London law-firm Kingsley Napley, combining their locations into one combined productive workspace

Piloting the scheme in different areas of the firm had revealed at least 21 different types of activities that were taking place, as well as a broad spectrum of personality types and preferences within the team. Space requirements were diverse and Kingsley Napley understood the variety of neighborhoods that would need to be created to fulfill these needs. Working with the design experts, KKS, we provided our Railway Carriage and Portals products to support these different spaces to work in.

Fast forward seven years, and the company opened their new, state-of-the-art location at Bonhill in EC2, an expansive office space fit for a company who were awarded the top law firm in the 2021 Best Companies to Work For Survey, and 13th among all large businesses in the UK! Responsible for the overall design of this new venture and vision of change, were the international architecture and design studio, KKS Savills. Founded on Activity Based Working principles, the office provides different spaces suited to different tasks that make up the working life of the modern law firm. 

The Railway Carriage booths act both as an ideas hub for collaboration as well as a relaxed, focus space for concentration. With the same design aesthetic as the Portals range, they suite in well alongside each other whilst providing for different needs. Portals flexible family of individual protected working spaces connected to the buzz, but with sufficient privacy and space to complete productive work. 

Over against the traditional idea of a 1-on-1 desk ratio, Kingsley Napley employees can now head straight for their new ‘neighborhood’. Usually this means that they will be strategically near others in their department. Using our Palisades II zone divider, this allows for simple, attractive division of space without building walls. A hugely flexible system, Palisades II has been customized to include accessories such as whiteboards, plywood alcoves and planting to support the neighborhoods that the Palisades divide.

Photography Credit: Tim Soar