With a population of 1.3 million, Hampshire CC, as a local authority, employs more than 37,000 staff as a local authority and in its schools; a big organisation with a property portfolio and responsibility to match. Hampshire CC (HCC) property services have been producing public architecture for public good since the 1970s.
Bob Wallbridge heads up a multi-disciplinary public sector design led practice offering architecture, engineering, landscape design, surveying, cost consultancy and interior design, thriving in stark contrast to the trend, which saw the dismantling of most public sector architects' departments.
In recent years, the interior design team has carved out a particularly distinctive niche beyond the core disciplines of design, space-planning and specification of furniture, materials and colours to occupy a space somewhere between public sector transformation and strategic interior design: we are change designers, if you will.
Against the continuing backdrop of austerity, transformation is at the heart of Hampshire's thinking when it comes to managing its estate and ensuring maximum value is achieved for residents in a time of reducing budgets. The interior design team has used interior design to facilitate organisational transformation and cultural change on a range of projects across Hampshire.
Every project is tackled with the same philosophical approach. Ten years of designing and delivering projects has enabled the county council's interior design team to develop a methodology to help organisations implement both small- and large-scale changes to both where they work and more importantly how they work. For the county council, there are clear and well-defined principles of change design; these are based around people and place.
The people element is the winning of ‘hearts and minds'. Through user engagement and education it is possible to make individuals and teams feel part of the design process and empowered by the coming change.
The place element is the art of purposeful place-making, born out of clearly defined interior design strategies. It's key to enabling mobility, providing a choice of settings that inspire and motivate and where staff, public and children have more control over how and where to get their work done, access public services or learn more effectively.
The county council's approach to change design originated in the Workstyle initiative: at the heart of this sits the need to manage assets more effectively, exploit technology to the full and work smarter. The interior design team was instrumental in the delivery of Elizabeth II Court, HCC's flagship HQ in Winchester. It championed the future for innovation in the workplace across Hampshire's estate, creating a diverse, efficient office environment that supports flexible ways of working. Nearly ten years on it continues to deliver a 30% improvement in space utilisation, and has led to a reduction in the county's office space requirement in Winchester. Staff retention and workplace wellbeing has increased over this period and raised the bar for public sector working.
Away from the workplace, Hampshire's library service runs 48 libraries and discovery centres across the county, and supports five community libraries. A major initiative is the library service's extensive transformational programme across this estate which the interior design team has helped facilitate by delivering staff and client focussed workshops to support engagement to inform the strategic design. This resulted in a significant change in the way libraries are used and perceived by the wider community.
The strategic interior design service has also been successfully exported beyond the boundaries of Hampshire. It has played a major part in school design programmes for both Surrey CC and Reading BC, where the latest project, Civitas Academy, has seen the co-location of an award-winning primary school with a local community centre as part of the regeneration of a deprived area of Reading city centre.
In the same city, change design has helped transform the way public services are delivered. In 2014 Reading BC decanted from their aging HQ and moved into Reading Civic Offices, renovating a 1980s building. The county council was able to bring its experience of delivering large-scale office reorganisation and relocation while ensuring the created environments were reflective of a forward thinking organisation funded by the public for the public.
The interior design team has most recently completed the first phase of a large office refurbishment to support joint working between Hampshire Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service. It is proving to be a powerful tool for integrated working with shared breakout spaces and staff facilities resulting in more joined up collaborative services.
Hampshire CC continues to show how public sector transformation can be designed by placing people and place at the heart of everything.
Paula Ashford is design team leader at Hampshire CC
