Workplace
Planet Payments
A financial services workplace fit for the modern world
1 Floor
16 Week Programme
17,000 Sq Ft
The Challenge
Planet sought to create a unique workplace that attracted their employees back to the office and encouraged collaboration and community.
The Solution
To treat the space like a private members club vibe, borrowing elements from boutique hotels to create a comfortable and collaborative space.
The Result
A playground for creative opportunity and professional connectivity, Planet’s new office are multi-functional, sophisticated and unlike any other.
Post pandemic, the financial services company, Planet, who specialise in commerce technologies across the retail and hospitality sectors, wanted to create a London working environment fit for the modern age.
Their goal was to develop a space that didn’t feel like coming to work, with a member’s club feel and areas that replicated the comforts of home but with a unique destination style. In short, they wanted it to be a place people chose to come to whilst being like nothing anyone had seen before.
Maris pitched for the job, and in the words of Planet’s Chief Transformation Officer, Gareth Williams: “I was clear from the start about what I didn’t want, and it was Chief Design Officer, Colin, who’s disruptive thinking, innovation and boundary pushing – making us step back and think differently about the world of work – won us over.”
An office where people want to be
The concept was to create a series of zones, similar to a playground, so people could come to the office and work the way they wanted to, whilst at the same time providing a welcoming and professional client experience from the moment someone stepped through the door.
The design featured a bar-style reception, an elegant yet super flexible dining area that could also be used for presentations, open plan desk space for a variety of collaborative and focused working, small meeting rooms for private calls, one-to-one conversations or quiet working, and executive suites.
The idea was not to tell people they needed to work in the office all the time, but to create an environment ripe for when they do attend the office. A financial services office design to cater for meeting people, generating concepts, communicating, exchanging ideas and co-creating presentations. They could then take that experience and drop down on an available desk or, as it suited, move the idea forward in an out-of-office setting.
A playground for workplace opportunity
The style of the space was very much in response to the company listening to their people and what they wanted from the working environment.
As a tech company they wanted to act on their forward-thinking mindset, but they didn’t want to wear it on their sleeve, so to speak. Rather than creating and aesthetic typical of a tech organisation, they wanted technology to speak through its functionality. Therefore, alongside plush, sophisticated, comfortable furnishings, textures and colour palette, we carefully considered details such as the ambient lighting levels and seamlessly operating digital screens.