107 Cheapside: a new home for the next stage of growth for AIS

From workplace to showroom 

As AIS has grown, so has the calibre and complexity of the work we deliver. 107 Cheapside needed to reflect that. The design team approached parts of the workplace almost as a live showroom, demonstrating how different levels of investment can still produce considered, high-performing environments.  

A gold, silver and bronze approach was developed across the space, allowing clients to experience different specifications rather than simply seeing them on a sample board. The highest-specification areas demonstrate what is possible when performance and finish are pushed further. Double-glazed, slab-to-slab partitions provide enhanced acoustic performance. Plasterboard and soft-cell acoustic ceilings conceal integrated services; fabric-wrapped columns and crafted plaster archways introduce softness and detail, while high-end AV demonstrates the level of technology available to clients. 

The boardroom alone incorporates five cameras as part of an advanced meeting-room set-up, creating an environment designed around increasingly sophisticated hybrid collaboration. Elsewhere, the design demonstrates how intelligent specification can achieve a premium feel at a more considered cost. PET acoustic panels, painted finishes and carefully selected stone-effect surfaces sit alongside higher-specification materials without creating an obvious visual drop in quality. Even in areas using single glazing, details such as the head track have been considered to maintain acoustic performance. 

It means the workplace doesn’t just show one version of a good design. It demonstrates what thoughtful design can achieve across different budgets, priorities and specifications.

Putting hospitality at the heart of the workplace 

At the centre of 107 Cheapside sits something AIS has wanted for a long time: a proper place to come together. The tea point occupies a prominent front-of-house position, visible immediately on entering the workplace – that placement was deliberate. 

AIS has always been a warm, people-focused business, and the new workplace needed to feel welcoming rather than overly corporate. Instead of hiding the social heart of the office behind rows of desks, it has been brought forward and made part of the client experience. 

Visitors can sit and work here; teams can come together over lunch. Positioned alongside the boardroom, it creates a flexible front-of-house environment that can move easily between everyday working, client meetings and events. 

The detailing goes much further than its appearance. The tea point has been divided into four functional zones based around how people actually use it, separating drinks, cleaning, waste and preparation. Storage has been planned around the point of use, alongside a dedicated pantry, milk refrigeration, dishwashers and six separate waste streams. It’s a small detail, but one that captures the wider philosophy of the workplace: every decision should have a reason behind it. 

Bringing the design process into view 

The design library occupies another prominent position close to the front of house. Rather than hiding samples and materials away in a back room, the library brings the design process into the workplace itself. 

The joinery was intricately planned to accommodate a wide variety of samples while remaining organised, functional and visually considered. Dividers allow it to feel contained without disconnecting it from the wider workplace. 

For AIS designers, it provides somewhere to develop palettes, build mood boards and explore material combinations. For clients, it opens up the thinking behind a finished proposal. They can see the choices, comparisons and iterations that happen before a design reaches them, turning the process itself into part of the experience. 

Designing around different ways of working 

The workplace provides 114 workstations including hot-desking positions, but the design goes well beyond desk provision. A dedicated quiet working area offers somewhere for focused work away from the main open-plan environment, with higher dividers providing greater visual separation. New phone booths have been selected and detailed around the realities of video calls, improving acoustics, airflow and ventilation while introducing lighting both overhead and in front of the user. 

A multipurpose room provides a private space that can support different needs, including use as a mother’s room or prayer space. And, importantly, the tea point now includes a dedicated lunch area rather than expecting social space to double permanently as overflow workspace. 

Together, these environments recognise something increasingly important about workplace design: people don’t work in one mode all day, so the workplace can’t be designed around one mode either. 

A palette that feels like AIS 

The material palette takes cues from the new AIS brand identity without turning the workplace into a physical brand manual. 

Light greys and warm neutrals create the foundation, layered with rich greens, timber, earthy tones, terracotta and softer beige finishes. Feature lighting and planting add further warmth, while biophilia has approximately doubled compared with the previous workplace. 

Artwork runs from front to back, combining purchased and commissioned pieces with work that connects to the AIS brand and story, grounded and sophisticated, but deliberately not overly corporate. 

There is an almost residential hospitality feel to parts of the front of house, carried through not only in the furniture and finishes but in the smaller details: artwork, planting, crockery, cutlery and the objects people interact with every day. 

A workplace experience that has truly been curated.  

Investing where it matters 

The new workplace didn’t mean everything needed to be new. Furniture and equipment from the previous office have been reused wherever they still perform well, including desks, lockers, televisions, AV hardware and other pieces. 

Investment has instead been directed towards areas where an upgrade genuinely improves the experience or performance of the workplace, from standardising monitors to improving phone booths and meeting technology. 

Material selection has also considered what happens beyond installation. A traction-backing carpet system has been trialled, for example, allowing carpet tiles to be installed without traditional adhesive and making them easier to separate and recycle in the future. 

High-traffic routes use durable vinyl rather than carpet, helping protect the workplace from spills and everyday wear while simultaneously becoming a design feature in their own right. 

A home that reflects how far we’ve come 

There has been a steady progression through AIS’s workplaces over the past decade. As the business has grown, so has the ambition behind the spaces it occupies: the quality of the finishes, the sophistication of the technology, the variety of settings and the expectations placed on the workplace itself. 

That progression reflects the way AIS has grown as a business: steadily, deliberately and within its means. 107 Cheapside is a live demonstration of it. It’s a destination where our people can do their best work and spend time together. Somewhere prospective employees can understand the kind of business they’re joining. Somewhere clients can experience different materials, technologies and specifications first-hand. And somewhere we can demonstrate not only what we design and build, but how we think. 

Most importantly, it’s somewhere we’re proud to call our home. We create space for growth. At 107 Cheapside, we’ve created it for ourselves.