ForEveryday.Life creates a workplace shaped by The Gilbert’s Art Deco character

ForEveryday.Life has completed a 17,000 sq. ft workplace for BGRE on Level 3 of The Gilbert, an Art Deco building overlooking Finsbury Square in London.

Originally constructed in the 1930s as a private members' club, The Gilbert is a magnificent heritage building. The design draws on the building’s original steel columns, decorative ceiling details and large windows to create a contemporary workplace ready for occupation, with scope for future occupiers to introduce their own identity.

The project reenvisioned Level 3 of the building as a move-in-ready workplace, responding to growing demand for high-quality, flexible office environments that enable businesses to occupy space immediately. The design sets a new standard for workplace interiors, creating a foundation that allows the occupier the ability to tailor the space to reflect their own identity.

The design approach focused on exploring innovative solutions to create a sense of openness and volume throughout the floorplate. Concealed uplighting highlights the existing ceiling bays and decorative details, emphasising their depth and creating a greater sense of height. Reducing visual clutter opens up views across the floorplate towards Finsbury Square and allows the large windows to remain a defining feature of the interior.

"Rather than designing against the building's constraints, we chose to work with them. Throughout this project we amplified the many existing qualities within the architecture of the space to create a timeless, open environment" comments Founding Director, Colin Macgadie.

Restoring heritage steel columns and architectural volume

Throughout the scheme, the building's original steel columns remain fully exposed, with meeting rooms and other enclosed spaces conceived as independent elements within the floorplate. Set slightly away from the structural grid, these additions allow the existing columns to remain visible and the building’s original structure to be read alongside the new workplace.

Founding Director, Jorge Méndez-Cáceres added "A workplace needs enough character to feel like somewhere, while still giving the people who move into it, room to make it their own. At The Gilbert, the existing architecture gave us a strong starting point. Our role was to make that character part of everyday working life.”

The completed workplace brings the building’s architectural character into everyday use, providing a setting that is ready to occupy and open to personalisation.