OK, so this post is about office space, but believe me when I say that it’s worth sticking with it.
I mean modern office space is now, we imagine (or maybe just I do), either something that would make Google proud – open space, beanbags, primary colours, and lots of people in headphones. Or, by contrast, something clinical, and clean and boring – full of cubicles, monochrome and depressing.
XYZ, is not what I expected.
It’s a completely mixed co-working space. There are closed offices, and open spaces. Companies who have offices of their own, and open plan working where you can sit with a laptop and get stuff done. There are even the cutest little phone booths with a shelf and stool, and a soundproof door. So you can have a private conversation, and nobody around can hear what you’re saying.
Then there are the bookable meeting spaces. Some are open, covered only by a curtain, there are kitchen spaces for your brews, and the Pitch Room combines both, so you can work with your team in seclusion, get that job done.
But we’re only just getting started. Downstairs, is the social space. A giant pizza oven dominates the space in the cafe (yes I said pizza oven), alongside plenty of table space, tea and coffee, and that other important fuel point, plenty of plug sockets. There’s also very good cake. I can recommend the banana bread, and the millionaires shortbread in particular.
So you can pop in, have a meeting, get some work done, and at the end of the day grab a pizza and a glass or two of wine.
Peaking of cake, perhaps the icing on the cake is upstairs.
On the top floor are more offices, but more importantly, the Members Lounge and roof terrace. And I kinda want to move in.
And they have a gin cabinet.
Go to the cabinet, select a gin, enjoy a perfect serve.
It looks like something from Mad Men. And that’s something echoed throughout the building. There are pieces of furniture and decor that which when mixed with the office style desks and chairs, takes away that corporate cubicle look. Softens it. Makes it that bit more approachable.
The view from the roof terrace is something else. Oh and did I mention they do yoga up there on sunny days? You can watch the city as it starts to wake, whilst you fix your gaze with a warrior two pose.
The yoga sessions are part of the community feel to XYZ. It reminds me a little of the feel that Whitworth Locke has. The same blend of service and community.