Plykea Production Space, Office, and Showroom
Here East innovation and technology campus
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London
2020-2021
This project creates the new operational hub for kitchen manufacturer Plykea at Here East in East London. The project transforms a 450m2 base build commercial unit within the former Olympic Media Centre to provide a new production space, showroom, office, meeting room, and staff canteen.
Erbar Mattes worked in close collaboration with Plykea to develop a characterful, sustainable, and cost-effective design, inspired by the company’s philosophy. Open web timber floor joists are repurposed as large-scale studwork to form six-meter-high acoustic partitions separating the noisy manufacturing from the quieter spaces. The partitions comprise fully glazed sections, allowing through-views and supporting interaction between the production and office areas. Surface mounted wood wool boards and acoustic insulation help to control reverberation and noise levels.
A new plywood timber stair serves the mezzanine meeting room with views across the manufacturing hall. An existing redundant Olympic lift shaft steel frame was adopted as the primary load-bearing structure to create this additional space.
Plykea Production Space, Office, and Showroom
Here East innovation and technology campus
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London
2020-2021
This project creates the new operational hub for kitchen manufacturer Plykea at Here East in East London. The project transforms a 450m2 base build commercial unit within the former Olympic Media Centre to provide a new production space, showroom, office, meeting room, and staff canteen.
Erbar Mattes worked in close collaboration with Plykea to develop a characterful, sustainable, and cost-effective design, inspired by the company’s philosophy. Open web timber floor joists are repurposed as large-scale studwork to form six-meter-high acoustic partitions separating the noisy manufacturing from the quieter spaces. The partitions comprise fully glazed sections, allowing through-views and supporting interaction between the production and office areas. Surface mounted wood wool boards and acoustic insulation help to control reverberation and noise levels.
A new plywood timber stair serves the mezzanine meeting room with views across the manufacturing hall. An existing redundant Olympic lift shaft steel frame was adopted as the primary load-bearing structure to create this additional space.
Clients' view...
"We wanted a space that connected all aspects of our business so as a team we feel as one – rather than groups of people working in separate spaces dictated by ‘departments’. The goal was for the space to function as production facility, showroom, office, canteen and meeting room, all visually connected in a single room but divided by acoustic glass walls. The result is transparent; we often have passers-by watching us in action and, similarly, our team can take a break and see what’s happening in the showroom, canteen, meeting room or the outside world.
We previously had a space on an old industrial estate. It was tucked away and rough around the edges so wasn’t always a nice experience for our team or visitors to travel to and as a typical industrial space it had no windows or insulation, so was freezing in winter and boiling hot in summer and we made it fit our business rather than our business fitting the space. We had long outgrown it, so we jumped at the opportunity to move into the Here East campus and get Erbar Mattes on board to design our new home. It is really important for us that customers visiting the showroom enter through the production facility and physically see orders being made. We’ve lost count of how many times customers say ‘oh wow, you actually make it here!?’ and have a walk around and say ‘hi’ to the team and see things in motion.
We know we’re just making kitchen fronts but our success is due to our fantastic team delivering a level of care, quality and service that can’t be matched which comes from the whole team having the physical connection to our customers. Our goal, which Erbar Mattes has successfully delivered, is for the whole space to function as one big showroom rather than its component parts."
Plykea
Plykea at Here East
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+44 (0)20 3865 8066
Clients' view...
"We wanted a space that connected all aspects of our business so as a team we feel as one – rather than groups of people working in separate spaces dictated by ‘departments’. The goal was for the space to function as production facility, showroom, office, canteen and meeting room, all visually connected in a single room but divided by acoustic glass walls. The result is transparent; we often have passers-by watching us in action and, similarly, our team can take a break and see what’s happening in the showroom, canteen, meeting room or the outside world.
We previously had a space on an old industrial estate. It was tucked away and rough around the edges so wasn’t always a nice experience for our team or visitors to travel to and as a typical industrial space it had no windows or insulation, so was freezing in winter and boiling hot in summer and we made it fit our business rather than our business fitting the space. We had long outgrown it, so we jumped at the opportunity to move into the Here East campus and get Erbar Mattes on board to design our new home. It is really important for us that customers visiting the showroom enter through the production facility and physically see orders being made. We’ve lost count of how many times customers say ‘oh wow, you actually make it here!?’ and have a walk around and say ‘hi’ to the team and see things in motion.
We know we’re just making kitchen fronts but our success is due to our fantastic team delivering a level of care, quality and service that can’t be matched which comes from the whole team having the physical connection to our customers. Our goal, which Erbar Mattes has successfully delivered, is for the whole space to function as one big showroom rather than its component parts."
Plykea
Plykea at Here East
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More projects
+44 (0)20 3865 8066