The faceted feature wall as built: stepped planes each lit from within, beneath a ceiling of hexagonal coffers.

Real Estate Office

The Wall That Does the Work

A small office cannot afford a feature in every room, so it gets one, and it goes where everybody stands.

The wall behind the waiting area is built up in flat facets, each plane set slightly proud of the one below it, with a line of concealed light in every step. It is an inexpensive thing done carefully. The material is plain, the geometry is the whole of the design, and the light does the rest of it.

The ceiling takes the same idea up in hexagonal coffers with a warm cove inside each one. In a room nine feet across, that keeps the eye moving upward instead of running into the opposite wall.

The faceted feature wall as built: stepped planes lit from within, under a ceiling of hexagonal coffers.
The corridor between cabins, with slatted timber overhead and grey stone panelling to the walls.

Counter, Stone and Slats

Reception is a single counter with a slatted timber front lit from behind, so the desk reads as floating clear of the floor rather than sitting on it. That one detail does more for the size of the room than any amount of pale paint would have.

Around it the walls are finished in a grey stone, cool enough to keep the timber and the brass reading as warm rather than yellow. Timber slats run across the corridor ceiling and carry on into the cabin, which is the single gesture that appears in every room and ties four small spaces together into one office.

The reception counter, its slatted front lit from behind so the desk appears to float.
Reception seen from the entrance, with shelf niches to one side and the hexagonal ceiling above.

As Built

Photographed after handover. Every internal wall that could be glass is glass, and the two materials that carry the office, grey stone and warm timber, appear in all four rooms.

Reception from the corridor side, showing the lit counter and the shelving beyond it.
The second cabin behind its glass partition, with seating and a low table.
The managing director's cabin: a timber desk under a slatted ceiling, glazed to the corridor.
Wall elevations for the office, setting out panelling, shelving and the lit steps of the feature wall.
Further elevations, including the slatted counter front and the cabin walls.

Four Rooms and No Spare Metre

The whole office is smaller than a single room in most of the houses on this site. The managing director's cabin is 10 feet 6 by 12. The second cabin is 7 feet 5 by 8. Waiting is 7 feet 5 by 9 feet 2, reception is about the same, and a pantry takes what is left over.

At that size the ordinary move is to build light partitions and accept that the back half of the office will be dark. We did the opposite and glazed the internal walls in 12mm toughened glass. The daylight that arrives at the front now reaches the back of the plan, and a client waiting can see an office that is occupied and working rather than a run of shut doors.

The layout plan: reception and waiting at the front, the managing director's cabin and a second cabin behind glass partitions, and a pantry in the corner.

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