When we made the decision to move offices in London in 2019, we engaged with Oktra, an office design and build company to create a working space that was open, accessible and promoted collaboration. One aim was to promote the use of different spaces within the office layout to achieve different tasks, as regular changes in posture and environment have been shown to decrease stress and improve productivity and staff satisfaction levels.
We also wanted the communal areas of the office to benefit from the most natural light – something that has been shown to have a positive effect on moods, energy and productivity for staff.
With that in mind, Oktra set to the task, creating an open and airy office space, with access to both contemplative, quiet areas for meetings and concentration; and a central and communal hub to allow our teams to mix and collaborate with ease. One particularly neat touch is the use of coloured glass throughout the offices’ communal areas, to pay homage to the history of intellectual property. In the words of Oktra:
“Our team set about conducting design workshops to infuse their new space with more modern ways of working. We were keen to dedicate part of the design to the history of patency by including a ‘stained glass’ theme – the first recorded patent in England.
To create the stained glass effect for the feature wall, our team surveyed samples and tests on acrylic of printed graphics to develop a true-to-life aesthetic that would echo the history of the patent. This was developed alongside the build, which was carefully coordinated to allow all the services to be installed on time.
Bringing these colours into the Boult office is a way of injecting energy and brightness into the space.”
Now six years on we have successfully transitioned to a hybrid working model and find that our London office has easily adapted to desk sharing or hot desking. Our communal kitchen has been put to good use for social and client events in recent years, allowing colleagues to mix across teams and practice groups informally.
Find out more about our approach to supporting the wellbeing of our staff here.
Find out more about working at Boult here.
