Design consultancy Arcadis has announced the opening of its new office in the City of London next week. National interior design consultancy, Office Principles, has delivered the new offices. 

The pandemic has given organisations the opportunity to take stock of their existing working environments and consider whether they are really fit for purpose or reflective of their culture. With many workers now favouring a hybrid working model, where they spend less time in centralised locations and more time working from home, the office is no longer going to be about sitting in rows or clusters with colleagues, it’s about delivering a destination and an experience.

Following a series of surveys, Arcadis recently found that 70% of its people would like to visit the office between one to three days per week after the pandemic. Of that, 40% said a desire to socialise and be part of a work community was behind their wish to return.

In order to accommodate these demands, Arcadis has opted to launch a new 40,800 square foot office in the City of London. The new workplace incorporates a range of social and wellbeing areas to enable people to work as flexibly as possible and make choices that satisfy personal and work commitments. Aspects include a series of agile and collaborative working spaces, with open plan desks and private rooms, project areas, touchdown areas, call rooms and informal meeting areas.

“80Fen isn’t just a one-time fit-out, it’s a step change in how we use and curate space,” said Mark Cowlard, CEO of Arcadis. “Over the last 12 months, we have been helping our clients chart a path to recovery, and are now practising what we preach through a flexible, inclusive, sustainable, and digitally-enabled new London base. We firmly believe that we still need offices and office space, but it must be a different type of space that reflects the changing nature of the work-day and our workforce.”

Spread across two floors in a development on London’s Fenchurch Street, Arcadis expects the project at 80Fen to provide a blueprint for its 40 UK and worldwide offices, where it employs some 27,000 people. UK-based interior design consultancy Office Principles has completed work on the locale, allowing for Arcadis to move staff in from June 14th.

Office Principles’ design has been informed by the principles of both Fitwel Certification and the WELL Building Standard, reflecting best practice in sustainable design and the health and wellbeing of occupants. As such, employees will benefit from touch-free desk booking systems and the ability to control individual temperature and light settings in enclosed spaces, while the hub boasts more than 20 different types of workspace available in an ‘activity-based’ environment.

Tina Batham, Joint Managing Director, Office Principles North, said, “Our design for Arcadis at 80Fen was informed by a huge amount of workplace data, which shaped the delivery of a sustainable and inclusive workplace, and embodies the firm’s people focused culture. It’s an environment that will bring people together to innovate, collaborate and socialise, giving employees autonomy to manage where they work, in a way that best suits their needs.”