Hogan Lovells Birmingham, United Kingdom

Hogan Lovells’ new workplace in Birmingham is a solution equipping them for the future. To match growth with their environment, Hogan Lovells worked with us to transform how their Birmingham team experienced work, looking to break down the concept of the cellular office and bring people together.

An interchangeable environment, it provides a variety of spaces adapting to specific tasks, aiding flexibility, scalability and cost effectiveness. A crucial design element of the legal workplace is understanding storage and confidentiality needs. Choosing open plan means combating tidiness and providing each lawyer enough space. A significant challenge was also mitigating noise.

Our answer for Hogan Lovells was a new type of desk configuration. Each lawyer has ownership of their storage, desk and chair, whilst providing transparency to everyone working on the floor, with large windows saturating the space with daylight. 

With 69% of participants in our workplace strategy engagement noting face to face interaction between employees as extremely important, we were able to meet the goal of collaborative workstyles while retaining the balance of privacy and confidentiality.

Designed to an adaptable grid system, modules can become open plan space, with meeting rooms switching to dropin offices, or quiet rooms switching to mini-project spaces. The Forum provides training, debate and project briefing space. The Hive and putting green provides informal meeting and leisure space.

The aesthetic portrays Hogan Lovells’ position as a global top 20 law firm. We created a palette which was comfortable, sophisticated whilst subtly linking to the global identity. The Birmingham office is an innovative workplace helping to attract and retain top-tier talent — setting a blueprint for the future legal workplace.