Thames & Hudson has a new London headquarters, designed by Vertus Designworks and Marshkeene Architects.
The book publisher has moved from an office in Holborn's old post office to the 16,000 m² Gagosian gallery in King's Cross.
The company had been on its last basis for 25 years, but wanted a new house in London, which enabled more cooperation between the departments and presented its publications better.
The previous office – designed by the architect John McAslan & Partners – was over five floors and showed exposed services and exposed Ply, says Vertus Designworks' Head of the Max Crichton design.
“The employees were laid in small cabins, and there was no much cross -departmental cooperation,” he says.
The gagosian in the Britannia Street closed after two decades 2023. A gallery with huge proportions, the largest room was 28 m long and almost 6 m high.
Vertus, a construction and construction company, had already transformed the room into a simple cover and a core cat with architects Stanton Williams and polished concrete floors, with wood-lined mezzanine and exposed services.
Vertus Designworks was then brought into the design in the design The Interiors for Thames & Hudson.
“We have developed the spatial strategy, the appearance and layout,” says Crichton, while Marshkeene handled the design details and technical drawings. The surfaces and the color palette were a common effort.
As part of the renovation, a mezzanine was installed to give more space. In order to bring in a few trees, holes were then cut into the extensive intermediate floor to compensate for the lost room.
The presentation of books was an important consideration, so that they could easily be seen by customers and authors. Thames & Hudson, a leading publisher of illustrated books, has more than 2,000 titles.
A number of book rules that are in the town hall area were transferred from the office with a high Holborn. And there are bookshelves that line the “street” or the spine of the building, in which books are exhibited with their front covers.
The previous office was designed with fixed desks – each person usually has a special place. Here it is mostly open plan hot desking. Some departments, including international rights and children's books, are summarized in zones on the mezzanine.
On the ground floor, the designer is also its own “neighborhoods” in the double height room and in sales and the HR department.
“The ambition is that nobody has a permanent desk because he wants to promote cross -departmental cooperation,” says Crichton. Some of the older people have private offices. The layout offers a total of seating for 180 people.
The office contains the color palette of Thames & Hudsons Delphin mosaic. The name of the company, founded in 1949 by an Austrian and a German Émigrant, was selected to reflect its international ambitions and references to the rivers of London and New York.
This idea was portrayed in her logo of two dolphins, symbolizing friendship and intelligence, one opposite to the east, a West, which indicates a transatlantic connection.
The designers chose an olive green from the mosaic for the bookshelves and the frames of the glazed partitions. The walls are typical of art galleries. Clayworks plaster – a natural sound structure material – was used to give a feeling of heat under the intermediate floor and on the entrance areas above the cladding in ash on the lower parts of the walls.
This was added as an allusion to Stanton Williams' Ash balustrade on the mezzanine, and the carpentry is also ash. The reception is made of plastic from Smith Plastics.
“It is back and neutral so that the books can scream,” says Crichton.
The customer brought soft furniture such as the semicircular gray sofa and the colorful chairs in the kitchen and in the meeting rooms to give a feeling of fun.
In the meantime there is now the Dolphin mosaic, which began life on the front door of Thames & Hudson's Bloomsbury office, now on the wall of the foyer of Britannia Street.
