A West Midlands architectural interior design company is hoping
to gallop to national glory after one of its projects - the British
Horse Society's impressive new headquarters - clinched a major
regional award.
Monteith Scott WORK was commissioned to design internal layouts,
lighting, finishes and furniture for the charity's office
development at Abbey Park in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.
The project won the British Council for Offices Midlands and
East Anglia regional award in the 'Projects Up To 2000 sq metres'
category. It will now compete against other regional winners for
the national title.
Monteith Scott WORK, which delivers interior design solutions in
the industrial, education and office sectors, is led by managing
director Alison Monteith, design director Derek Matthews and
technical director John Millington. The company is based in
Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, the city's creative hub.
Alison said the company began working with the British Horse
Society when it commissioned a new-build BREEAM 'Good' development
for its HQ at Stoneleigh. Totalling 21,466 sq ft, the space
comprises offices, a reception area, lecture theatre, meeting
rooms, boardroom, toilets, coffee bar, breakout spaces and a small
mail order fulfilment centre.
Alison said: "It's a huge feather in our cap for the British
Horse Society headquarters project to be recognized with a major
award. It was a challenging brief which included designing internal
layouts, space planning, lighting, finishes and furniture and
fixtures. Being a circular, or doughnut, shaped building
constructed around a historic oak tree, it called for particularly
imaginative solutions when space planning as the offices would not
be entirely open plan.
"Despite its well-established programme of digitising its new
and archived information, the Society's work remains paper-intense,
necessitating considerable storage space.
"We overcame the use of open and closed offices in a circular
building by creating cellular spaces that are glazed fronted to
maximise light penetration. We further enhanced the glazing by
incorporating large scale colour photography from the Society's own
image library to convey its purpose and passion, and giving the
impression of horses walking through the building.
"The beautiful parkland location and views did much of the work
for us, with finishes and colours selected to work harmoniously and
sensitively with the outside environment."
Graham Cory, the British Horse Society's chief executive, said:
"It is enlightening to see how valuable were those discussions we
had with Monteith Scott on matters of aesthetics. As a
dyed-in-the-wool apologist for magnolia, I am relieved that Alison
Monteith was able to interest me in a broader palette.
"The result is a degree of harmony in terms of colour and
texture between surfaces, furnishings and fabrics which we would
certainly not have achieved on our own. It is to Monteith Scott's
credit that they knew when, and how far, to push an idea and when
to bow to the client's prejudices.
"In sum, Monteith Scott have taken what we asked for and made it
even better. They've given us an environment which is unique,
personal to the British Horse Society and spectacularly reflective
of the passion we feel for our work."
The winners in the Midlands and East Anglia BCO Regional Awards
were announced at a lunch in Birmingham Town Hall attended by 300
leading property professionals. They will now go forward to the
national awards event in London in October.