On Tuesday 23rd iDEA attended the official ‘opening event’ following the completion of works on the ONE Coventry Project at Cheylesmore House. James Hughes (Project Director) along with members of the Senior Leadership Team from DfE officially inaugurated the refreshed facilities at Cheylesmore House.

This was a celebratory event to showcase the works that have been done and to congratulate all the teams involved from both the DfE and project side.

iDEA first started reviewing the tired and worn facilities in August 2017 and over the following months developed a design scheme and strategy that complimented the new ways of working lead by the Smarter Working Team.

Two 3-storey buildings (North and South) are linked by a staff restaurant to form 'One Coventry'. The whole building has been refurbished over the past year including new furniture to provide fully refreshed offices. Works include new collaboration zones, breakout spaces in the atrium balconies, a social event / flexible meet and workplace at the base of the South atrium. The North Building retains the main visitor reception which now offers a welcoming space to greet visitors and staff alike and links into the restaurant which in addition to providing a relaxing place to eat, also offers places to work and meet after the busy hours. We'll be adding a full project case study in the near future, so watch this space!

Back in May, Susanna and Dave were fortunate enough to be invited to Kvadrat's stunning headquarters in Ebeltoft, Denmark. A guided tour of their office space and warehouse facilities by the company's passionate CEO, Andres Byriel was a particular highlight. An absolutely wonderful trip all round. Scandi-inspired designs coming your way soon!

(Read in your best movie trailer voices please)

On July 11th-12th 2019, staff members of iDEA, plus some enthusiastic friends and clients, will be undertaking one – epic – journey. A journey which will change their lives, forever. Their goal? One single purpose; commute between our two offices. By bicycle.

This near-200-mile voyage will give us the opportunity to raise money for the Stroke Association - a worthy cause which is very close to our hearts, after James, one of our designers, had a stroke at the age of 33 a couple of years back. We're delighted to say that James will be leading our little peloton after making astonishing progress. You can find out more about the trip (and sponsor us!) by visiting our JustGiving page.

We're pleased to announce a new member of the iDEA family, with award-winning Interior Designer Tracey Hora joining us in June. Offering over 18 years’ interior design experience in the UK and abroad whilst working with some of the UK’s leading design focused architectural companies, including Pringle Brandon, Carey Jones, Chapman Taylor and Sheppard Robson; Tracey will be a key member of the iDEA team. Impressively, she's already getting stuck in by signing up for our office-to-office cycle commute, which, incidentally, you can find out more about here. Great to have you in the team Tracey!

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve once again been shortlisted for a prestigious Mixology design award. Our work for the Ministry of Justice in Canary Wharf has been selected in the Public Sector Interiors Project of the Year category. The project, which formed part of our wider remit for the MoJ nationally, allowed us to create a stunning array of flexible spaces which catered to the needs of a modern Government Department. The colourful design provides not only a much-needed bright and airy environment in which to work, but also a delightfully simple wayfinding solution. The awards take place on Thursday 20th June 2019.

We attended the bi-annual Workplace Trends conference at the British Library - an event which focused on Evidence Based Design in the workplace. A host of speakers gave an interesting insight into the data behind workplace decisions - something which very much chimes with the way we work. We are constantly striving to find new and innovative ways of documenting and analysing the workplace experience through our range of tools - allowing us to design spaces which compliment the way people use them.

Most of us haven't done a "show and tell" since primary school and with a growing number of large scale projects underway for us, it was high-time we shared what we've been up to. It's not too often that our Shropshire and London studios come together as one, so what better venue than The Screening Room at Somerset House for such an occasion. We had a whole day of presentations from everyone across iDEA - it was a truly eclectic mix. We covered everything from video to VR, programming to painting. Our design diversity is a huge part of our DNA, and it's something we're proud to celebrate. Roll on the next one!

We were proud to be given the opportunity to demonstrate the latest iteration of our 3D environment viewer at the AGI Scotland annual event in Stirling - showing off our visualisation of asset management down to room level. The theme for the event was "innovation and opportunity: stepping out of the GI comfort zone". Fantastic event and great to be widening our horizons into new challenges and oportunities.

It's exciting to see steel framework going up at our latest project for this Global Aerospace Technology Firm at Ansty Park in the West Midlands. The 440,000 sq ft building, on a 23-acre site, will bring together 1,000 staff from various locations around the UK. Through a series of detailed engagement sessions, we helped to shape the vision for the interior spaces of this impressive facility - watch this (aero)space!

Following our tradition of celebrating Christmas at project locations, this year we travelled to Oxford where we have been developing the brief for a new university building. If you're wondering what the link to the title is .... our venue for this festive occasion was the scene of much historical debate The Oxford Union. Much hysterical debate ensued culminating in our own College photo. You can see it in all its glory here

Following the success of our work in developing a pilot workplace project for Allied Irish Bank (AIB) in Dublin we have been appointed by First Trust in Belfast to design the workplace for the refurbishment of their Ann Street premises. To date we have completed our Me + My Workplace survey to understand levels of occupancy and adjacencies and to define work styles. This will be followed by detailed interviews and Statement of Requirements.

UCL has a diverse estate that extends well beyond its traditional boundaries of Bloomsbury. iDEA have been appointed by UCL to undertake a review of the estate totalling circa 455,000m2 and to help develop an accommodation masterplan. The role will involve modelling in 3d the components of the existing portfolio and overlaying the opportunities and drivers to support sustainable growth.