Workplace
Simon-Kucher & Partners
Challenging global strategy consultancy traditions for Simon-Kucher & Partners
1 Floor
17 Weeks Programme
20,000 Sq Ft
The Challenge
To create a dynamic and welcoming London HQ with a clear reverence for the brand alongside a distinct regional character for a global strategy consultancy.
The Solution
Working with the architectural forms of the space and brand colours to delineate between areas, we used carefully selected materials and flowing lines to create different zones.
The Result
A space that reflects the firm’s established expertise with a fresh take on what to expect, offering warmth and appeal for both staff and clients.
Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global strategy consulting firm with offices in 30 countries and headquartered in Germany.
Despite its established presence in the international market, they have a fresh and contemporary outlook. Therefore, when it came to their London office, they wanted to combine that sense of professionalism and dynamism with a homely, welcoming, and inviting workplace experience that challenged the traditional expectations of a consultancy.
As the company is a global organisation, it was also important to them that the office had a clear London identity, distinct from its other locations, whilst still adhering to the brand’s collective values.
London Centric Style
The space that they had chosen close to Farringdon, has an innate architectural style that reflects the bustling nature of this historic quarter of London. Known for proximity to The City, Barbican and Clerkenwell, the building is ideal for capitalising on the hallmarks of London life in aesthetic details such as exposed brickwork and industrial finishes.
An Instant Impression
We set about establishing an impression from the moment you step through the door, where employees and visitors are met by a reception in front of a wall fitted with London Weathered Yellow Bricks Slips. The desk has curved edges – a sign of an aesthetic that runs throughout, is given added detail due to brushed bronze tiles and is flanked by a floor-to-ceiling glass terrarium encasing plant life for a sense of wellbeing.
A Communal Hub
Inside the office itself, we worked with a largely open plan floor plate that orbits a central hub and framed by fitted elements along the perimeter of the space. A semi-open breakout area is at the heart of everything, designed to bring everyone together as a community with a variety of different spaces to socialise, collaborate, gather, eat and work, depending on the task at hand.
Here, a large kitchen lines one wall with a long bar in front, complete with high stools. This is followed by a communal table with benches for dining, having coffee and informal chats, while a bank of soft seating complete with a library wall and built-in planters frames the opposite side. Together this creates a sense of togetherness without being closed off from the rest of the office.
A Reverence for Detail
A clear aesthetic runs through the entire office, fusing distinct brand colours in ruby red and cool blue, offset by fresh white walls. These brand colours are noted in details across the space, right down to the red painted wires on suspended ceiling lights. Once again, the brushed bronze tiles bring a sense of sophistication, while timber details add an earthy warmth. We also created custom graphics in the form of sketches of London buildings and landscapes close by. These were used to add character and to cover hidden doors leading to the goods lift, creating a seamless look and feel.
Sensory Appeal
On extremely high exposed ceilings and services, we featured the brand blue, while vast suspended acoustic panels in curved shapes add a softness to the sound and dramatic architectural lines. This also enabled us to add uplighting to give a calm, sensory glow to the otherwise bold ceiling hue. The curves in the acoustic panels are also reflected in inlaid flooring, which delineates one part of the office and the next, creating a natural flow.
Moveable Workspaces
While the breakout space prioritises the brand blue, the open plan workspace brings Simon-Kucher’s ruby red to the fore in a smaller tea point and on feature walls. Again, the space is open plan, but privacy has been created through moveable features including plenty of plant life and modular furniture, providing flexibility to the space.
The New Age of Consultancy
Within this dramatically architectural building, the bold use of colour and a strategic but simple use of flowing lines has resulted in a fresh, brand-driven space that offers the pragmatism as well as fostering a sense of community. Giving people the opportunity to move around, sit, work, collaborate and communicate in different areas throughout the day, it’s at once unmistakably professional whilst giving a fresh take on what it means to be an established consultancy firm.