Leading property and construction consultancy Ingleton Wood has been announced as a national finalist for a prestigious industry award after designing its new innovative London office to help embrace a culture of agile working and remote working.
The Practice, which has offices across the East of England, been shortlisted at the Mixology20 Awards in the Project of the Year category (Workplace Interiors Category 1 – sub 5,000 sq ft) after unveiling its new forward-thinking London office designed by its own teams in late 2019.
Stuart Norgett, Architect and Partner at Ingleton Wood’s London office, said: “We are ecstatic and honoured to have been shortlisted as a national finalist at the gold-standard Mixology20 Awards. It’s a major stamp of approval for our talented, growing design teams.”
The London office has pioneered new working methods for the practice’s multidisciplinary teams including architects, interior designers, building surveyors, and engineers. It has Concentrate Zones for creative thinking and private calls in enclosed pods and Collaborate Zones for practical project work.
It opened around three months before the coronavirus lockdown was imposed by the Government. Plans are ongoing for its safe reopening in line with public health guidelines.
Stuart Norgett said: “We had a fantastic reaction to our new showcase London office. We were keen to invest in, and make use of, the efficiencies in productivity that can be achieved through truly agile and flexible working practices like home working, as well as economies in floor space and improvements in staff wellbeing. We were achieving all that before Covid-19.
“Like the rest of the country, our teams and clients have been working hard and creatively in difficult circumstances to continue collaboration and progress our exciting projects.
“Fortunately, we were able to hit the ground running from day one of lockdown as we were well versed in flexi-work, using laptops to remote access powerful computers to run heavy software, in addition to video conferences and collaborative Cloud software and tools.
“It was a seamless transition that has resulted in some excellent productivity, although there is appetite to return to our new London home to make safe use of our innovative, creative facilities. We will only return when it is safe to do so, in line with government guidelines.”
Ingleton Wood are experts in providing interiors solutions for hotels, leisure centres, libraries, schools and offices – so it was logical to look in-house when redesigning its London office.
The premises incorporates sustainable materials fused with quality and attention to detail that includes IT planning, colour schemes, lighting, layout space, furniture and fittings.
Mr Norgett added: “Organisations that embrace both flexible and agile working provide staff with a great work/life balance that’s also essential in attracting new diverse talent, increasing staff morale, and improving productivity. Designing spaces that also improve the wellbeing of people will become more important as awareness of this grows post-lockdown.”
The Mixology20 Awards has been delayed until summer 2021 due to the coronavirus lockdown. The ceremony will showcase the best innovative commercial projects from across the UK’s interiors design market and are judged by a panel of industry experts.
To view the finalists visit: www.mixinteriors.com/event/announcing-the-mixology20-finalists
Ingleton Wood is one of the largest multi-disciplinary property, construction and design consultancies covering Central England, East Anglia, London and the South East, with offices in Colchester, Norwich, Cambridge, Billericay, Oxfordshire and London. Its services include architecture, building surveying, building services engineering, planning, interior design, civil and structural engineering, quantity surveying, project management and health and safety.