Domestic & General Offices – London
SpaceInvader used unique finishes to realize the design for the Domestic & General offices in London, England.
The UK’s leading appliance care specialist Domestic & General was happy with the location of its existing Wimbledon head offices – but when the building’s lease renewal coincided with Covid-19 and lockdown, the opportunity arose for a full review of future workplace needs. Domestic & General recognised this might be a moment for wholesale change – though only if their team were likely to share in and feel ownership of that vision.
Workplace remodelling therefore began very much from the ground up, with in-depth conversations with the internal team. CBRE, who manage the space for Domestic & General, brought in award-winning designers SpaceInvader to interpret the wealth of employee data generated to envisage and space-plan a new workplace interior.
As the programming was tight, the creative process took place at unusual speed, with a highly-experienced core team at SpaceInvader working hard to design a new interior that signalled a complete change of culture, moving from a fairly rigid traditional office set-up to agile and flexible working with fewer desk spaces, as well as from from a white interior towards a bold and colourful hospitality sensibility, featuring new tones, textures and materials.
The brief was to adapt and refurbish the workplace to support a new hybrid working approach, with team members spending 2-3 days per week in the office post-pandemic and the rest of the week either WFH or remote-working. There was a strong HR focus too, with the new scheme helping retain existing staff anda attracting new, potential candidates.
A major driver was to create reasons for people to want to return to the office. This meant uplifting the facilities both practically and aesthetically, as well as increasing collaboration space and integrating those who might be working remotely. Investment in good collaboration technologies became key.
Design: SpaceInvader
Photography: Gary Britton
