Tell us about the workspace at the Neighbourhood. The main architectural design was carried out in collaboration with Dan Newport at Re-Form Architects. With the fantastic raw canvas of a 19th-century grade II listed building, and like a neighborhood in any city, there are a number of colliding influences and eras. Architecturally, we wanted to express clearly the distinction between new and old.

Were there special considerations that influenced the way the space is set up? Any particular obstacles to overcome? 24 Lever Street was pretty much in ruin after a fire destroyed a neighboring building in 2007, so the initial obstacles were simply to get the building to a viable, habitable state.

As the building is grade II listed, there were also several restrictions on what we could and could not do internally — for instance, the walls that had to be preserved. We wanted to respect and re-use as many of the original artifacts that we could, and reinterpret them in a contemporary setting. So, for example, we’ve reused many of the old-fashioned “front doors” found in the building in our meeting rooms (christened “Pie, Chips, and Peas” — a famous northern English trio) and mounted them in a simple glass wall.

Getting power and data around the space in a sensitive way was challenging. Embedding cables in the floor was not an option, and with great north-lights in the vaulted roof, we didn’t want to interfere with the lines with galvanized cable trays. So, we utilized an intricate network of galvanized air conditioning ducting to contain the 4 kilometers of cabling which needs to travel around the studio, hanging these from the primary beams.

As a creative company, it’s vital that we have an inspiring, and challenging, environment — with quirks, and stories embedded within our walls.

See more of the move into The Neighbourhood here — and get the look in your own workspace by starting with our Aeron chair.

How would you define The Neighbourhood’s aesthetic? Simply put, “eclectic,” with antique furniture from different eras, mixing up with contemporary design, custom-built pieces, and inevitably, a few finds from big-box stores. We wanted to create a studio rather than workplace, a home rather than an office. That’s why, for example, you’ll find all our childhood photos on the wall.

It’s an open-plan space, with no hierarchy in layout. (You won’t find the bosses hiding away in glass boxes.) By working in this way, we believe that this facilitates a better team-working environment, with collaborations happening more naturally and instinctively across disciplines and projects, and everyone sees what is going on.

What inspired the design of the interior? Phil Horton (one of our architectural team, recently emigrated to Australia) and myself spent time developing mood boards and references and exploring these through digital modelling. We spent a couple of days browsing various Manchester antique suppliers and flea markets. We had a small budget, so we needed to haggle, and sourced bit by bit, one item, one chair, one sideboard at a time.

Despite so much of our work being digital, we have a love of books, so built our own reception table out of a box of hardback books we found at a flea market for a fiver.

Our main meeting room was conceived as a dining room, but one where it’s encouraged to watch TV at the dinner table!

We’ve only one rule in the studio — that you can’t eat your lunch at your desk — so we built a table big enough to accommodate everyone for breakfast and lunch. So we commissioned a very simple but beautifully crafted plywood picnic bench.

With our budget, we could only stretch to a simple low-cost kitchen, but to complement the old tongue-and-groove timber paneling at the back of the studio, we created a tongue-and-groove zinc “overcoat” to clad the kitchen.

We spy several Aeron chairs at your desks. Why did you select them? As a creative team and studio, we spend so a lot of our lives at our desks, so even from the start we knew how important it was to invest in the most ergonomic seating. Aerons are a design classic. You feel like you’re floating when you sit in them, and with so many configurable settings they fit you individually like a tailored suit, no matter what size or shape you are.

You share your space with other start-up companies, students, and freelancers. What are the benefits? By mixing things up, we promote what we call “happy accidents” — those collaborations and skill-swaps that happen when a diverse set of creative minds share the same home. We feel there is much more to be gained by working in a creative community such as this.

See more of The Neighborhood — including the space before it was refurbished — in tomorrow’s Part Two.

Photos: Courtesy of The Neighbourhood

Using computer-aided design, the structure’s triangular components were laid out individually, cut and glued by hand into the final form, and connected to the ceiling via thin tensile supports. The original cardboard was too damp to be of any use when reclaimed, so it was taken to an old factory in Stalybridge where it was reconstituted using machinery dating back to 1910.

Made as a commission for Bloomberg Philanthropy by art and design agency Arts Co, this cardboard habitat was one of a series of projects created entirely out of the Bloomberg headquarter’s waste, while providing a new space for employees to chat and relax. It’s a creative way to reuse the vast amount of materials that any institution may consume during its operations, and certainly one that other companies would do well to emulate.

By Kimberley Mok.