DTZ is one of the ‘big four’ global real estate advisers and wanted its City of London corporate workplace to underline the perception of its brand as a market leader. To design and deliver the project, DTZ appointed two of the UK’s leading workplace design groups, GMW Architects and Gensler, and together the two practices have met this exacting brief.

Key elements of the project included achieving a strong sense of presence for DTZ in a multi-tenanted building, the efficient use of an unusually shaped floors and – by DTZ’s own admission – delivering to an extremely aggressive programme.

However, perhaps the project’s foremost challenge was to design a unique and memorable space for a client whose everyday business brings its staff into contact with the best office accommodation London has to offer.

As concept designer, the GMW team developed an idea based upon the London ‘streetscape’; in effect a story related to DTZ’s business. This proposed a combination of formal gridded spaces for the office areas and a relaxed, informal layout for the main client-facing spaces.

DTZ occupy the first to fifth floors of the building and their offices are entered via a glass stair from the general reception at ground floor level.

This stair arrives at the centre of the first floor where, rather than the expected desk-bound receptionist, visitors are met by a ‘concierge’, who guides them to their destination.

From this central hub, winding ‘streets’ radiate out to meeting rooms, breakout spaces, an auditorium and a client lounge. The theme of relaxed informality is sustained by places to stop and chat between meetings and the design makes good use of the scale of the space, with the high ceilings emphasised by dramatic lighting.

The room layout combines with the angular form of the building to produce surprising meeting spaces; no two are the same size or shape and each visit offers the potential for a new experience.

The ‘cityscape’ theme continues in the geometry of the caf√©, lounge and informal spaces on the second floor. This area is conceived as an internal ‘marketplace’, providing a venue for in-house meetings and touchdown for staff from other offices. The aim is to encourage interaction and become a rendezvous for DTZ staff.

On the third, fourth and fifth levels, similar breakout areas are positioned at a turning point between zones of open-plan office to complement the formal desk layout and make good use of a tricky space.