Sweco UK’s move to a 15,000 sq ft floor at No.1 Whitehall Riverside came with an ambitious brief: a destination workplace that draws its 200 people back into the office, with space to collaborate and to concentrate, room to grow, and a design rooted in wellbeing and Sweco’s environmental values. This Is Interiors’ scheme — industrial-inspired feature ceilings, team neighbourhoods and a moss-wall reception — was delivered by Ben Johnson Interiors in just twelve weeks, in a live, multi-tenant building.
That programme shaped our role. The architectural lighting and feature luminaires, from Aqform, Lightforms and Onok, had to be sourced and on site at short notice, so we worked from the design intent to secure products that met both the look and the lead times. Because the feature ceiling layouts changed where fittings could sit, we carried out light level calculations to confirm that every adjustment still met the lighting requirements for each space.
Much of the scheme rests on the flexibility of Aqform’s Multitrack family. Above the reception desk, the track carries Aqform’s new Tubeflex inserts — soft loops of light that turn a working architectural system into the reception’s signature feature, framed by the moss wall and illuminated Sweco branding. In the boardroom, the same family runs between the acoustic baffles, pairing Set Tru Mini Points with low-glare task optics and Pet Midi spots to put light precisely on the table while keeping glare to a minimum.
Over the reception lounge, a bespoke curved rectangle formed from the Lightforms Serpentine linear system draws one continuous line of light around the seating area. In the kitchen and staff breakout spaces, Aqform’s Kliva and Cona pendants bring a softer, more sociable scale, while Onok’s recessed downlights provide the general lighting through the circulation spaces. On site, we worked closely with electrical subcontractor DSK to coordinate the setting out and assembly of these more bespoke pieces, so they went up right first time within the twelve-week programme.
