Project Description

Applying the latest thinking around wellness, productivity and work-life balance, Bruntwood Works has transformed Bloc - a corporate office building - into a design-led workplace oasis as part of its £50m Pioneer redevelopment programme. Located in the heart of Manchester’s central business district, Bloc is a shining example of how good design can tempt workers back to the office following the global pandemic, and breathe new life into existing assets. Bloc is a refurbishment project that has radically reimagined a traditional office block. It previously had limited engagement with the wider city, but now places people and collaboration at its heart, welcoming a wider audience with an independent hospitality offering as part of the blended arrival experience. The building’s diverse community of businesses now have beautiful, design-led common areas to meet and relax, along with a vibrant community events programme bringing these spaces to life. As a pillar of Bruntwood Works’ sustainability ethos, the project has re-imagined a workspace for the future, featuring a basement wellness space complete with state-of-the art yoga studio, cinema room, cycle hub, showers and even a sleep pod. Home to 18,000 plants, Bloc has cascading greenery throughout and also features a living roof that seeks to promote biodiversity and mitigate climate change. As we enter a new era of working life, Bloc has been redesigned to encourage a healthy work-life balance and help ease businesses back into the city following a prolonged absence, or to provide an ideal first base for businesses formed during lockdown. In doing so it benefits the retail and leisure ecosystem surrounding it, whilst also powering productivity for the workforce within its walls. Bloc’s redesign incorporated a variety of nine different Shaw Contract flooring products from the Haven Collection, covering a total of 120 sq m. CubicWorks was the lead contractor on the project, with Bridge Architects the architect and interior designer. Bruntwood Works’ Pioneer buildings are the future of workspace design and innovation; the buildings of tomorrow, today, with a focus on six key pillars: wellbeing, amenity, biophilia, technology, art and sustainability.