Sion Hall, London.

First built as Sion College in 1886 by Sir Arthur Bloomfield, the building stretches over 3 upper floors, ground floor, and basement, boasting an impressive double height hall. The intricate stained-glass windows, ornate masonry and unique period features, bring a lot of character, adding a touch of history to a workplace chosen by a client in a finance sector.  

Enjoying a prime location and connectivity, Sion Hall now offers a top-class office accommodation to its occupier.  

The workplace specialist, AIS have been appointed with the interior design and fit-out of this new work space for a client in financial sector. The brief was to re-purpose the space into a modern workplace, creating a flexible and comfortable satellite office for employees from the company’s locations all over the world, visiting London. 

The design approach was dictated by strict planning legislation. The workplace specialists at AIS optimised the function of each space ensuring comfortable and attractive design was created to accommodate different styles of working. Casual collaborative spaces were incorporated with more private offices, open plan offices, meeting rooms and quieter areas, allowing the staff to re-charge and work at their best.  

Listed buildings like this one come with their own specific issues. Despite the generous ceiling heights, some of the areas lack natural light and the listed character requires reusing some of the existing wiring points. The lighting scheme is a mix of keeping the original chandeliers and using modern lighting solutions that enable more efficient lighting and are more user friendly. The scheme is set to achieve LG7 office lighting guide compliance where possible. The performance driven office luminaire RIO Suspended was used across the office for general lighting. The contemporary and slim RIO is designed with attention to detail and offers a high visual comfort, ideal for schemes looking to use LG7 lighting to improve the well-being of the staff. The matte black finish of the linear profiles works well with the dark carpentry features and gives the scheme a contemporary look.  

The new lighting was supplied in several phases. The result is a contemporary office lighting scheme achieving as much efficiency as possible in the complex set up of listed buildings.