press
2019
Eden McCallum
‘There is an emphasis on inviting in natural light and the London skyline’
(Material Plus, India)
Nigel Tresise –
The Big Question
‘Why has coworking become the force it is today?'
‘First, technology has finally caught up with agile working aspirations and you can now work pretty much anywhere with decent WiFi. There are more gig economy freelancers and micro-businesses around, looking for decent facilities in good locations, especially those with a cool factor, rather than working in isolation. Finally, ever since the 2008 crash, businesses have been looking to structure their real-estate exposure in a much more flexible way.’
(MIX Interiors)
bubbleHUB
‘Located in one of the city centre’s most eye-catching buildings, this impeccably renovated former pumphouse looks ever so east London – with clientele to match…..Highly Instagrammable…Stunning’
(The Herts Advertiser)
bubbleHUB
‘Workplace specialists align have completed a striking, two-storey, co-working space for new operator bubbleHUB, located within a characterful former pump house building in the centre of St Albans. bubbleHUB co-founders Benn Latham and Harry Dougall briefed align to help create a ‘unique and aspirational’ space, which was to be unlike anything else currently available in the St Albans area.’
(Office Snapshots)
bubbleHUB
‘The scheme we created for this wonderful and historic industrial building is colourful and nature-inspired’, commented align Director and Co-founder Gurvinder Khurana, ‘and the resulting environment, which also responds strongly to the building envelope, is like a mix between a private members’ club and a workspace in feel. The overall atmosphere is relaxed, with a definite home-from-home feel.’
(E-Architect)
bubbleHUB
‘The ground floor design treatment also celebrates the space's existing historic structure. The ceiling beams have been painted out in white, for example, with eye-catching cross-beams in black. The rear of the ceiling features three new insets, walk-on glazed panels, increasing natural light ingress from the upper floor. In a further reference to the building's historic pump house origins, a glass square in front of the Chesterfield sofa reveals the Victorian cobbled foundations below.’
(Dexigner)
GURVINDER KHURANA
on MIUCCIA PRADA
‘One of the most iconic women ever in the world of fashion. She had no formal training, which blows my mind, though she does have a PhD in political science! She combines her unique wit, glamour and cool to create clothes of pure elegance and brings such a sense of fun to all her brands. A true phenomenon.’
(ONE, Design Insider Live)
NIGEL TRESISE
‘I think the age of isolated design is over, and with technology being integrated into everything, we now need to collaborate with a wider spectrum of specialists, coders, and app and UX developers. We are also entering a phase of the technological revolution where the longer-term impact of technology on people is starting to be more fully appreciated.’
(Radical Thinking, FX)
ALIGN
‘We are really proud of our high levels of service and commitment and when you combine that with our technical expertise and our design confidence, you can see why we get to pitch against some of the bigger practices.’
(Premier Construction)
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY
‘A commitment to creating a biophilic environment meant an extensive planting strategy for the space too, creating a natural connection via externally-planted roof terraces, which also improve internal air quality and help mitigate the breakout of sound into the building’s shared atrium space.’
(Archetech)
GURVINDER KHURANA
‘Gurvinder Khurana, Director & Co-Founder, Align Interior Architecture and Design Agency, London, agrees that human beings need a degree of variety, not only different spaces at different scales, but different zones and different intensities of pace; spaces that allow for team-working, solo endeavour and every possible scale of meeting, including the whole company at one go.’
(Workspace special issue, IFJ, India)
GURVINDER KHURANA
‘Not only my desk, but the whole of our office is currently saturated in samples. We’re at the detail design stage of a new co-working space called bubbleHUB, situated within a really interesting former pumphouse in St Alban’s. Our scheme will be colourful and nature-inspired, for what will be a mixture of a private members’ club and a workspace, as well as reacting strongly to the building envelope.’
(Design Insider Live)
NIGEL TRESISE
‘We’re always on the look-out for environmental and sustainable materials for projects. In my search for alternatives to European-manufactured solid surfaces, I’ve ended up going back to my Cornwall roots! The talented guys at Mark Furniture in Penryn have started working with Cornish Concrete Products, integrating locally-produced, pre-cast concrete for table tops. The really green bit though is that the concrete’s made from waste products from local china clay mines, so they’re environmentally-friendly as well as beautiful.’
(Ask the Designer column, Interior Design Today)
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP
‘When it came to designing the workspaces themselves, we knew that our client has a strong collaborative relationship with its staff and engages in a number of programmes promoting health, wellbeing and balance within the workplace," Gurvinder Khurana explained. "This project therefore represents the continued evolution of the Group's people-centred working environments, which support the development of agile, activity-based working practices.”
(Dexigner)
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP
‘For its second project for an Australian financial services group, Align was briefed to design 13,745 sq ft of new working, meeting, presentation and break-out space across 1.5 storeys of its client’s City of London offices to meet a period of sustained growth and house three company divisions, totalling 150-170 people. The brief was to include integrated, but differentiated, zones that worked within the existing building and encompassed requirements for biophilia, agile working and staff wellbeing.’
