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Breakout Space Project in Bradford On Avon

Breakout Space Project in Bradford On Avon

Client: Steve Vik International
Value: £120k

The Requirement

Steve Vik contacted us to create a breakout space within their existing factory. The aim was to encourage better integration and relationships between the office and warehouse staff.

The existing kitchen and breakout space was un-inviting and positioned within some valuable office space. There was a large dead space area between the offices and warehouse side which was un-used but offered lots of potential. The HR/admin team was also in an office on the other side of the dead space segregating them from the rest of the office team.

Our Solutions

The main plan was always to move the kitchen from the office area into the store area, and create a kitchen space there. This will increase the available space for the office area.

We drew the office using CAD software which enabled us to provide a few layout options.

A few options were explored in reconfiguring the existing demountable partitions to create some offices and rooms where the existing kitchen was situated.  The final choice was to form a large 6-person administration office along with a smaller 2-person HR offices as well as a small 1-1 room for private HR conversations making much better use of the space. Moving these teams into the office area has helped to integrate the HR and admin teams and allow additional desk space for future growth.

The old HR office was situated over the other side of the “dead zone”, this room would now become a large training and secondary meeting room. The main benefit of having the room there was that the new breakout space would be right next to it, without needing to have staff go through other office areas to get to it.

Breakout Space Design

We were given pretty much an open hand to come up with what we thought would look great in the space.

There were a few restrictions we had to keep in mind like an existing boiler which needed to remain in place, and a double door which opens out over the loading bay which the customer wanted to keep for occasional furniture deliveries etc.

The staff provided some images of breakout spaces they liked to give inspiration, and we knew from the previous social spaces project that this customer liked the bright colours and warmth of natural wood.

We came up with a couple of layouts and mood boards before settling on a final design.

The kitchen itself features:

  • 2x integrated pull out double recycling / general waste bins to encourage recycling
  • 2x integrated large full height fridges for lunches
  • 1x integrated small fridge for milk / drinks
  • 1x integrated freezer for ice creams in the summer
  • 1x integrated dishwasher
  • 2x instant boil taps to reduce waiting around in the mornings
  • 1x tall larder unit which hides the boiler
  •  The main theme of the kitchen in terms of colours was a graphite kitchen, with concrete worktops and a lovely white marble metro tile splash back laid in a herringbone pattern.

The walls were painted a dark grey and the ceiling replaced for a black suspended ceiling.

The dark colours of the kitchen, ceiling and walls were contrasted by the warm oak effect non-slip vinyl flooring, with custom timber divider screens and planter. We also used oak slatwall panels up the walls and over the ceiling creating an archway which defines the dining area.

The planter and screens were filled with artificial plants along with the floor to ceiling artificial plant wall which hides the double door into the loading bay. A section of plant wall was fitted behind the TV in the dining area along with some small square frames of foliage to add interest above the meeting pods.

Interesting lighting was used throughout this project with “Halo” style square LED lights on the black ceiling, triple industrial style pendants above the breakfast bars, single pendants over the meeting pods and even some under cabinet lighting in the kitchen. The lighting is bright over the kitchen and more subdued over the dining area helping to define areas within the breakout space.

A range of 4-seater meeting pods, high level breakfast bars, a dining table and some lounge chairs are positioned throughout the breakout space to give flexibility and cater for everyone. The design included oak leg frames on all furniture. This tied in with the woodwork and selected vibrant fabric and laminate colours which match in with the 7 corporate colours found on their website for the 7 core services the client offers.

Reconfiguration of the Office Partitions

The first priority was to remove the existing kitchen and breakout space and create the new offices for the HR and admin teams so they could move out of the back room.

All plumbing and electrical services were disconnected, new partitioning and flooring installed along with some re-configuring of the lighting circuit to suit the new room layout.

The new HR office and 1-1 room had double skinned partition with insulation in the cavity and even acoustic barriers within the ceiling void fitted to give the best possible sound performance and privacy for the HR team.

The old HR office was then re-decorated and re-purposed as a meeting and training room.

