The Business
News and pictures from the design sector.
BDG architecture + design unveil the WPP Manchester
BDG architecture + design has revealed the finished design for WPP Manchester, the latest in the creative transformation company WPP’s global real estate roll out.
The practice has created an agile campus environment enabling multiple WPP agencies to come together in one location, with the 5,692 sq m interior taking inspiration from local influences such as music to manufacturing as well as the symbol of the city, the worker bee.
The project is located in the Globe and Simpson building in Manchester’s Enterprise City in Spinningfields. The vibrant dining, shopping and lifestyle destination is also home to many other creative businesses. Designed by Axis Architects, and completed in 2021, WPP occupies the majority of the space: the double height ground floor plus floors three to eight.
The building has a strong street presence with a façade comprising a bold grid made from dark, anodised cladding, contrasting with large glazed windows, allowing for an abundance of natural light.
A key feature of the ground floor is the town hall presentation space inset in the mezzanine, made of cross laminated timber forming an auditorium space, with an artwork mural to one side. The project also features digital artwork from London art and design studio Acrylicize. www.bdg-a-d.com
Winter Windows 2023: Squire & Partners collaborates with Southbank Centre
Image Credit: Gareth Gardner
Brixton-based Squire & Partner’s has announced the launch of Winter Windows 2023, a collaboration between Squire & Partners, Southbank Centre and local school children to produce neon light installations that connect two schools and two sites in the London Borough of Lambeth: The Department Store, Brixton and Southbank Centre.
Designed by Year 6 students at Loughborough Primary School (Brixton) and Oasis Academy Johanna (Waterloo), the displays were built by the practice’s model shop team, with the installations illuminating both communities during the darker, shorter days as part of Southbank Centre’s Winter Light Festival. www.squireandpartners.com
Vision Factory Creates Temporary City For Soundstorm 23
UK based design studio Vision Factory designed a utopian ‘temporary city’ for the fourth edition of Soundstorm music festival, the Middle East’s largest music festival. It fashioned a multi-layered brutalist cityscape from over 950 upcycled shipping containers to offer festival-goers a sensory and immersive experience. www.vision-factory.co.uk
10 Design introduce Epicon, a new luxury tourism destination in Saudi Arabia
Architects 10 Design is designing Epicon, the luxury coastal tourism destination in NEOM, northwest Saudi Arabia. The develoment will feature two towers reaching 230 and 275 metres with 41 hotel rooms and 14 branded residences, as well as a low-rise, 120-room, 45-villa luxury resort. www.10design.co
Camira unveils its ‘Colour of the Year’ 2024
Following the announcement of Pantone’s Colour of the Year, global designer of textiles Camira has revealed its own shade for 2024, based on customer demand – and it’s not Peach Fuzz. According to Camira’s website statistics, it sees green fabrics as the most searched for online in the last year, with a 30 percent increase since 2022. Camira’s bestselling wool blend, Main Line Flax, saw a 5,000% surge in sales of its mint green shade, Greenwich, year-on-year. www.camirafabrics.com
67,000 sq ft Heathrow sustainable industrial warehouse approved by council
AIPUT (Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust) has announced that the London Borough of Hounslow has granted planning permission for a new 67,000 sq ft GEA high-spec industrial warehouse building at its Radius Park industrial campus at Heathrow Airport. The new ‘RP6’ warehouse will be a consolidation of two previous warehouse buildings at AIPUT’s 16-acre Radius Park campus. The building will be stripped back to the structural steel and floor slab to create a new, high quality, sustainable and flexible single warehouse building that will also include Grade A first floor offices and benefit from a highly secure, fenced location. www.aiput.co.uk
A Bermuda vibe and Feng Shui principles influence scheme for City of London insurance company
Image Credit: Gareth Gardner
Align Design and Architecture has completed a high-spec 11,000 sq ft scheme for a leading global insurance company, high up in a glass-and-steel tower in the heart of the City of London. The scheme includes evocative cues inspired by the company’s Bermuda HQ location, as well as incorporating many wisdoms from the 3,000-year-old practice of Feng Shui.
Key features include ‘dragon’s tail’ corridor shapes, blue colouring, rippleeffect glass and wall treatments, scallopedged bespoke joinery and bespoke, stalactite-inspired lights, refering to the colours, shapes and textures of Bermuda’s natural environment.
Nigel Tresise, director of Align Design and Architecture commented: ‘The client came to us with the task of creating an office...from a site that had been delivered in standard Cat A condition. We were delighted to form part of the team on this exciting and highlycreative project, together with lead fit-out contractor Overbury and project managers Savills.’
The practice was given a very open brief when it came to the look and feel of the new scheme. It has delivered simple and subtle references as part of the interiors scheme, to ensure a holistic feel as well as unique spaces. www.aligngb.com
Global law firm HFW collaborates with M Moser on workplace transformation
HFW, a leading global law firm specialising in sector-focused solutions for international commerce, has embarked on a transformative journey to redefine its workplace strategy.
Seeking guidance from M Moser, the global architecture and design practice, the four-year collaboration resulted in a sophisticated office relocation project that aligns with HFW’s vision for the future of legal work, as well as developing a new workplace strategy. www.mmoser.com
Bespoke lightbox canopy unveiling at global beauty brand’s Paris store
Image Credit: Chris Carter
A colour-changing canopy of 182 LED light boxes has been deemed the ‘jewel in the crown’ of a global beauty brand’s Paris flagship store whilst the two UK companies that developed and manufactured them are celebrating its triumph.
