Big congratulations to Home who have beaten off stiff competition from the likes of Boden and The Department Store to win Design Week’s Workplace Interior Award 2019.
Their new Bristol studio space was the vision of MD, Martin Knight, Founder, Carol Whitworth and Partner Tony Broad, who wanted to help develop Home as a business and be the very best they can be. They spent a year trying to find the perfect premises – and finally hit on the right place (when you know, you know) – essentially a big tin box and complete blank canvas. Perfect. Somewhere to create something special to bolster company culture and generate amazing work.
The studio encourages collaboration through being purely open plan– something that was important in the design from the beginning. It’s a huge space, open, light and airy by day, and at night a false ceiling created by the drop lights brings a sense of intimacy and warmth – both Homie traits. The meeting rooms are all open or visible, fostering even more transparency. Nine collaborative spaces feature and are well used – from the fluoro shipping containers offering up break out booths to a large board style meeting room.
The upstairs of the warehouse was created from scratch, bar one large room. The ‘Crow’s Nest’ offers a snug brainstorming area, then conferencing and projector rooms are created for client calls and agency meetings. The largest of the upstairs spaces, the professional and flexible events room, was created to align with their strategy of bringing the outside in, and giving something back to the design community and beyond. Something that was made the most of recently when they took part in Social Media Week. Home also offer the space pro bono for good causes.
Martin totally understood the business requirements, and food is key – it’s part of the culture and soul of Home. The large open kitchen and dining area gives space to cook and share. The huge roller shutter brings both light and air in the summer and opens the space to the back of the building where they can relax, work and of course BBQ. All areas in the studio have versatility which is massively important – for their Christmas party an Adele cover band took over the library area, and the moveable partition was pushed to the side, offering a ready-made dance floor. Plenty of space to work hard and party harder.
The warehouse is just off the St Phillips Causeway, but how it feels to work here is the extra special piece that is so hard to grasp in interior design and architecture. The building reflects Home as an agency – zigging when everyone else is zagging, colourful, vivacious, creative, and independent. The feeling they want to give their clients and collaborators when they walk through the doors is a sense of surprise, joy and excitement and that is certainly felt when you walk in to the unassuming space.
Martin says “I, along with all the Homies, am delighted to have won such a prestigious award for our new Home. It was literally a tin box before we got our hands on it and if I’m honest a bit of a leap of faith. That said, we were clear with what we wanted to achieve and how we wanted to work together, we just had to deliver against that vision. The building has allowed us to achieve new things and grow. We work better, are more efficient, happier and more engaged. The win is just the icing on the cake, we couldn’t be happier!”
Now the word is out, when are you coming Home?
PointZeroGroup is a collective of creative communications and employee experience specialists. Our mission is to help our clients become more accessible and inclusive through cultural literacy.