Breakout Space Work in Progress

The new suspended ceiling was installed first along with all new electrical supplies for the new kitchen and the LED lighting.

The room was painted dark grey and the new kitchen fitted with slight modifications to the unit hiding the boiler and some minor plumbing works for the new sink and instant boil taps.

Once the new kitchen was installed the decorative items like the tiled splash back,  slatwall archway, the custom timber screens, the planter and the artificial plant wall was installed.

The flooring was one of the last things to go in to prevent any damage throughout the project along with the long pendant lights.

Final Furniture Installation

The furniture was all made to order with vibrant colour choices to match the 7 corporate colours.

The hidden double doors into the loading bay were very useful for getting the furniture up and the install team had everything assembled and positioned within a day.

The furniture really tied everything together, the vibrant colours and welcoming soft fabrics and versatile seating options. The meeting pods feature USB charging making them great for informal meeting or just a private place to sit and watch Netflix. Using Faux leather in the dining chairs and bar stools helped to encourage warehouse staff to use them without fear of marking or staining the new fabrics and all the staff seemed really excited to start using the new breakout space.

Final Thoughts

This particular project and client has been especially nice for us at Cre8tive Interiors to work on. The emphasis on a positive working environment and building relationships between teams is really rewarding to see in the workplace. A lot of what we do at Cre8tive Interiors is functional and problem solving therefor aesthetics and design can be pushed to the bottom of the priorities due to space or budget constraints.

Beyond just a breakout space, the client worked with us and with their staff to get input from everyone and took the time consider what the space needed to achieve even down to the additional fridge space for lunch boxes and the sound proofing of the HR office.

The feedback from staff has been very positive, the space is always in use and it has improved the relationships and working environment for the staff.

Do you want more social breakout spaces or need to improve your office layout?

Please give us a call or go to the contact us page and we can help with any aspect of interior office fit out, along with space planning and design work.

01380 73 88 44

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Air Conditioning All Project Categories Design Office Furniture Office Refurbishments Partitioning Projects Storage Walls Visuals

Complete Office Design and Fit Out Project in Swindon

Complete Office Design and Fit Out Project in Swindon

Client: One Technologies
Value: £260k

We carried out an Office design and fit out fit out project for One Technologies Ltd in Swindon,Wiltshire. The project included creating ideas for the design, detail specification and documents, planning and then organising the work which was completed on time within budget.

The customer is an American company that wanted to set up and office in the UK. They had a breakfast bar in their office in Dallas, we tried to replicate the way they work in the US so part of their culture of how they work comes across into the UK. The customer is a web based company and the new office will be receiving inbound calls so is basically a call center. The image of a phone box in the reception is intended to reflect this and is one reason why there is a  concentration of desks in space. The digital image that is printed on heavy textured wall covering. Desk footprint was important in getting the right numbers in, and we have designed this so they can increase the numbers easily, all of the future space planning has been done. You will see the grey wallpaper in the office is very textured to give some personality to the paper and help with sound performance.

The activities included Office Design, Project Management, CDM regulations, Building Regulations, contracts, stripping out work, demountable glass partitioning, decorations, design of a breakfast bar, supply and fit of all office furniture, air conditioning new and changes to existing, ventilation changes, lighting, electrical work, data cabling, supply and fitting of the communications cabinet, cctv, access control, audio visual equipment and connection, storage wall and flooring changes. We also supplied all of the office furniture, screens, cupboards, plants, graphics, chairs and monitor arms.

Preparation work.

Much of the initial time on the project was spent exploring different layouts and seeing how the space could work. Care was taken in seeing how the customer wanted to use the space to have an area where people could relax and have teas and coffees.

Design Visuals.

We have covered elsewhere in this website our view on visuals. Please click this link for more explanation as to the difference between drawing work, space planning and 3d visuals. As a large proportion of the cost of the project focused around the breakfast bar we felt creating visuals was really important. The breakfast bar being an essential part of the office design. The film taken of this project reinforces how much the finished build reflects the initial visuals we produced for the project. Although they are in the film clip, they can be seen below:

Specifications, contract and planning.