Sephora re-opened its prestigious store on the Champs-Elysees following a multi-million Euro renovation project. The project is the culmination of an 15-month collaboration between the beauty brand and Unibox - a UK manufacturer of aluminium and LED-based solutions for retail spaces, exhibitions and commercial interiors – and Intecho, a leading provider of SMART building technology solutions.
The 82m canopy is capable of multiple thematic animations, such as mesmerising black and white Sephora stripes that chime with its brand image, as well as other themed displays and animations.
Paul Murphy, Intecho director and co-founder commented: ‘The end result is stunning...We were thrilled to collaborate with Unibox and Sephora, leaving an indelible mark on their flagship store... This project has set a new global standard for luxury shopping.’
Unibox director Nick Wraith commented: ‘We pride ourselves on our ability to create things others can’t, and the Sephora project is a case in point.’ www.unibox.co.uk / www.intecho.co.uk
Lumsden chosen for interior design of new museum building for Natural History Museum of Denmark
Lumsden has been selected to work on the restaurant, shop, ticketing, event and flow areas of the new exhibition building, currently under construction, in the Botanical Garden at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. The new museum building is expected to open to the public in two years. www.lumsdendesign.com
Crucial Trading launches New Flagship Showroom in DCCH
Crucial Trading has opened a new flagship showroom in the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London. Located within 70 sq m on the second floor of the South Dome, the space showcases its range of floorcoverings together with imaginative lifestyle sets. Designed with architects Mailen Design, the in-house design team were keen to create a lively and inspiring space to stimulate visitors’ imagination. www.crucial-trading.com
Holcim launches circular 3D-printed concrete bridge
Holcim launches Phoenix, a 3D-printed concrete masonry bridge built with 10 tonnes of recycled materials at its Innovation Hub in Europe. Built in partnership with Block Research Group at ETH Zurich, Zaha Hadid Architects Computation and Design Group and incremental3D, Phoenix resulted from the partial recycling of aggregates from the original blocks of Striatus, the 3D concrete printed bridge launched by the partners during the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture. www.holcim.com
Humanscale pilots standalone retail concept in Hangzhou, China
Humanscale is piloting a standalone retail concept in Raffles City Mall, located in Hangzhou, China.
Raffles City Mall is a renowned shopping and lifestyle mixed-use destination creating a sustainable urban hub in one of China’s most picturesque cities. The official grand opening took place on 17 November 2023 with a ribboncutting ceremony to commemorate this new step in Humanscale’s retail ecosystem. The 1,221 sq ft space is adjacent to tech giants such as Dell, Alibaba, ASUS and Lenovo, positioning Humanscale to resonate within a high-tech, design-focused community. www.uk.humanscale.com
Holloway Li reveal its debut workplace design project
Image Credit: Nicholas Worley
Holloway Li has designed its debut workplace project for entertainment company Broadwick Live.
Drawing on its hospitality and retail design experience, Holloway Li has reimagined the future function of an 8,000 sq ft workplace in a post-Covid era, capturing the collective social spirit of Broadwick Live’s club spaces.
Broadwick Live tasked Holloway Li with the challenge of translating the tangible and intangible aspects of the Broadwick brand into a spatial experience, including its simple, direct and bold monochrome branding and art direction.
The entrepreneurial spirit and atypical work pattern of Broadwick Live’s business called for a flexible workspace arrangement, allowing for chance encounters and the ability to switch to event mode in the evening.
Alex Holloway, principal, Holloway Li, commented: ‘Responding to the shifting nature of the workplace post-pandemic, we wanted to capture the collective social spirit and raw “as found” quality of Broadwick Live’s club spaces. Retaining the building’s shell to expose its industrial inner organs, we carefully inserted a series of monolithic, sculpted touch points to reinforce Broadwick Live’s understated all-black brand aesthetic.’ www.hollowayli.com
Jeffrey Beers Unveils Interior Design for Reopening Café Boulud New York
Architect Jeffrey Beers has showcase its design for the new Café Boulud New York by Chef Daniel Boulud.
The bright and airy space features Art Deco and vintage accents throughout, that include an original black and white tile and wood flooring, and vaulted ceilings with decorative, clover-shaped molding.
Mirrored panels, velvet green banquets, sculpted bronze, gilded copper, and polished stone add additional accents throughout the restaurant creating an inviting and stylish space. It also includes an art programme featuring a selection of pieces reflecting Chef Boulud’s longstanding connection to New York City’s art world.
The Café Boulud brand is named after the original Café Boulud which the chef’s grandparents’ opened more than 100 years ago outside of Lyon, France. Chef Boulud opened Café Boulud in New York City in 1998. www.jeffreybeers.com
A secondary school turned into a technology campus with HIMACS at the meeting point
Design & Meer and VRP architects has converted a secondary school into a workplace and campus dedicated to ICT. It features high-quality materials, such as HIMACS, to renovate the building for use as both company’s offices as well as a limited amount of housing where younger employees would be able to stay for up to seven years.
The old secondary school, located in the Netherlands, and its various spaces such as classrooms, a gymnasium, auditorium, appealed the the owner for employees to work in the classrooms and meet in the corridors. The scheme maintains many of the school’s original features. www.lxhausys.com /eu/himacs
