Fit-out firm cleans up with Soapworks contract

WARRINGTON-based interior design practice Claremont has won the coveted contract to deliver the interior design and fit-out of Talk Talk’s new Soapworks office in Salford.

Talk Talk will occupy 106,000sq ft across five floors at Salford Quay’s Soapworks, the former Colgate-Palmolive factory on Ordsall Lane when it relocates its Irlam and Warrington sites in the New Year.
 
Thought to be the North West’s largest fit-out project of the year, Claremont won two separate competitive tenders to secure the work – the first to provide the design consultancy and the second, to fit-out the interior over 21 weeks.
 
The building’s history as a Colgate-Palmolive factory inspired Claremont’s creative response, which combines innovation and manufacturing to tell the story of the building’s industrial heritage and Talk Talk’s digital-focused future.

The five floors will include an idyllic picnic heath, an industrial inspired café and the latest in workplace technology including various Talk Talk software platforms for the workplace and its customers.   

Key design features include cutting through the floors to form a large central staircase to integrate the floors and improve the flow of people around the building.

The concrete from this will be reused to make espoke furniture, while a large sculpture made from more than 2,000 bars of soap. Artwork inspired by the ‘inventors of Manchester’ will appear throughout.
 
Ken Bundy, creative director of Claremont and the project lead for the new Talk Talk office, said: “This is our biggest project to date and involves every part of our expertise and resource. From the outset we’ve seen this brief as one that requires strong, creative storytelling in order to fulfill Talk Talk’s ambitions for a dynamic, tech-enabled and agile work environment.

“The finished space will strike a balance between bringing the Talk Talk brand to life and showcasing the building’s history.  It’s a vast, fantastically challenging and highly innovative brief and it’s testament to the combined commitment and passion of the whole Claremont team that we won the project.”

The agile workspace will include a variety of activity-based and mobile work settings, team neighbourhoods and individual workspaces designed to empower employees to choose the right space for them.
 
Designed to accommodate 1,500 employees and provide room for expansion as the company grows, the new office will bring all of TalkTalk’s North West employees together under one roof, for the first time.
 
Nigel Sullivan, group HR director at TalkTalk, said:  “As a technology company, it’s important that our working environment reflects our digital first culture.  

“Claremont was quick to understand what we require of a workplace and have devised an environment that far exceeds our expectations.

“It’s exciting to be moving to a building that offers class leading facilities that are in keeping with our credentials as a value player and to work within a space that has been designed to our team’s specific needs both now and in the future.”

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