Collaboration is Central to Success

This article originally appeared on Nigel's blog back in July 2013 whilst Brand Opus was still on the drawing board...the end results shown in our project gallery speak for themselves.

Back in October 2011, we were introduced to a small branding agency who were successful, growing rapidly and looking to move into a new office space. Fast forward to summer 2013 and we are closing in on starting construction on what has been a very challenging and unusual project.
It is rare in the commercial fit out market to have projects which run into years and a lot of our work is completed in a few short months, but the journey with Brand Opus at Central Cross has been unusual in many ways. We first looked at some elemental space requirements and mapped those against a number of different studio combinations within the site which used to be TV studios behind Tottenham Court Road. It was a very fragmented floor space and we utilised some 3D modelling techniques to help our clients understand how the spaces linked together, but then came the tricky part. We felt that by making some small but significant changes to the building we could make it work better for our client but also add some drama to the people working or visiting. The big question for us was how would the developer react?
Derwent London are renowned for commissioning fantastic buildings with high quality materials and great attention to detail and we were seriously nervous about seen to be putting our oar in where it might not be wanted! How wrong we were….the developer team including Derwent, ORMS architects and Arup quickly established a design workshop format whereby we could all input ideas and formulate proposals which worked for our client as the end user but also satisfied the developer’s objectives of delivering quality and value.
The nature of the process has alleviated costly modifications later on down the line and reduced fit-out time for our contractor. So far we have re-orientated the main entrance, sliced a large opening in the slab connecting ground and lower ground, added a dramatic sweeping staircase and improved connectivity between studios. The finished space will be a sensational place to work and will be testament to the power of collaboration.