The next step was to provide much more detail in the the specifications in the form of written documents. We had a commercial contract drawn up, as well as produced a full build specification document detailing every aspect of the build. Due to the amounts of money involved £250k +, we produced a project plan which showed the phases of when payments were due to be made depending on when various parts of the project were delivered. The final document was a detailed Gantt chart showing project timelines, dates, slack periods, completion dates and contingencies. Also built in were times required for the American IT team to visit and have all of the computer equipment installed and configured.

Build Photographs.

As you can see from the photographs there was quite a bit to organise, in particular we had to follow the progress to a programme, as well as maintaining dates that had to fit in with the American IT team visiting the UK to install the server the programme had to be met for the financial reasons in order to maintain a steady flow of payments coming to us from the USA. The main office design and fit out project for us was only one small part in order to get the office up and working. The customers IT people only had 3 days to install all of the equipment, so all of the infrastructure cabling, power, air conditioning, cabinets and of course all of the security access controls and cameras had to be fully working before they came over to visit. They were bringing with them a special server built by Dell to handle the call volumes anticipated in the office and the server itself cost 7 figures.

Final photographs finished office.

We are very please with the final office design and fit out. If you have not seen the video in the first part of this page then you can also see it here by here by clicking this text..

Moving / expanding or have problems with your existing office space?

Many offices have problems with sound, problems with fitting enough people in, and may look dated and need reworking which is where we can help. From an initial brief as to what the problems are to the final completed office we can carry out everything that you need inside an office. In the project above we used demountable partitioning but using a special type of glass to enhance sound performance. The system was also a propriety demountable partition system called Komfort Polar. The glass wall was double glazed, with seamless glass joints for a smooth simple look.

Why Demountable Partitions in Office Refurbishments?

  1. Demountable partitions are tax efficient in that they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts, we can also lease elements of office refurbishments. Anything that can be moved.
  2. We mainly lease Demountable Partitions as they are movable, this spreads the costs of having the work done as Demountable Partitions always cost more than customers think.
  3. Leasing of movable items is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
  4. Most landlords insist on demountable partitions in an office as it is much easier to take them out should the tenant renting the space leave for any reason. The benefit is that is saves making a huge amount of mess and destruction that would be need with a conventional stud and plasterboard constructed wall.

Not sure what to do?

Please give us a call and we can help with any aspect of interior office fit out, along with space planning and design work.

01380 73 88 44

Categories
Air Conditioning All Project Categories Office Furniture Office Refurbishments

Office Refurbishment with Limited Space in Salisbury

Office Refurbishment with Limited Space in Salisbury

Client: Chestergate Financial
Value: £40k

We were asked by this customer to look at the whole office space to address several things, and carry out a general office refurbishment. One of the main problems is that they needed to fit another couple of desk positions and space was limited. Other requirements were to completely re-decorate the offices, and to do something with the existing kitchen. Currently they just had a bit of worktop and had to fill a kettle with water from the toilet which was not ideal.

The carpet needed replacing in the main office and we cleaned the others. The windows were very drafty, and so we allowed to fit some secondary glazing inside the sash windows. Other issues was that the lighting was poor in the corridors and the spot lights were dazzling which made the office difficult to work in. People also tripped up and down the steps so we came up with some step lighting to solve this problem. We fitted a new kitchen and piped the supply and waste through the building to connect to the toilets.

The problem of desk space was solved by using some narrow bench style of desks grouped together in a cluster or bank. The computer screens were then fixed to the desk screens by using gas arms, freeing up desk space.

When we came to decorate the previous decorators had filled in the panels in the meeting room with silicon rather than decorators cork which meant the edges cracked. It all had to be hacked out and filled properly and then repainted.

Original Office Space Photographs

Design and Drawing Work

Drawing is one thing, working out then how it could be done with an occupied office was another. We worked closely with the customer to work out which rooms we could have access to, and how much time we needed for each section before we could move things around.

