Carnival House is the new headquarters space for Carnival UK (the holding company for five of the best-known cruise lines in the UK: Cunard, P&O Cruises, Ocean Village, Princess and Yachts of Seabourn).
Previously located in five different buildings around Southampton, these brands now share a single space, one designed to facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas between teams via open plan areas and free access to different departments. (Not to mention it floods the place with tons of daylight!) Check out the cool cruise-ship-like atrium and the whole Flickr set to see what we mean…
Last week Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino from Tinker London gave a lunch lecture at HOK London about digital data and the city.
I had met Alexandra at liftconference this spring, where she was giving a short talk on her firm’s work (here a link to her talk). And immediately I thought: that’s a great topic for a lunch talk at HOK.
We provided Alex with a good audience – in spite of the sunny weather outside the boardroom was packed with people.
Tinker London
Alex is the founder of Tinker London, a digital and interactive design firm. She specializes in an area called “the internet of things” – a way of linking objects to the internet and get usable data out of them. …
Noun 1. village green – a village park consisting of a plot of grassy land
The village green is the very symbol of a perfect English summer. For those who aren’t from our shores, it evokes memories of peculiar warm beer, strange cricket matches and Morris men dancing round the maypole.
It even has a place in literature. The romance of the village green and idyllic countryside have long been celebrated by great artists and writers including Virgil and Constable. But this important public open space has always been much more than a whimsical notion or just a place where “ye olde Englande” could maintain its quaintness for visiting tourists. It …
It’s with a tear in my eye that I am bidding farewell HOK. I have had the best of times here; I will miss my colleagues and clients; HOK people are truly some of the most talented and inspirational I have ever come across. Not to mention the most personable, I have made some of my best friend here. However, I will not be far away and will be in close contact (whether my colleagues like it or not!), I’m hoping to gate-crash the odd post-work drinks or two!
I will also be sure to be checking in on Life at HOK often and leaving you comments. So you too will not be getting rid of me all together!
So, I sense you wondering, where is …
It is customary in the London office to bring in some sweet treats when it’s your birthday. Last month it was my birthday so I thought I’d raid the store cupboard and try the ‘homemade’ approach instead of going to the supermarket.
I’ve now had so many requests for more homemade goodies that I have made this a monthly tradition. So in February there were HOK-themed cupcakes…
… and this month I went for lemon traybakes (see recipe below). I love to bake but usually end up stuffing my face, so it’s really nice to be able to share the calories with others 
It is such a simple idea and yet it gets brilliant results: it boosts staff moral as well …
I reported back in March 2009 that our London staff have moved to a new location in the heart of Fitzrovia. Well now I am now very excited to report that HOK’s London office is now officially the 16th HOK office to become LEED Certified. HOK’s London office has been awarded a Gold certification – a first for a UK commercial interior project.
Shashi Narayanan, Head of Sustainable Architecture in the London office (and whom I’m lucky enough to sit next to!) said, “the design team were set the challenge of achieving a high LEED rating within normal budgetary constraints for a commercial office interior. An examination of recycled content of …
Mark Cannata, MA RIBA, AABC, joined HOK’s London office in December 2008 as Head of Culture + Heritage.
Mark grew up in Italy, where he studied Architectural Engineering at the University of Catania before returning to the UK to study Architecture at Leeds Metropolitan University and the Architectural Association. Prior to joining HOK, he worked in the UK and Italy, spending five years as head of the Historic Buildings Unit at John McAsian + Partners in London. Here he worked on transformation projects for some of the most important 20th century buildings, including Erich Mendelsohn’s De La Warr Pavilion and James Stirling’s History Faculty Library.
One of HOK’s fastest-growing markets …
HOK London’s new(ish) office at The Qube played host to our 2nd ever pub quiz night last Friday. I’m not sure if you have Quiz Nights in the US, I’m sure you do, but basically what happens over here is usually a local pub has a Quiz Night where customers form teams and play in competition to answer general knowledge questions. These nights can get very competitive, especially if the prize is alcohol, and we found, especially if other teams are colleagues!
So on Friday our ‘Quizmasters’ were schools-designer supremo Stefan Jakobek, justice building king Femi Oresanya and my wonderful Advance Strategies colleague Anna Sigler. These three designed some rather challenging questions for …
Today’s London Evening Standard (which has a circulation of over 600,000) reported the planned HOK-designed “superlab” to help beat cancer.
The £500 million UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation will cover 3.6 acres near the British Library in King’s Cross and house 1,500 scientists. Scheduled to open in 2014, it will study the basic biology that causes the formation and spread of cancer and other diseases such as malaria.
This is an incredibly exciting project that HOK London are proud to be part of. Take at the Standard’s article.
Yesterday morning I organised our first office yoga session with the wonderful instructors from beyoco.
We had a nice little turn out; filling the boardroom with positive energies and flexible limbs to gear us up for the day. I’m hoping to start this small and eventually encourage a wider group of people (namely some men as it was all women yesterday!) as they see how we emerge zen-like from the class.
Our objective through practising yoga at work is to train our minds to de-stress, take a step back from our work, think more creatively and, of course, helps release tension in our bodies. There is hearsay (I can’t find any actual studies into this) that yoga at work …
It is thought that golf first started on our fair isle – apparently the earliest known reference to golf dates to 1457, when King James II of Scotland banned golf and football, on the grounds that they where keeping his subjects from their archery practice. The ban was repeated in 1471 by James III and in 1491 by James IV for the same reason…
Luckily for us, golf is no longer banned in the UK. If fact British golf has seen a significant increase in new players in the past two years, according to figures from Sport England to the tune of over 59,000 new players.
