The modern workplace is facing an identity crisis. The era of the sterile, corporate grid office is over, and landlords and corporate leaders are scrambling to create spaces that actually entice teams back to the office. But in the rush to adapt to hybrid working, companies are throwing staggering amounts of capital at the wrong things.
As a founder-led business, our perspective is shaped by two distinct worlds. While Nick Jones ensures our projects are grounded in rigorous construction and operational precision, co-founder Catherine Gwynne spent years leading culture change programmes for major corporate drinks and hospitality brands before retraining in interior design.
This dual perspective has taught us exactly where corporate clients waste money during a design and fit-out project. Here is the founder’s point of view on how to protect your capital and build a progressive workplace that performs.
1. The Fragmentation Friction: Designers vs. Builders
The single greatest source of wasted budget in commercial real estate is the friction between separate design architects and build contractors.
It is a familiar corporate story: a design agency presents a stunning, conceptual layout filled with abstract structures and bespoke features. The board signs off on it. Then, the build contractor arrives on site, looks at the drawings, and realises the HVAC systems can’t support the layout, or the structural columns render the plan impossible.
What follows is an endless cycle of value-engineering, finger-pointing, delayed timelines, and astronomical variation costs. By integrating design and build under a single point of contact, the conversation shifts immediately from abstract drawings to guaranteed outcomes, fixed timelines, and long-term running costs.
2. The “Smoke and Mirrors” Fallacy: Front-of-House vs. Staff Reality
Many corporate briefs allocate the lion’s share of the budget to a cavernous, hyper-polished reception desk and a formal boardroom to impress visiting clients. Meanwhile, the actual spaces where teams spend eight hours a day working, collaborating, and eating are treated as an afterthought—often tucked away next to a grim staff entrance.
This is a complete misallocation of capital. Workplace culture is shaped by the everyday physical experience of your people. If your team’s breakout spaces feel institutional, their morale and productivity will match.
The Insight: Your staff experience dictates your client experience. If your team loves the space they inhabit, that collective energy is felt by everyone who interacts with your business.
3. Over-indexing on Formal Meeting Rooms
Building rows of formal, glass-walled meeting rooms is an incredibly expensive way to waste space. In the hybrid era, these rooms often sit empty or are occupied by a single person on a video call.
When we partnered with Carlsberg to reimagine their UK headquarters, the brief was explicitly focused on moving away from a reliance on formal meeting rooms. Instead, we introduced a flexible, multi-functional environment. By creating distinct, characterful zones—combining long communal tables for collaborative moments, private booths for focused tasks, and integrated acoustic screens—we gave them a space that supports town hall gatherings and quick, informal chats alike.
Similarly, our workplace design for Loaf Head Office focused on a warm, central communal hub where teams can eat together, pause, and co-create. We introduced natural textures, smart tech integration, and a deeply considered, layered lighting strategy to support long working hours across the seasons without inducing corporate fatigue.
Designing for Human Behaviour
People behave differently in spaces that feel considered, warm, and progressive. If you want your workplace to drive collaboration and retention, stop investing in corporate sameness. Look past the decorative trends and invest in integrated, human-centric design that actively supports your culture and protects your bottom line.
