INSURANCE PROVIDER Admiral is refurbishing its 12-storey HQ building in Cardiff with the aim of creating a destination office to accommodate its workforce of over 2,000 staff. The company appointed design specialists Claremont with the brief to design a memorable, on-brand and highly social workplace.
For the initial stage of this phased project, Claremont has created an open and inviting first floor space that offers a variety of work settings. The floorscape for the main field area is underscored with two designs from Milliken’s Northern Soul modular carpet collection.
Influenced by the iconic 1970s music and dance movement, the collection comprises four designs celebrating the bold rhythms, lighting, fashion and typography of the era. For Admiral’s multi-functional first floor, the design team chose the asymmetric striations of Strobe Light interspersed with the tonal uniformity of Floor Filler.
For maximum flexibility, the floor has touch-down areas, collaboration zones and spaces that can be adapted for training, departmental and company-wide meetings. The modular nature of the furnishings and floor coverings allows for these spaces to be reconfigured to suit any changing requirements.
The hard-working kitchen space caters for many social functions for employees and external community events. A combination of Milliken’s LVT designs Eero in Drawing Grey and Heritage Wood in coordinating Honor grey, from the Original Collection, create a contemporary and easy maintenance floor surface. In a smooth transition from the highchair seating area to the main workspace, the flooring has been installed to seamlessly shift from the LVT to carpet.
The open nature of the space and its exposed ceiling meant that good acoustic management was crucial. The carpet tiles feature WellBAC Comfort cushion backing, which provides sound absorbency properties. With a sound rating of 31dB, the carpet helps minimise impact and ambient noise levels to deliver a calmer working environment for employees.
The carbon-neutral Milliken floor coverings also offer important sustainable attributes. www.millikencarpet.com
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