The Hive

As Oxford’s newest and largest co-working space, The Hive’s bee house site aims to provide a working office environment with a relaxed homely feel.

The design and layout of the building inside offers a variety of facilities and flexible working areas from those where individuals can work quietly on their own, to group meeting rooms and other collaboration spaces.

This project involved the furniture fit out of a three storey building incorporating a number of different spaces with a variety of uses such as a café, offices, business lounge and staff break out areas.

The inspiration behind the design for the transformation was that of a bee hive. In order to help incorporate this into the interior scheme, bespoke, hexagon-shaped, feature shelving units were included. Hexagonal seating pods were also added to help create the impression of a beehive’s honeycombed interior.

The fabrics and textures used for the furniture, were chosen specifically to meet the needs of their intended use. For example, faux leather was used in the café in order to allow for the seating to be cleaned easily whilst woollen fabrics were selected for use in the meeting rooms due to their acoustic properties.

A variety of furniture styles feature across the different areas of the building, such as fitted banquet seating, high chairs, plush arm chairs together with smart and practical monochrome desks with adjustable task seating for the offices.

These were all added considerations. The furniture products selected and supplied had to be durable, offer great value for money, comfortable and meet all the requirements of the building regulations.

This all helped to ensure that the end result provided all of the necessary elements that are required for a stylish, modern day, multifunctional office space.