Welcome to our Winter issue.
Though Hunter S Thompson may not have been the first to express the sentiment (and probably possessed a countercultural sense of right and wrong), he at least put it concisely: if a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. Humanscale’s iconic Freedom office chair is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It took Niels Diffrient seven years, and several prototypes, to perfect, but it continues to be an object of desire thanks to its ability to conform to the user’s range of movement rather than asking the sitter to adapt to it.
As designer Cecilie Manz says in her interview: “Doing things the right way means that you create something that is actually sustainable. Because now this table stands strong for decades – it doesn’t bend or crack.” For her, too, taking the time to get the design right is just as important to sustainability as the materials or manufacturing processes we choose. The right way isn’t always the easy way, but it is worth the effort.
Once home to the Civil Aviation Authority, Space House has loomed over the Covent Garden conservation area since the 1960s, and was ripe for a revamp. Squire & Partners stepped in, replacing an unsightly cooling plant on the roof with additional office space and a wraparound terrace, then using channels in the original ceilings for lighting and air conditioning. The building has qualified for BREEAM Outstanding certification and is now, in many ways, ‘better than new’. “It’s interesting to restore a listed building by delivering the essence of what was intended rather than what was actually built,” says partner Tim Gledstone.
Another historic pocket of the city was the focus of British Land’s Norton Folgate office development. Tasked with creating the interiors, Universal Design Studio worked with local artists and craftsmen to breathe warmth, character and life into the workspaces. The bespoke joinery from Benchmark is designed to be easily repaired and reconfigured in future to suit tenants’ needs. “British Land understood the importance of creating spaces that were built to last,” explains Carly Sweeney, director at Universal Design Studio. “They championed decisions underpinned by longevity and sustainability.” Definitely the right thing, we say.
Read the new issue of OnOffice 169, Winter 2024, here
