Thornton Tomasetti UK Headquarters, Farringdon, London

Thornton Tomasetti is a highly respected international engineering design consultancy with over 50 years experience and has offices in the USA, Russia, Asia and the Middle East.

Our emphasis is on providing innovative structural design solutions for projects of all sizes and complexity.  Throughout our projects we insist on close liaison with fellow consultants to generate ideas and promote high standards of design. The space studio share these ideals and with this in mind, we had no hesitation in commissioning them to design our first UK office, based in Farringdon, London.

For various reasons we had to work within an incredibly tight timescale and there were several critical factors that the space studio identified at an early stage to help develop the brief and design, these included:

• Our expected rapid expansion and the need for flexibility to deal with this.

• How to provide a creative and inspiring environment for our engineers whilst recognising the importance of spatial relationships between our various teams and visitors.

• The importance and role of our ‘front of house’ entrance and meeting room.

• The importance of physical and date storage facilities and how those requirements related to the needs of our teams, particularly in terms of speedy retrieval.

• Creating a hierarchy without resorting to cellular spaces

• A strategy for break out spaces, back of house facilities, staff facilities, and DDA compliance.

• Working with an M&E consultant to ensure all our IT requirements were met including video conference facilities as well as data/voice cabling.

• Hot desking provision for staff from overseas offices to use whilst in London.

The space studio also introduced us to a furniture company with whom we all worked closely together to ensure all our furniture needs were met and adhered to the Thornton Tomasetti expected space standards. Furthermore, the aesthetics of the design were handled well, balancing the industrial nature of the space, the desire for a “London” feel, and the requirements of the Thornton Tomasetti worldwide brand.

As a client we were not “in place” yet so the space studio ran the project for us from concept to completion. They controlled and monitored all the costs associated with the project and worked with the contractor to ensure that our budget and critical timescale were not exceeded.

Finally, throughout the whole process, the space studio, always communicated very clearly and openly with us, ensuring that everyone felt a great sense of ownership with our new flagship UK office.

We recommend them highly to you.

Thornton Tomasetti UK Headquarters, Farringdon, London