National Grid, London

Solo moving walls with a functional drywipe finish, with acoustic ReSound panels to minimise noise distraction.

Collins Construction completed a fast track fit out for the National Grid ahead of their move into a prime central London location. The project gave the energy company and brand-new London HQ and Creatif was called in to help create a shockingly great workspace.

Positioned prominently in the heart of the capital, One Strand offers its tenants 200,000 sq ft of office space and breath-taking views of Trafalgar Square and central London. In 2016, Collins Construction was tasked with delivering a rapid redevelopment of the fifth floor for the National Grid.

The building’s floor plan includes a dome-shaped room, which in the design was destined to become a breakout area known as ‘The Den’. But with the walls sloping inwards and funnelling sound back into the room, there was a real worry that the room would be more din than den.

Luckily, Collins knew that ReSound, our Class A acoustic panels, was the obvious solution to this conundrum. To stop the room becoming a literal echo chamber, we installed twelve quadrilateral ReSound panels, all of which were wrapped in Kvadrat Steelcut fabric.

Set out at pre-determined spaces along the wall, the panels helped nip reverberation in the bud and allow National Grid’s staff to socialise in a sound-secure space.

Away from ‘The Den’ the floorplan contained four state-of-the-art meeting and teleconferencing rooms, with the rest of the floor space set in an open play layout. Wanting to promote collaborative working across the whole office, Collins again asked for our help.

To achieve this, we worked with the fit out team to create three sets of dual-purpose moving walls, all based on our best-selling Solo system. Each panel featured fabric-wrapped acoustic inserts at the top and bottom, to guard against noise transfer, and a magnetic drywipe board fitted in the middle to provide staff with extra working surfaces – ideal for both formal and informal working environments.

Speaking after the project was successfully handed over on time and within budget, John Hollies, part of National Grid’s management team, described the new London office as one that’s “representative of a top 20 listed company.”

With an eye-catching design that links the London office to company’s other UK premises, contains more than the odd nod to the energy sector, promotes agile working and a considered approach to acoustics, that’s a statement we can certainly agree with!

Products Featured

ReSound
Solo

Project Partners

Collins Construction

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