In Practice: With tp bennett Manchester.

Long before we opened our first Studio, the tp bennett team in Manchester was an invaluable source of advice, ideas, and friendship.

And this has continued over the last four-years. When in the company of a member of the tp bennett team, you know about it. In a really good way.

tp bennett has an ethos, underpinned by the support of people, and a true desire to contribute to the betterment of the environments we all inhabit. And this approach is consistent practice wide. In Manchester, this all filters through the senior leadership team, consisting of Leigh Dimelow, principal director for the north, Leanne Wookey, interiors director, Andrew Leaver, architectural director, Peter Pringle, technical interiors director, and Andrew McLean, director for the Leeds office – a collective of incredible design professionals, steering the helm of a busy studio.

For all of these reasons, when it came to planning our North West visits for In Practice, tp bennett was a definite. Welcoming Darren Clanford, co-founder & creative director, Material Source, and Laura Connelly, editor-in-chief, Material Source to the team’s Ancoats’ home were Leanne and Andrew Leaver, alongside Lauren Cuthbert, business development coordinator, for a chat and tour of their reimagined workspace in Royal Mills. Let’s delve into the detail…

A heritage home

Choosing a Grade II listed building for its Manchester office was no coincidence, explained Leanne. The intention was to mirror the ‘DNA’ of the tp bennett London office, whose workspace on America Street is also housed in a heritage site. After 7-years in the historic Royal Mills building – an iconic piece of the city’s industrial fabric – in the coveted Ancoats area, it might be time for expansion in the not-too-distant future thanks to a trajectory of growth. The team is 30 strong in Manchester, shares Leanne.

The practice's Leeds office at 1 City Square, one of tp bennett’s refurbishment projects for APAM Catella, has just celebrated its sixth birthday, and equally has a growing team, currently 12 strong.

Beautiful aesthetics & bespoke options

In Manchester, the team has worked to make Royal Mills feel like its own. Its original details are beautiful. And this mixes with the new elements seamlessly. Large windows with restored wooden shutters, vaulted ceilings are fitted with programmable lighting to allow personalisation for the team, and a range of different zones – including a focused working area that was previously a utility space – now curved booths with a soft green palette – enables people to do their best work, however required.

The lighting was a core focus, because it could offer an element of control that is so evidently crucial in the comfort of people at work now. “It’s all wirelessly managed via a Casambi lighting control system. We have different options for scene setting generally, but also have task lighting at desk positions, which are for hot desking, that can be personally controlled.”

With all the desks being open for hot desking, has that caused any issues? Andrew says not, that people naturally move around the space depending on the task at hand, As with all successful flexible working environments, all workstations have now been equipped with a uniform IT setup consisting of dual screens and laptop docking stations to serve the agile workforce, supported by alternative work settings for ad-hoc meetings and interactions throughout the office space. With the future in mind, evolution is ongoing, Leanne says. This won’t be the last iteration of the office. “We haven't stopped evolving".

In this sense, it’s very much practicing what it preaches to clients in terms of providing flexible, people-centric workplaces.

Acoustics was another area that tp bennett approached with the same diligence it provides to its clients. “The extent of glazing within enclosed meeting room spaces was reduced as part of the recent works with the extent of solid walls increased to allow much needed surface area for acoustic treatment to better support the increased demand for online meeting interactions”, Leanne explains.

Knowledge is power

This example of sector leadership is also mirrored in its award-winning materials database – Ad Lib – recently brought up on one of our roundtables as being an industry trailblazer.

It has essentially introduced a “vetting process”, so that, “even when a client’s not going for an accreditation, we have a foundation of sustainability". It entails a “seven-point questionnaire system – aimed at asking the relevant questions about everything from carbon to recyclability before we specify any materials", Leanne told us.

“We are involved with a lot of adaptive repurpose and re-use projects, such as 2 Wellington Place in Leeds, where we take a building, understand its bones, the aspirations of the client and the needs of the market to provide a sustainable solution for demanding and informed occupiers”.

One such project, tp bennett's new build office development at 11 & 12 Wellington Place in Leeds, was the first building outside of London to achieve a NABERS Design for Performance rating of 5 stars.

A dedicated materials library here at the Manchester office provides a space for inspiration – “it’s very popular in here”, said Leanne, as we headed inside to explore the samples.

Now enclosed, allowing the space to be AV enabled to maximise its use for client presentations and hybrid reviews with online participants, the new version of the library is “heavily utilised by the team and clients alike”, said Leanne.

