Ideas
Projects
Sectors
Services
Project
Specialist Risk Group
The natural home of specialist people and business
London
40,000
sqft
Office space
Outcomes
Challenge
People
Connected 400 colleagues on one floor, strengthening collaboration, pride and everyday connection.
Insight
Place
A 40,000 sq ft single-floor home anchored by a central heart space that promotes movement, openness and cross-team collaboration.
Solution
Planet
Extensive planting, maximised natural light and material re-use create a balanced environment that supports well-being and long-term environmental responsibility.
Connected 400 colleagues on one floor, strengthening collaboration, pride and everyday connection.
A 40,000 sq ft single-floor home anchored by a central heart space that promotes movement, openness and cross-team collaboration.
Extensive planting, maximised natural light and material re-use create a balanced environment that supports well-being and long-term environmental responsibility.
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SRG’s transformation went beyond relocation. As one of the UK’s fastest-growing insurance intermediaries, the challenge was to unite multiple acquired businesses and create a HQ that reflected their ambition to join the UK’s top twenty brokers.
We partnered with SRG from strategy through to activation, to design a workplace that connects people, purpose and performance in one cohesive home. Guided by their belief in “Difficult done well,” every stage of the project reflected SRG’s commitment to delivering complex change with care and precision.
Together, we created a single connected home for 400 people - uniting SRG’s culture, empowering collaboration and setting a sustainable foundation for growth.
Building unity through growth
SRG’s growth strategy was built on acquisition. Over time, distinct businesses with their own identities, systems and habits joined the Group. Opportunity increased, but so did fragmentation. Colleagues were spread across locations and collaboration often relied on scheduled calls rather than everyday proximity. The move to the 7th floor of the St Botolph Building created the moment to consolidate on a single, 40,000 sq ft floor and turn structural separation into genuine connection.
Leaders were clear about what was needed from the new headquarters.
“As a people and culture-oriented business, we need a home that is representative, professional, demonstrates scale and professionalism, but also feels like a home for the business where we can collaborate, spend time together, eat meals together and be everything we can be.”
Warren Downey, Group Chief Executive Officer
That ambition reflects SRG’s wider vision of building a company we’re proud to tell our family and friends about - a unifying idea that shaped every decision from strategy to delivery.
The brief was therefore to create a single environment that unites legacy cultures, accelerates decision-making and expresses SRG’s one-team identity.
Aligning culture and performance
Our discovery combined leadership interviews, employee input and operational mapping. The insight was simple and decisive: SRG’s entrepreneurial spirit drives growth, but sustained performance depends on everyday connection.
We translated that into three guiding principles:
1. Transparency builds trust - reduce physical barriers, improve line-of-sight and make leadership more visible in the flow of work.
2. Movement drives connection - place social and collaborative settings along natural circulation to create frequent, informal encounters.
3. Belonging enables performance - design for inclusion and shared pride so every colleague feels part of one SRG, not a legacy team.
This strategic spine gave every subsequent decision a clear purpose: design choices had to make collaboration easier, strengthen identity and support long-term growth.
Translating strategy into space
With strategy set, our design and delivery teams worked as one to translate intent into experience on SRG’s single-floor plate.
One floor, one community
We planned working neighbourhoods around a central heart space so movement naturally draws people together. Circulation loops through the middle of the floor, increasing chance encounters between teams. The result is a daily rhythm where specialists meet, share context and solve faster - a physical expression of one organisation rather than separate legacies.
Design that feels like home
The visual language is warm, confident and calm. Natural textures, soft lighting and hospitality-inspired settings replace corporate sterility with a professional but human feel. Informal lounges and coffee points sit alongside touchdown benches and meeting rooms, so conversation can move easily from quick check-ins to deeper collaboration. This home-like quality reflects leadership intent for a space that feels welcoming without losing the polish expected by clients and partners.
Nature, light and sustainability
We leveraged full-height glazing and the central atrium to maximise daylight across working zones. Planting is used generously in social and focus areas to improve comfort and help define zones. Material reuse and efficient building systems reduce waste and operational impact. The winter-terrace garden adds a restorative setting that extends the floorplate for informal collaboration and quiet focus, supporting well-being and environmental responsibility together.
Supporting neurodiversity and choice
Acoustics, lighting and furniture typologies vary by zone to support different modes of work. Quiet rooms and semi-enclosed booths provide refuge for focused tasks and calls. Open collaboration areas enable co-creation, stand-ups and ad hoc sessions. This balance gives colleagues more control over where and how they work, strengthening inclusion and everyday performance.
This integrated approach - from insight to activation - turned strategic intent into a tangible experience that feels authentic to SRG’s culture and ambitions.
Culture and performance in motion
The new headquarters has changed how the organisation works. Teams that once operated independently now share context daily. Movement through the heart space encourages unplanned conversations, while proximity between functions speeds decisions and unlocks cross-selling opportunities. The environment is also a powerful signal to clients, partners and prospective hires.
“One of the key principles we have as a group, it's not just about being people, it's about people working together in collaboration and this office has been built around that at its centre.”
Lee Anderson, Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Culture as infrastructure
For SRG, this headquarter is not just an office, but a visible step in their evolution. The design privileges collaboration at the centre of the plan and brings people together in settings that feel natural and shared.
The result aligns with what SRG set out to achieve: a place that is representative and professional, yet also a home where people can come together.
“It’s going to have a quite a significant impact not only on our existing staff, but on clients and other people in the market when they come and visit and on new people who come to work with us. I think that when they come and see the space we've got here, they'll feel that this is something they want to be part of.”
Joe Hanly, Group Chief Financial Officer
By aligning strategy with space, SRG now has a HQ that reinforces identity, strengthens relationships and supports continued growth.
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