Mandela House

An internal refurbishment to a 2,700sqm City Council office over three floors in the centre of Cambridge with a design brief to refurbish an existing dark and dated office space into a more welcoming and workable environment.

The existing first and second floors were completely stripped out to reveal areas that required structural support from an engineer. We then worked closely with Building Control to upgrade the thermal performance of the external envelope with improved insulation to meet current U-value targets.

The first floor has been opened up to provide an open plan area with smaller, more personal, meeting rooms offset from the main space. New electrical and mechanical ventilation services were added to the larger rooms to create even air distribution throughout and new corridors provide an easier and more accessible approach to working spaces, kitchens and toilets. Rooflights help to open up the rooms and encourage a brighter more natural lit and ventilated space. Showers have been added to the ground floor and new secure bicycle lockups added to the garage.

Prior to construction we worked closely with the Client, Contractor and Quantity Surveyor to find ways to value engineer the project. For some areas this gave an open industrial feel providing an overall more integrated and accessible working environment.