Words By Tony Rock
Images by SG Photography
PROJECT INFO
Client Overbury
Designer SpaceInvader www.spaceinvaderdesign.co.uk
Size 6,867ft2
Completion December 2024
SpaceInvader has designed the new Manchester offices for Overbury, a UK-wide fitout and refurbishment specialist delivering projects in the office, higher education, and science and research sectors.
Overbury’s previous Manchester offices are not far away from the new site, having occupied 4,200ft2 in the Zenith building in Spring Gardens. The company wanted to stay in the area, but also wanted to have more room following a period of growth, so chose to relocate to a 6,867ft2 space in Chancery Place on Brown Street, in the heart of the city’s old financial district.
Responding to Overbury’s business values, the concept for the new office is based on the idea of connection, namely: connecting to Manchester and reflecting its culture and identity; connecting through a culture of collaboration; connecting to nature, relating to sustainable design, a feeling of serenity and the promotion of staff well-being; and connecting using contrast through layers, textures and structures that would bind the scheme together, with dark and light tones adding drama and interest as the user journeys through the various pockets of activity in the space.
The strongest embodiment of the latter theme can be seen on entry to the offices that are located on the 13th floor, where the welcome area ceiling has been designed with a dark-sprayed, cut-out area in the shape of Overbury’s brand identity, a nautilus shell, the spiralling lines of which are designed in solid metal, inset with lights and acoustic baffles. At its centre is a circle in a metallic finish, from the Homapal by Formica collection.
There’s no traditional reception desk, but rather an informal arrangement, with a bespoke table where the admin team can work and greet people on entry, before accompanying them to a coffee bar area to offer drinks. The long, curved ‘kidney bean’ reception desk is a purpose-designed joinery item, and its shape is reflected both in the carpet below and a further ceiling cut-out above, repeating the darksprayed ceiling treatment of the dominant nautilus shell feature. The ceiling space houses two curving light pendants – the Tense Pendant Light from New Works. The lighting provides drama and sets the scene for a space brimming with organic curves and rounded edges.
The curved, organic-shaped drinks station is monolithic in form and features a sandblasted solid surface finish in Corian, plus timber laminate doors with inset grab handles. A timber display area sits behind the coffee bar and a booth seating area sits immediately to one side, within a curved-wall inset space. The seating here is upholstered in faded-blue Kvadrat fabric and is bordered by a joinery planter, offering users a semi-private setting.
A more classical lounge seating area is located opposite, in front of curving, banquette benches and planting, set around a structural column. The column has a table built around it for drinks and also features a halo of vertical lighting rods at its top. Three phone booth spaces complete the zones, so that visitors can also make calls should they need to. Flooring features a circulation route intimated by concrete-finish Amtico flooring, with Havwoods timber hardwood flooring to either side.
Beyond this space, users can either move into the main body of the office or enter the boardroom and adjoining design studio.
The timber-floored boardroom houses a 12-person curved table, together with Modus Balance chairs, upholstered in a muted terracotta, while the shape of the dark-sprayed, overhead ceiling cut-out is reflected by the carpet below. A rounded lighting lozenge is a Tekiò Circular by Santa &Cole, while one wall has an inset acoustic panel in a deep red, featuring deconstructed nautilus-shell patterns.
Glass sliding doors open into the adjacent design studio, which features timber flooring and paler timber bespoke joinery shelving, along with a central work/display table and drawer unit. The shelving around the edge of the space houses materials and fabrics, so that the design team can create displays on the central island for client meetings/presentations when required. Spotlights are inset around the perimeter, with two A Tube by Lodes pendant lights directly above the table. Further sliding glass doors connect the studio to the touchdown space beyond, which is also accessible from the welcome area.
‘When it came to space planning, the move allowed for a shift in terms of working culture, with a variety of settings possible thanks to the additional space available,’ says James Lait, SpaceInvader senior interior designer on the project. ‘This included a touchdown area, where team members, so often out on site, can drop into at a moment’s notice to catch up on admin and meetings. We made sure too there were lots of booth areas and nooks where people could take calls, as well as rooms for multiple people to be part of online meetings.’
Four long workstation desks housing 30 staff, which acts as the main working area, follows on from the touchdown space. The two stand-out features in this area are the metallicfinish curved bases to the joinery – also from the Homapal by Formica collection – that wraps round the end of each workstation, and the bespoke overhead lighting and acoustic panel fittings. Integrating the metallic element was inspired by the pearlescent interior of a nautilus shell, while the bespoke acoustic ceiling fittings were developed through a collaborative process of mock-ups and prototyping with Autex Acoustics to ensure both functional and aesthetic targets were hit. The collaboration resulted in a series of a soft teardrop shapes at the end of each individual baffle, mounted onto a raft with a single-rod lighting spine down each centre.
Beyond this main office space is a kitchen, followed by a social hub area, including a ‘Town Hall’ space with high-bar seating, a curved banquette/sofa and round café-style tables. Curved counter tops and rounded cabinetry create a soft and inviting look. Overhead, a slightly smaller iteration of the nautilus ceiling feature re-occurs.
The kitchen is in a striking dark timber, playing on the idea of contrast, while a banquette seating area is in a dark red. Small splashes of red or terracotta – inspired by Manchester’s Victorian red-brick buildings – form striking inserts of colour.
The final section of the office, along the fourth wall of the space, is made up of a series of the aforementioned meeting rooms and phone booths, offering a range of settings, from collaboration, conferencing and training rooms to a wellness space and the silent working environment of the library. Some of the meeting rooms are an off-the-shelf product from Boss Design, which were inset with a joinery surround to ensure their complete integration into the scheme. Additionally, the space plan needed a prayer and first aid room, a returning parent room, and lockers for staff use.
As well as the interior design, SpaceInvader was commissioned to create the project’s wayfinding designs.
‘Overbury asked for the wayfinding and signage to be integrated sparingly and only used where necessary, so as not to feel too corporate,’ says branding and graphics associate Jenny Crossland. ‘Applications needed to be organic, to fit with the interior concept and not to date easily.’
SpaceInvader suggested the best signage locations for navigational and naming clarity. The results feature curved corners, asymmetric shapes, and textured or ingrained impressions taken from nature. Room names, set at a slight angle, refer to Manchester icons – Printworks for the print room, for example, or Northern Quarter for the design studio. Crossland also devised a linear manifestation for the meeting room glazing and glass doors, based on fluid, organic waves, which are both light and delicate in form.
‘With the offices set to embody Overbury’s quality commitment and values, we knew that everyone who walked through the door needed to understand instantly what Overbury was all about,’ says SpaceInvader founder John Williams. ‘Far from being a pressure, this meant the project was a real joy, because we were working not only with a client but with a wider team for whom everything was possible – and with everyone very much on their game.’
KEY SUPPLIERS
Flooring
Amtico www.amtico.com
Havwoodswww.havwoods.com/uk
Furniture
Boss Design www.bossdesign.com
Corian www.corian.uk
Kvadrat fabric www.kvadrat.dk
Modus Balance www.modusfurniture.co.uk
Sign Supplier www.signsupplier.co.uk
Lighting
Lodes www.lodes.com
New Works www.newworks.dk/en
Santa &Cole www.santacole.com
Surfaces
Autex Acoustics www.autexacoustics.co.uk
Hompal by Formica www.formica.com/en-gb/campaigns/homapal
