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Challenge
People
This workspace breaks down departmental silos, promoting a unified "one-team" culture.
Insight
Place
The project respected the building's existing architecture, ensuring that the new design worked sympathetically with the existing floor space rather than completely overhauling it.
Solution
Planet
Reduced annual CO2 emissions contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly operation.
This workspace breaks down departmental silos, promoting a unified "one-team" culture.
The project respected the building's existing architecture, ensuring that the new design worked sympathetically with the existing floor space rather than completely overhauling it.
Reduced annual CO2 emissions contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly operation.
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A fast-track fit-out for a one-team future.
Siemens is one of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient and resource-saving technologies. They are a global powerhouse that focuses on successful solutions in electrification, automation and digitalisation.
They required a space that could align with their corporate goals, through a drive for modernisation, to encourage better team working. Historically, silos had been created within individual teams due to the complex structure of their internal departments. Our design would represent an opportunity to reverse this process and build the foundations of a fully collaborative environment.
Importantly, it was also their first company premises in the North to be designed and adapted during the pandemic. This raised essential questions for us all to consider regarding what the working landscape will eventually look like for Siemens as a whole.
Identify. Listen. Create.
Our primary task was to identify, and listen to, key stakeholders within Siemens to create project goals to satisfy all. Senior management, departmental leads, technical experts and an established real estate team all had to be consulted and considered through executive briefing sessions.
Navigating through these streams of input, opinion, knowledge and experience, whilst integrating our own consultancy and design methods, was a unique challenge. However, the result was a comprehensive understanding and mapping of their organisation that we could then implement to inform the design.
Bringing the outside impact in
The architecture is striking. There is an undeniable impact at street level that gives the building a remarkable status within the environment around it. We wanted to establish ways that would deliver that same impact for the holistic interior of a modern workplace.
The design needed to work sympathetically with the existing floor space. Rather than completely overhaul a floor of 15,000 sq. ft., we were able to research what had gone before and augment it with a fresh approach – starting with understanding how their people intended to use the space and then developing a menu of spaces and settings.
Our shared passion for the building meant that, in partnership, we workshopped the project. Including geometric distortions through the space allowed us to create a combination of avenues, neighbourhoods and compact zones for a variety of work activities in a relatively small space.
A breaking wave of positivity
Engagement to delivery on this project was a little under 10 months, from January to October 2021. The continually changing restrictions and work patterns during this period only serve to make this an even more impressive feat.
As with any work environment, it’s the people that ultimately dictate its success, and initial feedback from the returning workforce has been overwhelmingly positive. We have created a welcoming, flexible and adaptable environment that looks set to meet the challenges of a modern workplace with enhanced collaboration amongst multiple departments.
It’s also clear that the challenges we faced and overcame with the client means we are now armed with more specific experience to apply for them in their future plans. They now have a workplace theory and showcase that illustrates exactly what is possible for all their spaces.
The fast-track nature of this project also highlights what can be achieved in a short space of time, all of which augurs well for their continued evolution and transformation as an innovative company that attracts and retains the very best talent.
Starting new conversations
The success of this project has already led to ideas about how it can be applied elsewhere. Discussions have begun on what it would mean for the rest of the building to follow the overarching goal of a clear one-team approach.
Our established framework for a new workplace strategy for Siemens that incorporates a full understanding of the organisational structure, a focus on greater collaboration and removing operational silos gives us a wonderful blueprint to develop from.
Working from this foundation means that our partnership will be encouraged to move efficiently, successfully and quickly.
Pulling on their previous successes, TSK were able to rapidly understand our past workplace environment challenges and, as a result, support us with designing and creating the environment that today allows our teams to thrive in various ways – collaboratively, hybrid/virtually and also privately.
Martin Kemp, Location Manager, Siemens
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