked up the phone even when he was driving or in another meeting, he was always available and was just great”

Fleur: “Specialist invested time to understand what our vision was. They are the experts in building these things as they do it every day so we were able to trust them to know how things go together and how things work best. To have that joint collaboration and shared knowledge worked brilliantly, both face to face and when we had to meet on Teams, they ensured we were able to maintain a continuous conversation. I also think that there’s a real advantage from them having Joinery, Glass and Metal manufacturing, particularly when all of those components go together in something like a complex staircase. To have that all in house with one person organising it is so valuable because there’s so many pieces of the puzzle.”

Read the Full Interview Here – The ICG Project