Allianz

Creating a magnetising, flexible hospitality lounge space for Allianz

In 2022, long-standing client Allianz approached us needing a workplace design partner to completely transform an underutilised 5,600 sqft space in one of its London offices into a destination hospitality lounge for its underwriters to meet with external brokers.

Our investigations into the user needs and usage patterns for the space identified that it could support a broader range of activities and teams, championing flexibility, collaboration, and agility, the foundations of Allianz’s new Ways of Working (WOW) standards. These global standards were introduced for all Allianz offices in 2021 as a blueprint to address future ways of working for the organisation post covid.

We suggested dividing the space into three zones that could be reconfigured to support a range of activities:

• The Social Club zone is a space to host informal or formal events including town halls, this could adapt from lounge settings to conference layouts reutilising furniture from within the other zones.  It features an upgraded tea point which we turned into a high-end hospitality bar area using innovative materials. 
• The Fast & Furious zone supports the Allianz underwriters meeting with external brokers for face-to-face negotiations, while for evening events this entire space can be cleared for larger functions.  
• The Recharge & Reconnect zone offers Allianz employees a space with a range of work settings to cater for individual tasks and internal meetings. The material aesthetics are more subdued and we added enhanced acoustic properties to create a calmer, rejuvenating space.  

We worked very closely with the Allianz team transforming the underutilised office space into a popular, flexible hospitality lounge through a light-touch interior design scheme within a nine-month program. We reused the existing partitioning and joinery whilst using a mix of new and refurbished furniture to create the final look. Design upgrades on acoustics and lighting now enhance the user’s experience and can now support a variety of event layouts. 

The redesign of the space opened an opportunity for dialogue with the Allianz marketing team to create, not just a space that represents the culture of Allianz brand globally, but also reflects the local culture helping users to identify with the environment and feel welcomed.

The finished project demonstrated the full capabilities of the IE design team delivering a full design scope project in a short timeframe, involving the Allianz team in the design process and delivering the fantastic space on time and within budget.

OUTCOMES

The new space is highly popular, exceeding expectations for bookings. Allianz’s utilisation of internal space not only meets user needs but also results in substantial savings on external space and catering expenses.