When property and construction consultants Thomas & Adamson wanted to adopt a new way of working with a more flexible mix of home and office based working, it was clear that a different office layout would be needed.
To facilitate the move to a hybrid working model, Form Design Consultants was appointed to refurbish the Edinburgh and Glasgow offices. The aim was to create a welcoming environment which would improve productivity, creativity and staff wellbeing by offering structure, sociability, independence and flexibility.
Taking lessons from the hospitality industry and understanding how the space could be used differently, the new design features a reduced number of traditional workstations and a versatile range of alternative work settings such as private booths, meeting rooms, informal discussion areas and social spaces.
A biophilic design, bold colour palette and comfortable, adaptable furniture solutions have been used to balance the industrial style of the building and allow employees to work individually, meet with clients or come together as a team.
With a home from home feel, the new space provides all the creature comforts and flexibility of working from home with the added benefits of space to concentrate on focused work or for social interaction and collaboration.
In the coffee bar area, where staff and visitors can eat, relax and meet informally, large floor to ceiling windows let light flood in and link the interior to the world outside. The calming natural atmosphere is enhanced with a bold teal and orange colour scheme while the delicate golden sand tones and subtle grain textures of Warm Brushed Oak flooring from the Van Gogh Rigid Core range serves to soften the exposed stonework and industrial metallic pipework.
Katherine Gibson, senior interior designer at Form Design Consultants Ltd, said: “Getting the floor right was key to the whole scheme. The Van Gogh range offers a wide colour choice and we were immediately drawn to the authentic colour and design of Warm Brushed Oak. It complements the stone walls beautifully!
“The Van Gogh Rigid Core range offered the acoustic performance we needed for a busy social space and has produced a very quiet floor to walk on. The rigid core format ultimately gave us a fast installation method and also future proofs the building, making further reconfigurations simpler.”
Warm Brushed Oak is one of 12 natural wood designs offered as part of our multi-format Van Gogh collection, which includes both rigid core and gluedown formats. This highly flexible range means that the same flooring can be laid throughout a project even over different sub-floor conditions. Certified by Quiet Mark, the rigid core format features our K-Core technology to ensure a quiet surface underfoot and to reduce sound transfer to rooms below by 21dB.