(Design Insider Live)
2018
GURVINDER KHURANA
‘Name your favourite co-worker?’
‘I’ve worked with Nigel Tresise for 17 years, run a company together for 13 and been married to him for 16. He’s a born teacher who’s given me more support than anyone I’ve ever worked with, specially in our earliest days, when he mentored me on technical knowledge, adding greatly to my design-and-build and then consultancy experience. These days, thanks to him, I hold my own right across the board!’
(MIX Interiors)
FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP
‘Our friends at align have created a financial services workplace with a ‘unique 18th century visual twist.’
(MIX Interiors)
OMEARA
‘Designers align have worked with client Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons on Omeara, an exciting new 350-capacity live music venue, bar and performance space in Flat Iron Square in London’s Borough.’
(BOOK – The Art of Bar Design)
SPARK44 – GOLD Winner
‘A dynamic, highly-functional and client-sensitive workspace project for global creative agency Spark44, located over two storeys of The White Collar Factory, a major new office and retail campus on Old Street Roundabout, described by developers Derwent London as ‘one of our most ambitious projects to date’.
(London Design Awards 2018)
NIGEL TRESISE
‘Just as open-plan offices have become subtler over time, with ranges of zones and neighbourhoods allowing for different moods and the concentrations of teams into single areas, will agile working have to take into account those made uncomfortable by the idea of moving according to mission?’
(Agile Working – Work in Mind)
spark44
‘The success of the project is in its use. The Spark44 team, along with Jaguar Land Rover, has adapted to the new office space in a way that seems totally natural.’
(FX)
GURVINDER KHURANA
‘We’re constantly available to the world via our phones, but at the same time, the world is also available to us.’
(Ask the Designer column, Interior Design Today)
OFFICES FOR FINANCIAL SERViCES COMPANY
‘A striking, elegant and highly-contemporary workspace scheme for a financial services company client, with a unique 18th century visual twist’
(Architonic)
NIGEL TRESISE
‘There is now a raft of products around with nano-technology coatings on the outside to control the impact of natural light and also mitigate solar gain. For a long period of time, you used to see offices with tinted grey or blue windows to achieve this, but technology has moved on and coatings are now available without the same impact on light transmission or leading to the same level of colour distortion.’
(Expert opinion on office glare, Croner-i)
OFFICES FOR FINANCIAL SERViCES COMPANY
‘The new space plan devised by align for the scheme takes the form of a single and continuous arrangement, with clear through-views from one end of the space to the other, creating linear connectivity for all staff’
(Dexigner)
NIGEL TRESISE
‘Savour challenges and opportunities as they present themselves and be open to letting your career take you in unexpected directions. It’s a time of discovery. Much better to try something and not like it than to wonder later ‘what if?’
(Advice to Graduates, BCFA’s DESIGN INSIDER LIVE)
Gurvinder Khurana
‘All design evokes some kind of emotion – even bad design. A poorly-designed space can make people bored, irritated, claustrophobic or depressed, so it’s very important for designers to be aware of emotional stimuli. Once, product, retail and hospitality design did this more than workspace, because emotional reactions were deemed a selling tool in these areas, but workspace design has come a long way since in comprehending how the experience of being in or moving through space is as emotional as it is functional.’
(Emotional Design - BCFA’s Design Insider Live)
SPARK44
‘One of the things that works really well here is that, no matter where you are in the office, there is always activity. There is always energy here. Again, while a lot of companies have the luxury of having a great big town hall – that’s only ever a town hall – we can move things around here, so every space is multi-use. All of this gets used all day, every day. None of it is wasted.’
(Client Damien Jones in MIX Interiors)
NIGEL TRESISE
‘‘What are the biggest misconceptions you face as an interior designer?’
‘I’m sure a lot of designers will say that as a profession we’ve been devalued by the whole ‘Changing Rooms’ quick-fix idea that all we do is paint the walls and throw in a few cushions! At align, we specifically use the term ‘interior architecture’ to underline our spatial skills and ensure the spaces work for our clients on three levels: functionally, emotionally and aesthetically. We deal with the architecture of the spaces first. Yes, decoration and styling are important, but they’re very much the final element of the process.’
(Nigel Tresise, Hotel Designs)
GURVINDER KHURANA
'How to use sign and print to make a workspace your own’
‘Creating an inspiring workspace is all about making sure people stay happy. After all, happy people are profitable people. Digital print advances mean transforming an office space is far more cost effective than it used to be. There is a huge spectrum of graphics and signage available which, when used creatively, help people feel a part of the brand and take ownership of their role within the business.’
(Gurvinder Khurana, Sign & Digital UK)
NIGEL TRESISE
'What is a must-have in your office/studio as a designer?’
‘We have a central work platform that we all collaborate around and a massive wall decorated with Ideas Paint so we can brainstorm and map out ideas and tasks easily’
(Ask the Designer’ column, Interior Design Today)
