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Brand new concept in flexible office space

Style has helped transform the London offices of worldwide financial derivatives trading company, IG Group, by designing and installing numerous wall panels that slide and spin across an open space to create informal, collaborative meeting spaces for groups of anything from two to twenty people. Further increasing functionality, both sides of the panels act as magnetic writeable white-boards which can be swivelled round to share ideas with other groups, effectively bringing them into the discussion.

“This ingenious solution is perfect for collaborative working,” confirms Julian Sargent, Style’s group managing director. “The system offers complete flexibility to position the panels where they are needed, or cluster several together to add privacy whilst still leaving a sense of openness.”

FTSE 250 member, IG Group is a global leader in online trading, providing fast and flexible access to over 10,000 financial markets – including share, indices, forex, commodities and binaries. It now has over 152,600 clients worldwide, making millions of transactions per month. At its office in London, Style was approached by the architect for the project ID:SR Sheppard Robson, who was working with BW to create uniquely flexible, collaborative office space.

“The concept of individual allocated offices was removed, to be replaced by innovative furniture pods,” explains Paul Etherington, senior project manager for BW. “The open-plan area needed to be highly adaptable, encouraging employees to gather to discuss ideas and share information, with the ability to screen themselves off as required, whilst using the walls as magnetic writeable white boards.”

“These radical demands were certainly challenging as we didn’t have a product that met the unique requirements,” comments Sargent. “Our design team had to go back to the drawing board, devising the optimum way to enable walls panels to move freely, yet be secure when still and rotate when necessary.”

“The feedback we have received from the client and their professional team has been outstanding,” confirms Etherington. “The re-design has delivered the wow-factor and the staff are using the space positively, adapting to the agile new working environment.”

The final solution is so ingenious that Style is already seeing orders for the same system from other major PLCs who can see what a difference this will make to how their employees work together.

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