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Weston opens swanky touch-free HQ

30 Sep 20 House-builder Weston Group has opened a new head office near Stansted airport that it reckons is one of the smartest and classiest in the industry.

Weston Innovation Centre loounge area
Weston Innovation Centre loounge area

Weston’s new £40m HQ building has been specially designed to provide space for social distancing and health safeguarding on all floors, with touch-free automatic entry barriers and touch-free automatic lifts.  

The Weston Innovation Centre represents a new £20m 49,000 sq ft addition to the existing £20m business park known as the Stansted Business Hub in Takeley. The new office has a hotel style entrance, brasserie restaurant, bar/lounge, multi-storey atrium and an on-site gymnasium.

The company said that it “wanted to create an outstanding new headquarters building which would exceed staff expectations and deliver a really enjoyable and exhilarating place for work, downtime and productivity”.

Weston Group has sold the Weston Innovation Centre building to Uttlesford District Council and then leased the building back from the Council, providing Weston with headquarters premises and the council with a long term investment asset.

The glass fronted building was designed by Weston Group’s in-house architectural design studio, working in conjunction with interior designer Oz Lancaster.

Chairman and managing director Bob Weston said: “The new state-of-the-art HQ building sets a benchmark for quality in terms of headquarter buildings and provides office space, amenities and leisure facilities to help ensure we deliver the very best working environment within the housebuilding industry.”

Access to the first floor is provided by a curved double staircase which rises through the atrium. The underside of the double staircase is polished black with runway lighting, a design inspired by the Dolce & Gabbana flagship store. There is also high-speed lift access to all floors and other stairwells. The building is complete with three floors of open plan office space. Each floor of the Weston Innovation Centre provides breakout areas with coffee machines and comfortable seating.

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Breakout areas with coffee machines
Breakout areas with coffee machines

Part of the top floor of the building, bordered by floor to ceiling glass windows, acts as a corporate suite for entertaining VIP guests with a model room filled with scale-models of the group’s various developments, alongside panels and photography on the walls explaining the history of Weston Group and its legacy for guests and employees to view. There is also secure underground parking for staff.

The gym
The gym

Gym changing rooms
Gym changing rooms

Interior designer Oz Lancaster with Bob Weston
Interior designer Oz Lancaster with Bob Weston

Not all that special from the outside...
Not all that special from the outside...

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