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In order to deliver an office design that would support Kantar TNS's global growth and improve the quality of their work environment, their new office layout needed to allow for an increased capacity but primarily enhance a positive flow to the workspace where people enjoy coming to work.
The new Kantar TNS office design is an activity-based working environment which is focused on providing their business with a flexible workspace that encourages staff to work how, when and where they want. The office space is designed as a more fluid environment rather than a traditional agile working concept which helps to prevent different parts of the company from becoming disjointed and enables the core values of Kantar TNS to shine through.
By making these changes to their office space, Kantar TNS saved 12,000 sq ft in office space, approximately £468,000 in rent per annum and staff happiness and productivity levels have risen.
The office space has been designed with usability and easy navigation in mind. By opening up such a wide space, we created informal meeting areas so we could promote better communication and opportunities for collaborative work. Through a variety of usable spaces and different work stations, staff are encouraged to use all of the office space.
The office design at Kantar TNS has been designed to merge environments and offer the people in their business an option to work in a way that suits them. This helps to enhance creativity, foster a positive connection between staff and ultimately explore how the people in their company can deliver results. The staff are still able to work at a desk but what this environment does through space planning and intelligent furniture solutions, is enable a transition in working styles.
We developed neighbourhoods for each department which helped bring them together and create recognised areas throughout the office. For example, Finance, HR, and Business Development are all divided into neighbourhoods. In between these more traditional work stations we have used the space to host informal community and collaborative spaces.
Soft seating spaces, coffee bars and even a greenhouse feature as new spaces that allow staff to integrate but also use spaces to work away from their desks.
These more casual spaces in the office space enable staff more freedom to work in their own way. Having the ability to move around the work environment and use different spaces to discuss daily plans, collaborate on projects and work in a new way promotes a forward-thinking mind-set throughout the business.
By moving to activity based working, Kantar TNS reduced their office by 12,000 sq ft and saved £468,000 in rent.
The reception area was previously breaking the flow of the office and the space was being restricted by visual barriers created by solid partitions, meeting rooms and the boardroom. To improve the visual communication and brighten the space with natural light, we removed the solid partitions and replaced the walls with glass partitions to provide a view into the main office space and surrounding meeting rooms. To add to the organic feel of the office and maintain consistency with the pathways through the office, pebble-effect carpet flooring and trees have been installed in reception. By using this design element throughout the space, there is a natural path to follow through the space serving as a wayfinding device to improve navigation through the office.
As you walk through the space, trees have been integrated into the design to serve as wayfinders as they mark the printing points through the space. The integrated biophilic design complements the natural influences in the office and helps to bring the outdoors, in. A concept that reflects the work of Kantar TNS.
Continuing with the natural design elements of the space, we wanted to bring real world environments into the office that wouldn’t usually be found in a workspace. In line with Kantar TNS’s work revolving around providing businesses with insights about their products, we wanted to reflect their business by integrating a selection of mini environments in the office to allow staff to go to their favourite areas and use these spaces as if they were their own.
A focal point of the workspace design was to enable each environment to be workable and used in more than one way. Merging soft seating, snuggle booths and smaller focus booths within the main office space and the locker areas helps to break the bounds of a traditional office and allow for an entirely usable space. A selection of tea points and living room style spaces helps to uplift the space and offer staff a variety of comfortable and inviting areas to collaborate and work in.
The tiered seating in the TNS Plaza is an agile space that serves as a training area and a space to hold talks. Having opened up the office space and moved out of a cellular environment these open spaces help to integrate teams and individuals as well as benefiting the wider business by providing a bright and open shared area.
Diversity was an important element in this theme and each space needed to offer something slightly different. ‘The Greenhouse’ serves as a central hub and a big breakout area for staff that represents the growth and sustainability of the company but importantly it serves as a station for communication and collaboration.
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