Office sweet office

Every day, it seems, a new thinkpiece either declares or denies the death of the office. Most Londoners with a desk job haven’t stepped on a tube in months. The summer is tantalising us with the promise of warm days and connecting with colleagues, but for now the skies are grey. Meanwhile, Brent Cross Town has launched not a single office building, but an entire business community. In a word, it’s bold.

Related Argent’s head of office leasing, Piers Nickalls, is more than confident. This new town’s exemplary sports and play facilities – codenamed Project Play – and its ‘ecosystem’ vision make it, he argues, the missing piece in creating a healthier, more innovative, more sustainable workplace for London. In short, offices so good that you can’t bear to stay away.

We sat down with Piers for a video call and asked him to explain more about the vision for Brent Cross Town’s offices.

By designing Brent Cross Town as a business ecosystem, would you say you are doing on purpose what a lot of other developers have created semi-by accident: knowledge clusters?

Yes, it’s intentional; you only have to look at the research that comes out of McKinsey and Deloitte to see that the ecosystem is the future of business. The broad range of occupiers that will come to Brent Cross Town will have a shared desire to be part of a network greater than their own and share common values of championing health and wellbeing and sustainability. By leveraging and mobilising each other’s resources and expertise they’re able to co-create superior products and services they could not create on their own.

To foster meaningful partnerships, we’ve designed dynamic spaces that strengthen interaction and knowledge sharing. We’re not in the silo business of, “This is my office, this is my building, this is my floor.” We’re encouraging people to go into different elements of the building. The culture club at 2 Brent Cross Town will have a big auditorium where there’ll be TED talks and product launches, it’ll be a showcase.

Mergers and acquisitions are an expensive, slow way to grow your business and the great thing with a value network is you don’t have to buy the companies – but what you do need is trust. You’re saying, “I value what you do and I want you to look at what I’ve done and together we’re going to create something new that the market hasn’t seen.” That’s the ecosystem.

But you’ve got to trust that I’m not going to take your ideas and go off and do my own thing?

That’s one of the challenges of a successful ecosystem: how do you create trust and enthusiasm for people to share their ideas? Project Play is key to building trust. Brent Cross Town will be the place in London to participate in sport and play. It taps into the importance of physical activity, whether it be traditional sports, challenger sports or dancing and playing games – all are important for people’s physical, mental and social wellbeing. Sport and play is about bringing people together. It can also be about bringing companies together – and that’s good for the strategy of the ecosystem. If you get to know people within the organisations you’re rubbing shoulders with, that’s how you foster relationships, communication and ultimately, knowledge share.

I’d never made the connection between Project Play and fostering trust, but it rings true because the post-match banter and all of those incidental playful moments build relationships.

It’s just like you and me playing Fortnite or whatever. We are playing something that you and I have in common, that we enjoy and that builds a relationship and you say to me, “What are you up to?” And I say, “I’m creating a new app.” And that ultimately is how this works, that’s how you benefit from being within this ecosystem. It’s building trust, it’s building relationships in a fun, energetic, positive environment that then leads to business connections. It doesn’t just sit at chief executive and the C-suite level, it sits at every level of the business. A healthy ecosystem is at multiple levels within the organisation.

Could you tell me about the office in the post-covid era? Collaboration is coming to the forefront as the reason why we go into a physical office. 

Yes, when you wake up, you’ve got a decision to make whether you go in to the office or whether you work from home. And you’ll probably make a decision based on the type of tasks you’re doing. 

Quality of life is fundamental to working at Brent Cross Town. You’ve got timber buildings that are proven to help improve productivity and health and wellbeing – and that’s powerful. The aesthetics, the touch, the acoustics, the light, the quality: it’s an inspiring place to work and very few people’s home offices have that level of quality of environment. You will choose to work here on a daily basis just because of that. Having that al fresco dining that you can’t get at home – your favourite pizza overlooking Claremont Park – or a run with a colleague around the playing fields.

Do you feel a sense of excitement on a personal level to be working on a project like Brent Cross Town, which is taking wellbeing very seriously? 

Yes. Look, I’m a passionate sports fan and I truly understand the benefits of getting out and getting active with friends and colleagues. I know what it’s like (as many of us do right now) when I’m not able to be involved in social sport and exercise. That’s just me, but it doesn’t have to be traditional team sport! Whether it’s dancing, gymnastics, skateboarding or a cup of coffee and a game of chess with your best friend: Brent Cross Town will cater for all of that.

Visit our offices page for more information, or ring Cushman & Wakefield to enquire about office space on +44 (0)20 7935 5000.