Some of those may include the 15 HOKers who took part in the first HOK Golf …
On 4th October Blenheim Palace opened its World Heritage Site Park to cyclists for the second time to host Bike Blenheim Palace. The event celebrated cycling in all its forms, including a 20km Time Trial, leisure rides, Sportif and provided its unique staging for the 2009 Brompton World Championship.
The reason I am brining this to your attention is that three of my fellow HOK Londoners took part in the event this year.
The picture is of the Brompton 2009 World Championships, and modelling is our very own Tim! Now you have evidence …
HOK London has been chosen to supply the workplace and interior design for the second phase of the BBC’s Broadcasting House development in central London.
The BBC is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, with a mission to enrich people’s lives with programmes that inform, educate and entertain. It is a public service broadcaster, established by a Royal Charter.
The project team – who you can see below (and yes that is me)! – are incredibly excitied about this opportunity and looking forward to getting started. We will draw on our extensive experience in interior design and workplace strategy (Advance Strategies) including Guardian News and Media (subject of a previous blog post), some great shots of which can be found on their own website. But
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Yesterday the many different disciples from HOK London collaborated to run a workshop with a 25 school kids between the ages of 11 and 18. The all-day session was set up by Stefan Jakobek, who heads up our Education department here, Studio Schools Trust and The Young Foundation to understand what sort of spaces students would respond well to a new type of school that is being developed here – the Studio School.
The idea of Studio Schools is to help 14-19 year olds better prepare for the world of work. They aim to provide young people with qualifications and a full range of skills – while also engaging them in working in, and running, businesses and social enterprises directly serving customers.
Studio …
On Monday Tony Barnard, HOK London Historic Buildings Consultant, received the ‘Gold Green Apple Award’ and was also the ‘Green Champion’ winner for its category for a project HOK London was involved in: Clarkencombe Lodge at Ashton Court in Bristol.
The ‘Green Apple Awards for the Built Environment and Architectural Heritage’ were organised by The Green Organisation and held in beautiful Hampton Court Palace.
Clarkencombe Lodge is one of Ashton Court’s five lodges, each of which were designed as gateways into the estate. It dates from c1840 and prior to the completed work was in a derelict state and in urgent need of repair. It is constructed mostly of limestone with sandstone turrets in
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HOK’s Mandarin Oriental MoscowI thought I’d share with you all the fantastic news that HOK London has won the commission to design Russia’s most exclusive and luxurious hotel, a part of the luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel chain. This five-star development will be located in a 19th Century house on Tverskaya Road – Moscow’s equivalent to London’s Oxford Street.
The historic building housing the hotel was originally constructed as a private manor house. Two of the historic facades will be retained, along with listed rooms on the ground and first floors. The hotel’s interior features a contemporary approach on a Faberge egg – a
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HOK London has just stated work on Soho Lodge, a charming Tudor-style, Grade II listed summerhouse located in the heart of Soho Square. The unique Lodge – there is no other in London – is suffering from wear and tear and old age and we are giving it a bit of a facelift!
The landmark dates back to 1875 and was originally built at the expense of the residents of Soho Square. HOKLondon is leading the renovation through its specialist conservation team. The architects have crafted designs that carefully renovate the old timbers, removing the decay that will help prevent the lodge from further sinking and twisting. Evidence suggests
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Yesterday - Go Barefoot Day – HOK London launched an ideas competition for the re-use of waste material. This is focusing on waste material found in the office, to utilise it for a different purpose within the office.
Below is the poster we’re using to promote the competition within the office… if anyone would like to email me their ideas to help me win the competition feel free!! I may even give you a cut of the prize… I do say ’may’…
All comments welcome! I will let you know the ideas my creative colleagues come up with (we might patent them first though 
)!
Granted, I am a couple of weeks late in posting this, but it’s official: HOK London’s design studio has a new home! We are now residing in the signature Qube building at the north end of Tottenham Court Road (see image below). As well as being aesthetically beautiful, Qube has achieved the highest building and environmental standards, achieving a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating (the UK’s equivalent to LEED).
James Berry, HOK London, Director of Management & Operations, commented on our move:
“HOK understand that the built environment has a profound affect on people’s lives. We chose Qube for its fantastic central location and the high quality of the building’s architecture and interiors. As a signature …
2 January 2009 | Posted inAudio
Posted by Emma 
This morning I was listening to the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, which is probably the most respected morning radio news show in the UK. If you haven’t listened to it before I thoroughly recommend the podcast. It features political, economic and social debates from the worlds most powerful and/or inspiring thought leaders.
This morning Zaha Hadid was guest-editing the programme, so as you may guess there was a heavy design emphasis. Hadid gave an interesting interview which you can listen to here. But what I was most interested in was an interview with the CEO of Vitra about how the best design is usually achieved under the pressured conditions of …
Exciting news… HOK London are publishing a book! My very own copy has just landed on my desk (hot desk of course… so my desk for the day) but you lot will not be able to get your sticky paws on a copy until it is published on 17th November.
It’s called HOK London: Diversity in Design. Click this link for a short synopsis.
