London Borough of Waltham Forest

The London Borough of Waltham Forest (LBWF) came out to tender for a supplier/s to help them complete the dream of Neighbourhood working and to furnish their Town Hall Campus. Having worked with their architect partner for a year to develop the Neighbourhood working strategy they needed an experienced and flexible partner who had access to many different suppliers and products. This led to a two-part process with a written and price response and then a presentation to the LBWF steering group to show that as a supplier we had all of the attributes and capabilities to complete such a prestigious project.

Project Data

CLIENT : London Borough of Waltham Forest.
PROJECT LEAD : London Hub.
LOCATION : Assembly Hall, Town Hall Complex, London.
PRODUCTS : Pico bench desks, monitor arms, task chairs, on-desk electrics, under-desk electrics, bench collaboration tables and split level collaboration tables with lighting, in-desk electrics, work chairs, soft seating booths.
SERVICES : Provision of all furniture for the Mock-up workspace for main project Town Hall and Civic Centre.

Temporary Smart Working Office

Upon the award, Flexiform started a consultation period with the LBWF team, their FFE consultant and their architectural partner. The first part of the 2-year programme was to turn The Council Assembly Hall into a “mock-up” temporary office space to show the council workers how the new Town Hall and Civic Centre would look. After many meetings discussing specification, pricing and also spending time in our partner’s showrooms in Clerkenwell, a full specification of office furniture were produced. Once signed off by the Council CEO, working with the architectural partner, we developed the colour and finishes for the mock-up area and for the overall complete project.

With help from fabric manufacturers and suppliers, the bolder elements of the colour pallet we’re used on the light work chairs, while the mixture of office desks and work tables were more neutral colours. The staff were moving from a complete desk-based office to a 50/50 split of standard back-to-back desks and flexible work tables.

Trialling Smart Working Office Furniture

The fixed workspace is more traditional with mesh back task chairs and Flexiform Pico bench desks equipped with monitor arms and on-desk electrics to give a dedicated workspace. To enhance collaboration, the office desks were completed with a central infill tube instead of a desk mounted screen. The use of collaboration tables and light work chairs gives a more flexible workspace where staff can work independently, collaborate and meet, or present. The staff are trialling two collaboration tables; a large solid oak work table with a laminate top, and a split level table with a steel and fabric frame and adjustable task lighting.

The flexible workspaces expand into a number of high-back meeting booths where teams can split from the main floor plate to meet and collaborate, all equipped with power and data modules so that users can “plug and play”. The mock-up will be used by staff for a number of months and the office furniture selected will become the template for the Town Hall and Civic Centre fit-out.