Architect and Builder April 2020 | Page 78

LAWTONS AFRICA INTERIORS: SAVILE ROW TAILORED ENVIRONMENTS L awtons Africa, a South African Law firm which has it’s roots dating back to 1892, appointed Savile Row Tailored Environments to design a new workplace interior consisting of 7 floors that reflected the practice’s rich heritage and ability to compete on a global level while speaking to the local market position as progressive and approachable. The look ties into a modern base building aesthetic with the vision for their workplace design to align to their brand, desired client experience and employee culture. 78 | PHOTOGRAPHY: SARAH DE PINA PHOTOGRAPHY Design Concept Savile Row initially approached the project by analysing how todays legal workstyles have moved away from the typical layout of individual offices, favouring more collaboration, mentorship and teamwork which subsequently resulted in a hybrid law office with an increased need for office sharing and support spaces. A mix of open plan workstations with high storage banks for privacy, individual offices and 2-person shared offices are set alongside smaller informal meeting areas. Break-away hubs and project team rooms encourage knowledge sharing, internal interaction and regular dialogue and optimise both formal and informal information flow, while smaller focus rooms provide spaces for conducting quiet research. Although partners all have private offices, they consist of smaller glazed shopfront partitions with no doors facing these support spaces to portray the feeling of accessibility and transparency for staff members. Lawtons Africa