NaughtOne Offices – Harrogate

NaughtOne is a contract furniture specialist that helps clients all over the world turn their offices into better places to focus, collaborate, connect and reflect. So when the company decided to move to a new UK headquarters in nearby Harrogate, it was a unique opportunity to design its own workplace of the future.

Over the last 18 months, Nadean McNaught has worked with Creative Director, Stephen Floyd, and MillerKnoll Design Manager for Branded Environments, Sam Davis, to bring to life the space. They have been careful to follow the NaughtOne motto: ‘absolute simplicity, infinite possibility’.

The design divides the floor into four zones to meet these varying needs and encourage movement and flexibility:

A kitchen space to gather, chat and prepare food and drink with ample seating for breaks, lunches or informal meetings

Glass-fronted meeting rooms in the centre of the space – an architectural intervention to divide the areas of focused work and collaboration

A quiet space with sound-proof phone rooms for virtual calls and team members who prefer quiet working

A workstation with 30 hot desks

On entering the office, people pass through a black-walled corridor which opens out to a relaxed touchdown space filled with NaughtOne lounge furniture and coffee tables, and flanked by huge windows overlooking treetops around the building. The corridor works as a transition from Central House into NaughtOne’s world.

The office is furnished almost entirely with NaughtOne designs with some pieces handpicked from other MillerKnoll brands. NaughtOne have made sure to use the products in the same way customers would: in the right spaces and in different formulations for various group sizes. The space will double up as a northern showroom for customers to visit.

Sustainability was also a hugely important detail in the choice of location and design of the space. The project team considered every detail, making sure choices were smart and future focused. The office is well-insulated and powered by renewable energy, with light sensors used throughout. Central House’s sustainability credentials were also a key factor in the decision to make it the new NaughtOne home. It is Harrogate’s only LEED-certified building with excellent public transport links and electric car-charging points.

Nadean was attracted to the greenery and outside spaces too. Sitting right on the edge of town by the countryside, there are plenty of places nearby for walks and a big courtyard for everyone in the building.

In addition, construction will soon be completed on a NaughtOne space on the floor below which will be used by the Design & Engineering team as a Research & Development hub.