The Material Library – with bespoke joinery carefully crafted by Tim Denton, Leanne's colleague of old - is adorned with a myriad of materials showcasing the best the industry has to offer.

Leanne pointed out a section within the space which has been dedicated to “supplier takeovers”. Inviting suppliers in to set up their new products in the library area for people to drop in throughout the day. The team also has weekly CPD sessions, both within the materials library and open office space, to ensure the team are well versed and able to provide the highest level of support to their clients and colleagues.

This close bond between practice and supplier has led to a wealth of knowledge sharing Leanne and Andrew tell us – “we go to great efforts to gain the knowledge from suppliers to allow us to best advise our clients on projects”.

Sustainability has got to be the foundation of design and not an afterthought as it has been in the industry in the past.

Support & wellbeing

As we mentioned at the top, ‘support’ is a word that cropped up throughout our visit. This is not only illustrated through the way the physical space has been designed, but also in what tp bennett offers.

Leanne told us “We take wellness very seriously as a business and as a team and have lots of initiatives and incentives for the team to promote wellbeing including a social Thursday morning breakfast club in the office, Thursday drinks towards the end of the day each week and monthly town hall events with activity-based team socials”.

Although they have an option to work from home twice a week – something the team agreed on together as a whole after lockdown, “do people come in more now?” asked Darren, since the office space has been reimagined. “Yes”, said Leanne, “people are choosing to come in more” – “surely that’s the ultimate tick”, Darren suggested.

Is the need for flexibility getting easier to communicate to clients? Darren asked. Yes, came the response, and now there are more stakeholders involved in the process. “There can be five different clients essentially”, said Leanne, “with five different agendas – a space can’t just be aesthetically pleasing.

"Clients have become much more informed and educated around what their estate needs to offer for tenants or their staff, which makes a world of difference when challenging the status quo of what is now needed in an office building in the eyes of the fund."

“Architects and designers are now seen more as a trusted strategic partners to clients rather than just service providers, with our advice, knowledge and experience being heavily lent on more now than ever before”, Andrew added.

Nurturing new talent

Students and recent graduates are very much welcomed at the studio. And their presence is valued. “All the placements we offer are paid”, explained Andrew, “and we set up dummy projects, based on ones we’ve done before, so we can offer real-world experience from start to finish.”

This was another driving factor for having a consistent three-days per week working from the office – “people learn through osmosis”, commented Leanne, “and you forget how much you learn by just being in the room, hearing discussions, hearing problems, and how they're solved.”

One stellar example of a placement that’s led to a longer-term relationship is Beatrice Allen – a second-year student at Manchester Metropolitan University who has been with the team for 18-months, supporting on a range of projects. “We love having her here – and it’s amazing to get those unique perspectives from people at different stages in their careers”, commented Leanne, who is also a staple speaker at MMU’s Green Week.

“People learn through osmosis” – Leanne

“I got into design originally because I strongly believe that design is for everyone. And design is everywhere. Everything has been designed”, said Leanne. “You can’t escape design”, added Andrew.

“For us as a business, it’s important for us to instil in our juniors the process and the why. They meet the client, they go through the process, they sit with them, we make sure they understand the process. It's not just: why did you choose that product? It’s talk to me. Explain to me - why? What was it about? So, they really understand it. And we do need that knowledge to come from the supply chain. We don’t want ‘this is a really nice range’. We want ‘it’s sustainable, it’s circular, because of this’…” Leanne commented.

On the topic of “knowledge being king”, Leanne brought up Material Source Studio as a resource that’s been particularly useful for the team. “It was at times our temporary home while our office was being refitted, and it’s also been great for us to take students – they love exploring the materials. It's exciting. It's exciting for us. It's exciting for me. I've been in the industry for 20 years, and I love coming into the space.”

This was the very reason Material Source Studio was founded, says Darren. “I’d come back from London to Manchester after working there all week, and I thought, ‘we have this amazing creative community in the north, and there was nothing for them. I felt like we had to democratise it. Design is for everyone."

As we walked back through the workspace, bustling with activity, but extremely calm, we spotted a beautiful Japanese wooden panel – “handmade” Andrew tells us from Hinoki. This attention to detail, purposeful, skilled craft on central display in the scheme is perhaps the perfect visual indicator of tp bennett’s core values. Sustainability full circle – for both people and planet – to make the world a more interesting, healthy, and enjoyable place.

A huge thank you to the tp bennett Manchester team for taking the time to show us around your workspace – we really enjoyed our morning and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Would you like us to visit your practice? Let us know!