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Project

JTI

How do you create a workplace that smiles?

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Manchester

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16,000

sqft

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Workplace

Manchester

16,000

sqft

Workplace

Outcomes

Challenge

To deliver a workplace that brings out the best in people, unites teams and evokes a sense of pride. To create a workplace that smiles.

Insight

A true collaboration – together, we worked to create JTI’s powerful vision of an environment that can adapt to how and where people want to work.

Solution

An inspirational space that promotes belonging, connectedness and wellness. Employees have the freedom to work autonomously, which sparks innovation.

People

To deliver a workplace that brings out the best in people, unites teams and evokes a sense of pride. To create a workplace that smiles.

Place

A true collaboration – together, we worked to create JTI’s powerful vision of an environment that can adapt to how and where people want to work.

Planet

An inspirational space that promotes belonging, connectedness and wellness. Employees have the freedom to work autonomously, which sparks innovation.
To deliver a workplace that brings out the best in people, unites teams and evokes a sense of pride. To create a workplace that smiles.
A true collaboration – together, we worked to create JTI’s powerful vision of an environment that can adapt to how and where people want to work.
An inspirational space that promotes belonging, connectedness and wellness. Employees have the freedom to work autonomously, which sparks innovation.
Social space at the JTI Manchester office
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It’s about working together – from consultation and initial concept, to design and build – to create a place that brings out the best in people.

How do you create a workplace that smiles?

Having the freedom to work openly and autonomously sits at the heart of JTI’s enterprising culture. It’s how inspiration strikes, and people work at their best. It’s what sparked their desire for a workplace ‘that smiles at you’.

We worked from a place of trust, respect and understanding to enhance this powerful vision. And by bringing skilled, experienced and passionate people together, we brought it to life. From start to finish, we collaborated on everything from strategy, design and activation through to the final build.

For the transformation to work, the design had to be inspirational as well as functional. It was about creating a place that fills people with pride, even before they walk through the door.

Engaging people turned challenges into incredible solutions

From leadership interviews, extensive team consultations to company-wide showcasing events, we engaged people throughout the entire project. We listened intently, challenged, and enhanced their thinking – which allowed us to solve issues previously experienced in their old space, and transform hesitation into excitement.

Design brought performance and aesthetic together

We gave JTI an office that looks incredible and works hard for every employee. Now, every single one of the 200+ people has a place they love to work, which adapts to their personality, mood, workload and way of working.

The auditorium is a great example of this, changing the way JTI communicates with large audiences, while separate collaboration nooks are ready for team scrums – complete with acoustic privacy, plug & play tech and wipe-down surfaces.

A range of social spaces at the JTI Manchester office
The zen breakout space at the JTI Manchester office

We use a co-creation process, because we know it works

While our process aligned everyone to the same powerful vision, specialists collaborated across disciplines, with visual sightlines allowing for open and continuous communication.

The level of detail in the delivered workplace was thanks to the strength of our own teams – interior designers, planners, SKA sustainability assessors, quantity surveyors, project managers, site managers and 3D visualisers – all working in daily harmony to make JTI’s vision come to life.

Our new workplace has been an all-encompassing cultural change. This whole office is the result of that.

Paulo Lopes, General Manager, JTI Manchester

Pride and belonging at work

We wanted to help JTI deliver a workplace that promotes the sort of openness, autonomy and enterprise that allows people to do their job effectively. 

Today, JTI isn’t just an office. It’s a place built around people’s wellbeing, health and happiness. It’s a workplace that inspires pride and fosters real connections between people and place.

The end result has resulted in JTI achieving a number of awards. But more than that, it’s won the hearts and minds of their people. Our lead designer Jayne Crampton-Walker said, “I knew we accomplished what we set out to achieve when people weren’t just talking about showing their kids where they worked, they were doing it eagerly.”

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