Onward Homes, Liverpool
Transformative workplace proposals for Onward’s Liverpool office

The Watson Building is an existing office building in central Liverpool, providing 75,000 sqft of accommodation over 8 levels. In 2019, Onward announced it’s decision to relocate their Liverpool presence to new premises within the building, taking 20,000 sqft of floorspace. Onward – formed from the merger of five separate housing associations – took levels 3 and 4, each comprising approximately 10,000 sqft net internal space.

To help facilitate this move, 5plus was appointed to develop proposals for the interior fit out design for the two floors. The aim of the commission was to develop a high quality internal fit-out, meeting the aspirations and commercial requirements of the client.

A key driver within the brief was to provide a flexible open workspace facilitating transformational change in the way Onward operate. The project involved modification to the CAT A base building and CAT B interior fit-out as well as furniture and IT procurement. The fit-out broadly included:

• Floor & Ceiling finishes

• Purpose made joinery

• Partitions

• Mechanical and electrical services

• Graphics and branding

• Way-finding and statutory signage

• Furniture

• IT

The final scheme accommodates approximately 170 workstations across the two-floors, based on an average desk sharing ratio of 80%. These workspaces include a number of flexible work settings to enable the agile working environment aspired to. In addition to the workspace settings, the following support spaces are provided; reception, customer area, meeting suites, print hubs, IT support areas, storage, kitchens, showers and welfare facilities.