Award-winning Sheffield design agency 93ft is responsible for a raft of beautiful designs across the UK and Europe.
Locally, this includes one of Kelham Island’s coolest venues The Chimney House, vintage Derbyshire bike race Eroica Britannia and the Warp Films office at Park Hill.
But it’s their interior architecture of Albert Works – the new Sheffield headquarters of international creative agency Jaywing PLC (LON:JWNG) on Sidney Street, which has five UK offices and one in Sydney, Australia – that is currently earning them global recognition.
In being shortlisted for the Frame Awards – an annual event that highlights the world’s best interiors – they’re the only UK studio in the Small Office of the Year category, beating 849 entries from around the world in the process.
The transformation of this 18th century former cutlery factory was one of the first completed in the £10m extension of the Cultural Industries Quarter, which also includes the Alsop Fields development led by another Sheffield company, City Estates.
The building now boasts 25 rooms, a stunning atrium, four large cargo containers used for meetings and social space and a mezzanine-style ‘cloud walk’ that links the upper floors. Everything from the reception desk to the large canopy lighting was designed and manufactured in, or within a mile of, 93ft’s Neepsend Lane workshops.
It’s the blend of old and new – harnessing Sheffield’s rich industrial heritage to inspire modern ways of working – that 93ft’s creative director Tim Hubbard thinks gives them a good chance of winning.
“We’ve taken a building and an area that has had great times and also bad times and we’ve managed to give it this new lease of life,” he says.
“When you look at our entry compared to the others, some are absolutely stunning but in five years they’ll probably change it again. Whereas this will be the office for the next 20, 30, 50 years
“We’re not creating a brand here; we’re creating a legacy building.”