Paramount Interiors’ Cardiff Showoffice

  • Client Paramount Interiors,
  • size 6,845 sqft
  • Year 2012
  • Location United Kingdom, Cardiff, Wales,
  • Industry Furniture,
  • Paramount Interiors has designed new space in Cardiff that serves not only as a headquarters for their staff to work from, but also as a gallery space to display the best examples of modern office furniture.

    The short but challenging brief from Paramount’s Managing Director, Nigel Roberts, was to create an environment with a European flavour that acted as a blank canvas to showcase the company’s design skills and products. It needed to promote a culture of communication, collaboration and creativity, look stunning and stay within budget!

    The result is Paramount’s ‘ShowOffice’, a word they conceived to convey its dual function of working office and gallery showroom. It’s no coincidence that the space also gave them the opportunity to ‘show off’ their design skills.

    An industrial feel and European aesthetic are evident as soon as you enter the building, with a concrete stairway leading to the ShowOffice. White, patterned, vinyl wall covering leads the eye to beautifully contrasting black sculptural lighting.

    The roof and structural steelwork is left exposed to continue the industrial theme. This minimal shell acts as a canvas, showcasing office furniture like works of art, reinforced through the construction of cellular spaces, similar to those found in an art gallery. In each of these spaces, teams work on different styles of desking, storage and seating.

    The central ‘runway’ of the office space includes a huge lighting raft, twelve metres long and 25m2, with over 750 LEDs providing a ceiling of white light under which project teams can review the largest of plans. But natural light is just as important, with huge south-facing glass walls and a balcony in the breakout area, connecting the outside with the interior.

    Areas for quiet concentration, creative brainstorming and various types of collaboration are essential. Staff have a choice of spaces to use during their working day; private, semi-private and open. Glass partitions create formal spaces with the latest equipment to support them, including a large screen for presentations, writeable walls and video conferencing. To encourage non-work related socialising, there’s also a breakout area with large screen TV and a gymnasium!

    Above all, this space is designed to act as a looking glass into the future of offices.

    Design: Paramount Interiors
    Photography: Huw Jones Photography