John Robertson Architects completes fitout of Helix HQ, within historic warehouse in Covent Garden Conservation Area.
JRA designed the CAT A and B fit out of Helix Property Management’s new headquarters. The team worked closely with the client to reflect their company culture and incorporate aspects of the wider heritage site, Grainhouse, in which it is set. Using careful space planning, the team created a new entrance, reception and lobby, workspace for Helix’s 70 strong team, plus meeting rooms and amenities for staff, including a kitchenette and breakout area.
Grainhouse was a former seed merchants’ warehouse located on Arne Street and Dryden Street in the Covent Garden Conservation Area. It is comprised of a newly unified five building complex that provides offices, retail and restaurants.
Helix HQ occupies the ground and lower ground floor of the development at the corner of Arne Street and Shelton Street.
The aesthetic is centred on a palette of neutral colours and clean lines to create a sophisticated hospitality feel.
The team reused a large proportion of Helix’s existing furniture, reinvigorating it through additions and placement in the new space. The designs offer coherence with the headquarters of Helix’s parent company, Hines, who are located on the upper floors.
History - Seed Merchants
Grainhouse has a long and rich history. The first record of the site dates from 1861 for a church and foundry showroom, and it was later established as a seed merchants’ warehouse from which the building takes its name. The buildings are set in the Covent Garden Conservation Area and feature a striking warehouse aesthetic with prominent crittall windows, London brickwork and a large loading bay. The five buildings had been intended for redevelopment for over ten years before being turned into a unified complex providing office space, retail and restaurants, which retains the original heritage features.
The ground and lower ground were the final levels for renovation and were leased by Hines, whose headquarters are housed in the upper levels, for their subsidiary, Helix Property Management.
Legacy Conditions
The historic legacy as a grain house required careful design to maximise the building’s unusual ceiling heights. This challenge was combined with prior renovations to the upper levels that left a legacy of ‘existing conditions’ at ground and lower ground, such as pipe work and services for the higher floors, throughout the space.
Interventions
JRA’s interventions adapted to the building and its existing conditions. For example, incorporating a new interconnecting staircase that paid tribute to the original loading bay, which had once allowed horse-drawn carriages to offload sacks and crates of seed at the half landing.
The design for the balustrade provides coherence with features of the upper floors occupied by the parent company and echo the space’s former purpose via ‘grain’ shaped cutouts. The floor heights were negotiated through a semi-exposed ceiling design, and the spaces were softened through the material palette and acoustic additions.
JRA also incorporated new meeting rooms in the basement, using leftover plant space in the main building, which allowed all the workspaces on the ground floor to benefit from natural light. By working with the building’s existing conditions, we were able to create purpose-built spaces to accommodate the key requirements of Helix’s working patterns.
Strategic Planning
Helix HQ is the smallest fit out in JRA’s portfolio but commanded just as much attention from the team. Strategic space planning allowed for a distinctive reception and lobby, workspace for 70 staff, extensive locker space, three meeting rooms, a kitchenette and breakout area and a WC at each level.
Sophisticated Aesthetic
Helix HQ is influenced by hospitality style spaces, with a sophisticated aesthetic of clean lines and neutral colours. The designs have been softened using timber and natural planting throughout.
At ground level, JRA focused on maximising a feeling of light and space in the work zones. This was differentiated at lower ground level, which is distinctively warmer. The team specified every aspect of the fit out down to sockets and waste traps to ensure a consistency across the design.
Soft Landings
JRA worked closely with the client throughout, providing precedents and CGIs to convey their vision and collaboratively refine the designs to reflect the company’s culture.
The team continues to work with the client as they settle into the space, taking a soft landings approach to the fit out which allows for adaptations and adjustments as needed. The approach speaks to the interior team’s ethos of maintaining strong relationships with clients and continually reflecting on each project to devise actionable ‘lessons learned.’
Sustainability
Sustainable features of the project include the extensive reuse of furniture from the client’s previous office, including all desk chairs and artwork.
The team introduced complementary pieces and reinvigorated existing items through placement in the new space. There is also a range of biophilia across the office, which are serviced to keep all planting in optimum health.
Key features of JRA’s design include:
• Two new staircases which serve to link floors at irregular heights, and to provide maximum flexibility for occupiers. Reflecting the external Crittall windows, these new staircases use iron railings whilst the design for the balustrade echoes the space’s historic use in ‘grain-shaped’ cutouts
• A large kitchenette space, with associated soft furnishings, which aims to provide a break-out hospitality area for staff
• Isolation pods, increasingly requested by employees who have become used to the amenities of remote working
• Extensive urban greening elements, introducing sensitive planting into the wider, industrial-themed context
Reflecting Helix’s wider ESG aspirations, Grainhouse has been designed to achieve BREEAM Excellent, WELL Platinum Certification, and WiredScore, and is targeting Net Zero in its operations. In line with these aspirations, JRA’s design aim was to reduce wastage as well as reusing a significant proportion of Helix’s existing furniture, including the retention of all desk chairs and artwork.
Angela St Clair-Ford, Director of JRA’s Edinburgh Studio, says:
“We’re proud to have delivered one of the final touches in the regeneration of the Grainhouse Unit E. A legacy commercial asset, located in a challenging and protected built environment, our work with Helix on this project is a great example of what JRA does best. It’s been great to work with a client that is acting as the custodian of this heritage building, and we were delighted that they have chosen our space as their home for the next 10 years.
We believe that our design has transformed a structurally challenging, multi-level, space into best-in-class working environment. Taking into account Helix’s office ethos and use requirements, we’re embedded a softer, hospitality-like approach into our design, which is consciously juxtaposed with the building’s industrial heritage.”
Rick Slater, Head of Property Management at Helix, comments:
“We were absolutely delighted to hear that the ‘dream team’ of JRA, Keyshel Interiors, and HartDixon were working together on this project. Having now had time to reflect on the fitout, I realise what an amazing office JRA has created for us. I can’t thank you enough for your inspiration in terms of design and quality, we are really pleased with what’s been achieved, and we are proud of being able to share this with our Hines colleagues and clients”
Team:
Architect: John Robertson Architects (JRA)
Building Manager: Helix a Hines Company
Project Manager: Hart Dixon
Photography: Marcus Peel
Principal Contractor: Keyshel Interiors
M&E Consultant / Sustainability Consultant: Innovo Engineering & Consultancy
Quantity Surveyor: Quantem
Acoustic Consultant: Hann Tucker
CDM / Principal Designer Advisor: Orbit Architects
Principal Designer: CHPK
Building Control Specialist: Salus
Material Used:
1. Flooring: Interface Carpet, Domus Tiles, Solus Tiles, Boen Flooring
2. Joinery: Keyshel & Howdens
3. Ceilings: Kvadrat & SAS
4. Fabrics: Kvadrat, Camira, Edmund Bell
5. Acoustic: Devorm, Troldekt
6. Furniture: Day 2
7. Lighting: Skandium, Haute Living, Muuto, Mullan Lighting, Luceplan