Construction Photographs

Office refurbishment

If you need any advice or are thinking of an office refurbishment project please give us a call, we would love to talk to you, on 01380 738844

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Kitchen Tea Point in an Office in Chippenham

Kitchen Tea Point in an Office in Chippenham
3d version just to be sure

Client: Volutio
Value: £1.5k

This project involved installing a new kitchen tea point in an office in Chippenham. The existing office was open plan. The project consisted of careful spatial planning as the configuration had to allow for the possibility of future expansion while catering for a greater number of people. Drawing and design work were also undertaken to create a unique flooring/carpet design that fitted and complemented the kitchen and its surrounding office space. Fitting the units was only one trade, we also had to arrange plumbers, electricians, decorators and a new floor. We carry out these activities anyway when we carry out refurbishment or office fitting out work they are easy for us to arrange as the people we use know us and work well together on projects.

Obviously what we have built is actually a mini-kitchen using all the materials that you would use in a house. We have accounts with all of the major suppliers of kitchens, and as we build these quite often in offices we are able to get some good pricing on product.

Types of kitchen.

We could use flat pack units available from most DIY stores. We use commercial grade kitchens which will not deteriorate and the carcasses are pre-made in a factory, already assembled so they are much quicker for us to build. The kitchen ends up being more durable. In this case, the toilets were the other side of the kitchen, it was a logical place to put the units as the supplies and waste were very close to connect to. We also had to fit an extractor in the suspended ceiling to take away those pot noodle smells when the micro-wave is used.

There are many options to chose from in terms of finishes, the range selected in this project was in the middle range, most refurbishment project we do have a small kitchen or tea point which is no problem for us to install.

Break out areas

Tea points are important in offices, more recently we have designed an area inside an office which is more than just a tea point and forms the focal part of the office with a breakfast bar. Please refer to this project for details by the clicking this link. The idea on this project was to encourage people to get off their chairs, away from their desks and to circulate, to encourage people to talk to each other and mingle. The customer was an American company that used to bring in bagels and have sandwiches brought into the office.

If you would like us to look at your break out / tea point area please give us a call on 01380 73 88 44

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This project involved installing a new kitchen tea point in an office in Chippenham

This project involved installing a new kitchen tea point in an office in Chippenham

Categories
Air Conditioning All Project Categories Mezzanine Floors Office Refurbishments Partitioning Suspended Ceilings Toilet Refurbishment

Office Refurbishment with a Mezzanine Floor in Gloucester

Office Refurbishment with a Mezzanine Floor in Gloucester
New stairs

Client: Scott Law
Value: £160k

Mezzanine Floor installation

Cre8tive Interiors completed an office refurbishment fit out project in Gloucester. The original building consisted of an occupied warehouse with a split level floor and block walls which needed to be converted to offices. We are calling this project a refurbishment project, it involved taking an industrial unit and changing it (refurbishing it?), and then fitting out the inside to provide a complete office space by fitting a mezzanine floor inside. So it is probably a mixture between a refurbishment project and a fit out project.

The offices had to include toilets, reception area, new staircase, kitchen, boardroom and further offices as well as full integration of electrics, data and air conditioning. The project was also run under the Construction Design and Management regulations, so adherence to Health and Safety was paramount. All activities had to have risk assessments carried out as well as method statements for the type of work. Cre8tive was also Principle Contractor for the work, and this meant that there were some things that the client wanted to do within the time frame on site which we managed to do.

Pre-construction Photographs

All of the internal walls, ceilings, toilets and electrics would have to be stripped out including the spiral staircase and small room above it. The two units had a gap inside joining them which would need to be blocked up. The block walls inside would have to be modified. In the end it was easiest just to rip it all out and start again.

Construction Work

The following photographs show the stripping out as well as the construction and finished photographs. The photographs show the sequence of events and all of the work that goes into creating offices over a mezzanine floor. Complete network cabling, power and data, heating and cooling with air conditioning, flooring, external windows, there are many things to manage and get to work properly which is what we do at Cre8tive.

We used demountable partitioning for the offices upstairs and downstairs for a few reasons, the first is that is is easy to reconfigure if you want to change it, and one of the other main benefits is that it can be leased and treated as a ‘moveable item’ as well as the mezzanine floor. The mezzanine floor itself is fully self supporting and not fixed to the fabric of the building so is also ‘demountable’. It could be unbolted and then re bolted in the car park outside if needed.

