Living room – PC Channel Islands

The living room

An ambitious project including the imaginative transformation of a simple industrial shell into stylish and prestigious new offices for their headquarters has earned design studio The Drawing Room a place on the shortlist for the 2024 Guernsey Design Awards.

Shortlisted in the Office Fitout category, the new offices are located in Baubigny Road, St Sampson.

The main contractors on the project were Jersey R&D Limited.

Rachel Rogers, Founder and Director of The Drawing Room, said: “We started with an industrial storage shell with bare concrete block walls, and installed stairs, toilets, a mezzanine and services, and fitted it out and decorated it to be the perfect environment for our design team to create.

“We wanted to reshape the blank canvas into a workspace that would inspire our team and impress clients. The brief was to provide a fresh, modern space that was unique to us with a reduced palette of wood, lively greenery and dominated by white tones.

One of the notable features is the preservation of the industrial envelope, retaining the character of the steel framework and the rawness of the existing materials, which are seamlessly integrated into the design.

You enter the interior through an entrance hall with lounge area and cactus, opening onto a spacious designer floor flooded with light and integrating 12 workstations. This area has a “cool Nordic” industrial feel with exposed services and white paint. A green “living wall” on one side is now well established and has started to extend around the space, along the columns and around the lighting trays above the desks. An acoustic envelope around the oak-clad wall extending over approximately half of the office surface provides sound insulation.

Sections of double-height vaulted ceiling with large lights extend across the designer floor and into the kitchen/lounge area beyond, which incorporates reclaimed Soviet factory light fixtures featured throughout the vaulted space, adding to the spacious and industrial atmosphere. The kitchen area itself provides staff with a place to relax and prepare snacks and drinks and has a large window and a comfortable bench with cushions.

An industrial-style metal staircase with an art wall on one side leads to the mezzanine level overlooking the main design area and including a meeting room with a large decorative window. The meeting room is accessed through specially designed Crittall sliding doors.

In order to comply with construction regulations in the event of a change of use, the building has undergone thermal improvements via separation partitions. All spaces are accessible in part M, including the ambient staircase leading to the meeting room.

Solar panels were installed on the front façade of the building, demonstrating the studio’s commitment to positive change and sustainable practices.

Rachel Rogers concluded: “We believe this space is a true reflection of our creative vision and commitment to good design. The project was completed within a demanding 12-week programme, which was an incredible achievement – ​​and we are delighted with the outcome. However, we could not have achieved this without a dedicated and wonderful team of consultants and craftsmen.