Posts Tagged: Column
Working from home?
Like most people, I’m now working from home and can’t quite believe it’s the ninth week of doing so – it’s flown by! The first week was definitely the hardest, adjusting to the new ways of life. I was pretty restless being cooped up in the flat and not commuting in to the office. Thankfully… Read More >
Trends in Architectural Materials
Which materials are being used in the most interesting ways right now? As well as constantly searching for brand-new materials, we should also seek to test our creativity – as well as thinking about the environment – by considering new uses for existing materials too. As a studio, we’re particularly interested in sustainable materials that… Read More >
Staff Returning to the Office? 10 Practical Pointers You’ll Want to Know
As a responsible employer, ahead of much anticipated Government Guidance, you’ll be putting in place measures so your people can return to work as safely as possible. You might already have considered aspects like distancing between desks, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. Staff returning from lockdown and enforced home working may also be… Read More >
Sustainability – Radical Rethink
Now, more than ever, it’s time to move beyond thinking about sustainability as a worthy necessity to considering it a remit for exciting thinking within new parameters. In our studio, for example, we’re examining the use of lightweight and non-permanent materials, cutting-edge recycled materials, the commission of regional artists and craftspeople to reflect project locality… Read More >
Designing with light
In my book, light is one of the greatest design tools we have. In our exhibition design projects, we try to use light emotionally, rather than simply technically, to direct and determine visitor journeys, considering lighting’s role in highlighting, washing and grazing and its application via lightboxes, bespoke fittings and for wayfinding. We enjoy working… Read More >
The effect of IT development on workplace design
To workplace Millennials – and even to some Gen Xers – the sheer scope and pace of change in this field must be a complete mystery. I on the other hand can clearly remember a much slower-paced world of manual typewriters, mechanical calculating machines and the solitary telex machine; behind which you dutifully queued to… Read More >
Using space as a narrative backdrop
As specialists in exhibition design – for museums, institutions, art galleries and anyone with a complex story to tell – we believe exhibition design principles can also apply to the commercial sector, making your showroom / selling environment the perfect backdrop to tell your product story. Such principles include making the most of pacing, interpretation,… Read More >
Getting the Best out of Design
In our work, we often find the best results come from taking a leap into the unknown, underlining how critical it is to buy properly into the idea of a design process, so as not to undermine design’s potential. Of course, you have to have clear goals and strategies at the outset of a project,… Read More >
The effect of materials & processing technology on office development
Particleboard and the ability to produce it in large sheets – cut, shaped and edged in a wide variety of sizes and finishes – was perhaps the first significant and liberating breakthrough in materials processing to affect the development of office (and other) furniture design and production. Veneered and lacquered post-primary-manufacturing finishes have over time… Read More >
The effect of space planning theory and practice on office development
In the 70s the ideals of office landscape design were wholeheartedly adopted by a management anxious to retain employees in an era of high employment and staff mobility. Individual space standards were generous and furniture budgets were on the up. Although this might have provided a convenient excuse for the furniture providers to adopt a… Read More >
Designing in Turbulent Times
Like me, you may be one of the many who were taught about the affects of climate change at school. You may even be a parent whose own children are being taught about the same human-made issues today. Perhaps you joined the many millions who left their schools and workplaces to take part in the… Read More >
Spectacular Speckles
The last couple of years have born witness to a seemingly unprecedented rise in the use of the speckle within the world of interiors. Noticing this set me to wondering why this might be; it feels like quite a specific aesthetic after all. In truth, the speckle has a deep-rooted history within our built environments…. Read More >
The influence of New Ideas & Techniques
When I entered it straight from college in 1970, despite the relatively long intervening period, the office furniture industry was in terms of design and output only just beginning to shake off the shackles of dull, post-war austerity. This was driven in part by ideas on how offices might be laid out in a more… Read More >