伦敦新型办公空间 | 打破传统，重塑工作环境

Location: 210 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DA, UK

Design: Universal Design Studio

Client: The Office Group

Floor Area: 6,410 sq-m

With its newest outpost by Universal Design Studio, flexible workspace provider The Office Group addresses users' post-COVID needs to incentivize their return to the physical office.

Key features

Located in London's 'Knowledge Quarter', the 6,410-sq-m flexible workspace took shape thanks to Universal Design Studio. The seven-storey building has 800 co-working spaces , smaller offices and two 150-person spaces dedicated to individual businesses on the top two floors. The front half of the building is accessible to all of its users, hosting a café, an oak-clad reception and a residency space. 'Now, in the heyday of hybrid working, a desk and a task chair are insufficient to incentivize teams to return to the office,' The Office Group team explains.

A variety of spaces dedicated to different modes of working are incorporated including private booths for video and phone calls, communal tables for brainstorming, quiet study spaces, breakout areas, and bookable meeting rooms with video conferencing technology for hybrid meetings. Cream tones and natural wood are complemented with notes of aubergine and accents of yellow and blue. Despite the building's deep footprint, natural light is distributed by the use of arcs and colonnades in place of closed off corridors. A co-working lounge was added, inspired by a reading room, offering a sense of privacy and seclusion. Amenities include a fully equipped fitness room and showers, wellness space, bike storage and 16 outdoor terraces.

Frame's take

Acording to McKinsey, 58 per cent of Americans have the opportunity to work from home at least one day a week and 87 per cent of those that have the opportunity to do so, take it. Remote work has clear benefits; less time commuting is more time spent exercising, spending time with family, practicing a hobby, and so on. Despite these upsides, one of the biggest draws to in-person work are the possibilities for collaboration and social interaction.

'We designed 210 Euston Road at a time when the purpose of the office was in question,' explains Toby Ogden, chief commercial officer of TOG. 'We knew it had to be a destination in itself, to offer a reason for people to want to come into the office. We have focused on designing for interaction, connection and collaboration, supported by amenities that make our members' lives easier.' That focus is key to the provider's success. 'We see design as a real differentiator between us and other flex space providers,' Nasim Köerting, head of design at TOG, explained to us when we interviewed her for Frame 143. 'Each one of our buildings is different. It's our point of interest, it's the reason people come to us.'