4 Lindsey Street, Farringdon

Making every second count

A new Central London destination for culture and creativity, with a multi-coloured flagship office that’s right on trend

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4 Lindsey Street, Farringdon Project summary

Key Partners

Gardiner & Theobald, Perkins + Will, Arcadis, Troup, Bywaters & Anders

Services provided

Cat B fit-out

Sector

Interiors

Project story

Culture. Character. Creativity. Our client’s inaugural London flagship office is packed with all the necessary ingredients for visionary minds to flourish.

Set right in the heart of the area’s booming tech quarter, the popular video sharing app that brings joy to users across the globe joins a swathe of fellow social media giants in Farringdon, as they continue to expand their workplace portfolio. Their new 88,500 sq. ft of flexible workspace sits above Crossrail’s Farringdon East station, in the colourful Kaleidoscope building (also delivered by Mace in 2021).

Phased over two handovers, Mace delivered this high-quality design and build scheme, taking the consultants design from RIBA stage 3 to stage 4 onwards. The client’s key drivers were centred around flexibility and wellbeing to support their growing workforce, and this was achieved through employing creative spaces and adaptable assets, which place their employees at the heart of their design.

Spread across six floors, the modern open-plan space is home to a creator’s lounge and studio, pop-up retail space on the ground floor, with wellness and AMR pods dotted throughout the building. Meanwhile, an expansive 5,000 sq. ft rooftop terrace allowing staffs and clients alike to soak up sweeping views of the historic London neighbourhood.

Tech-enabled design plays a key role within the space, which is in tune with the brand’s central mission - to build a workspace that offers its employees creative license to be expressive and collaborative with their ideas.

Audio-visual was also a key element across the scheme, but particularly on the ground floor and level 5 where we installed over 70m2 of sleek LED screens weighting just under 4 tonnes - some of which were suspended up to 6m from finished floor level in the 10m high reception area. This was a huge co-ordination task which called for cohesive team involvement from several different structural contractors, from AV to MEP, and joiners.

The fifth floor also boasts a dedicated dynamic event space, featuring state-of-the-art LED walls – a clear demonstration of the innovative functionality that will bring colleagues together in an ever-evolving setting.

33 weeks programme time

2800 coloured ceiling spheres

70m2 of LED screens

780 individual pendant light fittings

POINTS OF NOTE

Strong brand presence

Brand and culture have been ingrained in the entire design concept, with the client’s logo embedded through abstract abbreviations of the musical note, featured in ceiling panels, manifestation, reception desk, wall panelling, tea points, and a feature curtain that wraps all the way around perimeter on ground floor reception. As a nod to the childlike creativity so inherent to the video platform, we also created a floating ball pit by suspending 2800 coloured spheres from the ceiling. And in the same way the Kaleidoscope building is inspired by the colours of the surrounding neighbourhood, the short-form video app’s offices similarly respond to the external environment and architecture within the Barbican. Cast concrete is a key design feature which translates across the bespoke joinery items, such as benches and tables on level 5.

Digital creators

A key feature of the project was the installation of Optima Systems’ 56 adaptable meeting room pods (AMR’s), ranging in capacity from 1-8 people. These were the largest number of pods they had ever built on a project. Being prefabricated meant lower wastage of the fully enclosed, acoustic meeting rooms with in-built power, lighting, and ventilation. The modular design meant that panels could be moved to accommodate for various meetings that fitted into the category of phone booths, to discussion and conference rooms. Another quality benefit to the meeting pods is their versatility, in the way they could be demounted and re-erected anywhere in the room.

Location challenges

Careful planning was undertaken due to the Kaleidoscope building being surrounded by tube lines, the new Crossrail line and Smithfields markets, making operation of the crane lifts virtually impossible. To overcome these obstacles, two lightweight crane lifts were required for the instructed roof terrace steelwork and roof canopy. With trains running directly beneath the ground floor reception and meeting pods, the reception is also positioned on a noise cancelling concrete floating floor, which sits on rubber stilts that absorb vibration.

Client collaboration

It was integral that we worked closely with a number of key stakeholders to co-ordinate through the design, delivery, commissioning and handover stages to ensure we achieved seamless delivery. These included those who sat across client departments, as well as contractors who were procured directly by the client, specialising in IT, audio visual, structured cabling, furniture, planting, and graffiti artists.