We’re excited to bring you another insightful conversation with one of our members as part of our Feature Friday series! This week we speak to Associate Director & Sustainability Designer at tp bennett, Lucy Bagshaw.
WOD: How did you originally become involved with the workspace sector?
LB: “I’ve always worked in design, studying Architecture for 5 years in Cardiff and then starting my career in high end residential design. I worked in that side of the industry for around 8 years but wanted a change and a new challenge, so made the switch over to commercial and the workplace sector in 2017. To say residential and commercial design are within the same industry, the two worlds are very different… so it certainly has been a great challenge!”
WOD: And can you tell us more about your current role at tp bennett…
LB: “In the last couple of years I’ve migrated to be across both the interiors team and the sustainability team here, so I split my time between running international fit out projects with a fantastic team and then advising other teams on their projects and how we can embed sustainability in them. As a team we’re also working on some really exciting bespoke strategies for clients and I’m also heavily involved in developing our own strategy and pathway to net zero carbon.”
WOD: Can you talk us through the key issues relevant to your client base at the moment?
LB: “I think two key areas of interest have come up in the post-pandemic era: firstly, attraction and retention of staff. How do our clients get people back in the office, what will make them want to come in, how can they build their culture back up again and as people are reassessing their options how can they attract the best talent whilst keeping hold of their own?
The other is linked and I guess, pretty inevitable – health and wellbeing. Clients are becoming increasingly mindful that healthy working environments benefit the happiness, efficiency and engagement of their staff and so are more open to spaces offering variety of work setting, amenities (sanctuaries, parenting rooms, end of journey facilities etc.) and biophilic elements.”
WOD: And which of these issues do you personally find most interesting and challenging?
LB: “I’m personally most excited about how we can build restorative spaces which improve people’s quality of life and enjoyment of work. If we spend a third of our lives working, then surely we should all want our surroundings to support our wellbeing and enrich our day to day experiences?”
WOD: Can you provide some examples of recent projects you have worked on? And tell us what makes them stand out to you…
LB: “A small but really fun project was a Hybrid space for one of our banking clients.
We’ve worked with them a lot, to bring more agility to how they work and encourage more cross-pollination within their business units. But with this project, they pushed the boat out and we created a space which supported a connected collaborative workspace with a whole host of flexible furniture, cutting edge technology and an environment which bridges the in-person with the remote experience.”
