Government Department

project	Office furniture for main reception building within a secure campus site	timescale	6 months from consultation to occupation
location	Surrey	staff numbers	380 staff
contract value		area	53,000 sq ft
features	Herman Miller open plan office furniture with bespoke joinery and Vitra breakout furniture. BREEAM 'Excellent' award	averages	139 sq ft per person £19 per sq ft (furniture only)

The brief

Office furniture for the refurbished Facility Reception building on a Government Agency campus site. BREEAM 'Excellent' award for the building as a whole, with a significant contribution from the furniture element.

How we met the challenge

Broad occupation plans produced by the overall project interior architect, Architon Associates, were developed by iorgroup in partnership with Client and architect to produce a fully detailed office furniture design scheme.

Using Herman Miller Abak workstations and Mirra task chairs, the OGC based procurement contract also included bespoke furniture designed entirely to the Clients needs, support products from Vitra and other well-known manufacturers, all managed by iorgroup in conjunction with a construction program that presented a challenging installation window.

The bespoke office furniture included a library and study area that was adjacent to the open reception and visitor meeting rooms. In order to control the acoustic problems inherent in a large open space within an atrium using hard surfaces, specially developed sound absorbent cladding was applied to the storage and library furniture.

Several internal meeting rooms also operate as flexible spaces for events such as conferences, and folding tables with full cable-management access have been used to support the day-to-day changes in use.

The BREEAM 'Excellent' award required us to compile a report on the origins of the furniture and materials, the environmental performance of the manufacturers and the carbon footprint of the furniture scheme as a whole.