'Funky' chambers wins award

DIGITAL OFFICES: sleek technology inspires and motivates barristers and clerks

Smaller and sleeker office technology is a 'pre-requisite for the modern day workplace', it was claimed last week as a 'funky' barristers' chambers was recognised in a collection of the country's most visually exciting and inspirational places to work.

The chambers of Mark Platts-Mills QC at 8 New Square in Lincoln's Inn won third place in The Times & Gestetner Digital Office Collection, after a redesign that meant it 'could easily be mistaken for a cool advertising agency'.

The chambers came behind Bloomberg's European headquarters and Nike's offices, both in London.

The judges said the chambers were a place 'where traditional meets modern, as their grade I listed building houses a cutting-edge workspace with state-of-the-art technology, stimulating light features and touchy-feely furniture made of glass, leather, wood and stone'.

The organisers said that less is 'definitely more' in office IT nowadays, 'as plasma screens, laptops and all-in-one multi-functional devices take up less than a third of the space of their bulkier and aesthetically unpleasing predecessors.

The prevalence of wireless technology may mean that, one day, a jungle of wires, network cables and crowded plug sockets will be a thing of the past'.

Nigel Palmer, managing director of office IT company Gestetner, added: 'Office design has evolved dramatically over the last few years as more and more businesses understand the need to offer a "place to work" rather than a "place of work" to get the best out of their people and systems.

Four law firms were among the 53 entries: City firm Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, London media firm Olswang, and Bristol firms Osborne Clarke and TLT.

The chambers were designed by London-based Bere Architects.

Junior associate Dan Gibbons said the aim was to reduce 'the clutter inherent in IT-based offices'.

Each desk's drawer unit contains a glass-fronted hard drive housing, while cables are concealed by running through the spine of the desks, he explained.

Printers and fax machines are also hidden.

Mr Gibbons said helping the clerks and barristers understand the design and its purpose was also key, otherwise 'people will start to adapt it and plug things in willy nilly'.

Chambers administrator Henrietta Masser said the goal had been comfortably accommodating several people in a relatively small space.

'We wanted a room that would continue to look ageless,' she added.

Neil Rose