Ekho Studio unveils health-led office for new arm of AstraZeneca

Photography: Billy Bolton

Tasked with creating a city centre office space for Alexion – the latest subsidiary of expanding pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca – Ekho Studio has completed an extension of one of its existing office schemes in London’s St Pancras Square. First completing the 21,000 sq ft head office for AstraZeneca UK in 2022, marking the young design agency’s first finalised project, the concept has now been joined by a 7,000 sq ft hub for one of the brand’s newest acquisitions. Updating the original scheme’s design language with a broader colour palette and soft, curved silhouettes, Ekho Studio’s new addition includes dedicated desk space and open collaborative areas for Alexion staff, as well as a shared business suite to unite the newly merged companies.

As a pharmaceutical company helping those with rare diseases, a focus on health and wellbeing features largely throughout Alexion’s new design scheme. Aiming to create a calm, soothing, and altogether elevated working environment, Ekho Studio paired deeper timber tones with pink clay, as well as soft, carefully considered lighting to curate an inviting, welcoming space for employees and clients alike. “The principle of curves and rounded edges inspiring calm is well-established,” explains Sarah Dodsworth, founding partner at Ekho Studio. “We really embraced that on this scheme, incorporating rounded furniture, from sofas to chairbacks and incidental tables, together with curved joinery. We also created curvature across interior dividing walls to soften transitions and create more intriguing sightlines.”

One of Ekho Studio’s main interventions was a sophisticated new front of house area, helping staff to break free from siloed working and engage in more collaboration and informal meetings. Within this front of house is a business lounge, containing a small yet versatile hospitality space, an informal meeting lounge with plush upholstered seating, quiet pods for focused work and a flexible 16-person meeting room. Alexion staff can also make use of a larger meeting room that seats up to 20 people. Incorporating elements of reuse and sustainability, durable steel planters also feature throughout the workspace, which were once used at AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield facility as part of its manufacturing process.

Beyond the front of house lounge is a 28-desk main office space for the Alexion team, featuring a range of versatile workspaces including a quiet library zone, central hot desking area and a collaboration space with flexible whiteboards, all united by Milliken carpeting underfoot. The soft, considered lighting and warm timbers continue throughout, chosen to create a warm, tactile and comfortable feel, while a material palette of concrete flooring, textured wall renders and timber raft ceilings is joined by a selection of mid-century inspired, ergonomic furniture. Also aiming for sustainable choices wherever possible, Troldtekt wood wool acoustic panels line the lounge ceilings and counters in the hospitality space are made from Foresso, a timber terrazzo product produced in the UK from waste wood.

“This a high-tech workspace with a calm, elegant and high-quality feel,” Dodsworth concludes. “It’s also a very sustainable scheme – with a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating – that refuses to wear its sustainable credentials too obviously. In fact, it shows how far the industry has come in terms of both client and designer buy-in to sustainability and how much suppliers are innovating, proving that sustainable materials no longer need to have a rough-and-ready aesthetic or compromise when it comes to quality.”