The design strips out various elements accumulated in the space over its previous lives – carpet, partitions, wires, pipes and suspended ceilings – leaving a shell, a concrete frame of columns and beams, plaster infills where the unit meets its neighbours, and a concrete floor and ceiling. The floor has been polished to remove glue and dirt from its surface and to reveal the aggregate of the existing concrete, a sort of industrial strength-terrazzo. The concrete walls have been repaired and a thin coat of white paint has been applied, leaving the marks of its casting visible on the wall surface.

Further interventions are made in a single material – large sheets of oiled spruce lumber-board – which divide the space into three parts: the entrance foyer, the main atelier and the workspace. These spaces are interconnected with wide sliding panels that can be used separately day-to-day but can also be opened for bigger social events. Each space has large storage units, also made in spruce, often standing the full six-metre height of the space. A long work surface in the entrance foyer where the kitchen is located, and a special table in the workspace, have work tops in a special version of the lumber-board made in walnut.

Soft Cells acoustic panels are used to line certain infill walls and to provide a luminous ceiling for mezzanine meeting rooms. A mismatched collection of loose furniture, chosen with the client, includes European classics from the 1960s classroom and some more recent pieces

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