Skuld | The Gherkin

Skuld is an international marine insurance mutual head quartered in Oslo, Norway that specializes in protection and indemnity insurance and marine insurance. They had a London office base on Lime Street, in the heart of the City that was restricted in size, with a narrow reception and meeting room suite. Skuld wanted to move to a larger space to accommodate an increase in workforce and also offer a more enhanced client experience befitting of their progressive status. work.place.create worked with the design and build contractor Interactive Space to test fit a number of floor plates within The City to find a space that best met the client’s needs, one that would also off that ‘wow’ factor for visitors. The final selected location was the 30^th Floor of The Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe).

Designing in 30 St Mary Axe has it’s challenges, mainly due to the curved nature of the floorplate, but also fitting in with the existing M&E services and other basebuild restrictions. The key design focus of the space was to maximise the views  across the space on arrival, past the broker desks and to the city beyond. To do this, we set back the reception desk and had an open breakout space for both visitors and staff to use, so it felt more like an inclusive business lounge. The two main meeting rooms were placed along the exterior to maximise natural light in the room, with bespoke joinery and acoustic baffle ceilings. The open plan broker desking and general support desking follows around the curve of the building, with large TV screens at each end and storagewall to the rear.

Throughout the space, a muted palette of soft white, warm grey and light oak timber provide a backdrop for hints of the Skuld brand red colour, tones of which are carried on through selected upholstery elements. The client also had a number of historic and important artefacts, including scale models of vessels and a wall mounted bell, that needed to be relocated into the new space with bespoke joinery pieces made to showcase these around the entrance and reception area. To further soften the space and add biophilic interest, planters top storage at the ends of desk and dividers to different spaces and the entrance lobby has framed green wall sections integrated between acoustic timber slat panels and lighting.

Elsewhere in the office, there is a curve sided private phone booth, a small staff T-point with microwave, cellular office and comms room. The space mostly retains the existing metal grid ceiling, but expands on an existing section of exposed services ceiling with track lighting that made a feature of the broker lounge. We also matched to the small section of existing timber flooring and existing carpet from a CAT A install so as not to waste brand new flooring.

Overall, the new office provides a much more welcoming and open space, improving both the visitor and staff experience. The views of the city provide an impressive backdrop to the breakout lounge and meeting rooms, and the amount of natural daylight is a vast improvement on Skuld’s previous office location, encouraging and allowing for more staff to work from the office and host client meetings.