Aros

Immediate Media moved into an underperforming 1960’s building in Hammersmith, from their former base in White City. Immediate’s new workplace involved the Cat A and Cat B office retrofit of this 53,000sqft space, and was required on an extremely tight timeline, completing with just seven months on site, under a D&B contract.

The upper floors of the facility needed to be designed to hold 615 staff and 580 desks in new offices, with further facilities on the ground and basement levels, including open auditorium seating within a double height void.

The new workplace was to convey the image of the company as a breeding ground for cutting-edge cross-platform ideas. The design needed to allow for greater expansion across the floorplates and also focuses attention and the bulk of use to the ground floor, with 55000 sqft of 14m wide column-free spaces.

The ground floor and basement was given over to creative, communal ‘forum’ space where employees can meet, collaborate and find inspiration. A bright hall-like space features in the heart of the scheme, where three distinct spaces were created out of two. A 21x14m hole was cut into the ground floor slab, to allow the boardroom to be dropped by 900mm and the introduction of a meeting room for 26 people, housed in an enclosed pod. A further ‘snug’ room on top of the central space offers an additional seating area, overlooking the activity at ground level.

Cross laminated timber was used for the boardroom and boardroom stair, the latter of which doubles as an informal seating area for music concerts or other events. The space is lined in Wrongwoods’ striking woodblock-style prints to add interest and vibrant flashes of colour to the space. There is a bar area beneath the boardroom, which can also be separated out into events area. The effect is to create a highly flexible, informal and lively space for collaboration and innovation, which also functions as the social heart of the scheme. There are also a number of non-bookable break out booths – creating further opportunities for impromptu and informal meetings and collaboration.

Immediate Media’s new workplace was in effect, a three-dimensional design puzzle, the result of which has helped to improve staff retention and attraction, as well as offering a number of worksettings. Exposed services feature throughout the scheme, and elements of the fit out made off site, to fit within the short seven-month construction cycle.