Why Demountable Partitioning?

  1. Demountable partitioning is tax efficient in that they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts.
  2. We can also lease Demountable Partitioning as they are movable, this spreads the costs of having the work done as Demountable Partitions always cost more than customers think.
  3. Leasing of demountable partitioning is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
  4. Most landlords insist on demountable partitions being used for offices as it is much easier to take them out should the tenant renting the space leave for any reason. The benefit is that is saves making a huge amount of mess and destruction that would be need with a conventional stud and plasterboard constructed wall.

Office Refurbishment

This particular project was more complicated that many that we do in that it involved the mezzanine floor. If you need any advice or are thinking of an office refurbishment project please give us a call, we would love to talk to you, on 01380 738844

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All Project Categories Consult Install Office Refurbishments Partitioning

Office Fit Out British Nuclear Group in Bridgewater

Office Fit Out British Nuclear Group in Bridgewater
Mallard Court

Client: British Nuclear Group
Value: £99k

Cre8tive were contacted by an Office Furniture company as they were not able to deal with the office fit out side of the project for British Nuclear Group. The customer had already employed an architect to specify what was required and so it was really a case of demonstrating that we knew what we were doing and that could cost the project to meet the clients budget. This project took place on the ground floor of Mallard Court.

The project was designed by Oxford Architects who specified the partition system.

The project was a 6 week duration project which had to run under the Construction Design and Management regulations. Cre8tive Interiors acted as Principle Contractor on the project. The office fit out  for British Nuclear Group consisted of Komfort Double Glazed Polar Demountable Partition System, as well as single glazed Polar screens and Komfort Komfire 100 partitions. The project also included supplying and fitting of a kitchen from Howdens, new carpets, fitting of fire barriers in the ceiling and floor voids, and complete decoration of the workspace.

Initial design and drawing work

Initial site photographs before work

Construction Photographs

Working for the British Nuclear Group had it’s challenges. As you would expect every aspect of the work was scrutinized, we also had to have a permanent person on site all of the time which sometimes on projects like this we do not always need to have fitters doing work whilst other work is being done by others. BNG contracted their own duct work people, so they had to carry out some works when we had to be off site.

Completed Photographs

Why Demountable Partitioning?

This particular project had what we call demountable partitioning in it. Landlords insist on this type as it can be easily relocated without doing much damage to the building.

  1. Demountable partitioning is tax efficient in that they are seen as movable items and so can be treated differently in writing down allowances in the accounts.
  2. We can also lease Demountable Partitioning as they are movable, this spreads the costs of having the work done as Demountable Partitions always cost more than customers think.
  3. Leasing of demountable partitioning is very tax efficient and Cre8tive can provide illustrations, please contact us for further information.
  4. Most landlords insist on demountable partitions being used for offices as it is much easier to take them out should the tenant renting the space leave for any reason. The benefit is that is saves making a huge amount of mess and destruction that would be need with a conventional stud and plasterboard constructed wall.

Need an Office Fitting out?

This particular project was driven by BNG with a design carried out by Oxford Architects. We were the contractor who completed the work. If you need any design work doing we can do this, as well as being the principle contractor for the work.

Any questions please do not hesitate to contact us on 01380 73 88 44 or email [email protected]

Categories
All Project Categories Suspended Ceilings

Suspended Ceiling and Partition Reconfiguration work in Trowbridge

Suspended Ceiling and Partition Reconfiguration work in Trowbridge

Client: Zircon Software
Value: £23k

Suspended Ceiling and Alteration work

We completed this replacement suspended ceiling project for Zircon Software in Trowbridge who moved to new premises. The existing ceiling was very tired, so we produced a lighting scheme along with some drawings to present to the customer with the costing. We supplied new suspended ceilings and lighting throughout and also took out a couple of walls for them. The work carried out here is typical of what we call dilapidation work, in that the work is needed for someone moving in to be able to occupy it in a reasonable state.

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