We asked Jesper Jensen, owner of Icons of Denmark a few questions, including how the project turned out, what the requirements were and which solutions were part of the process leading up to the collaboration with Made By Hand in creating a special diffuser for all workshop lamps in the AECOM offices.

Please tell us about AECOM and their need for a new office in London?
Listed on the Fortune 500 as one of America’s largest companies, AECOM’s talented employees — including architects, engineers, designers, planners, scientists and management professionals — now serve clients in more than 150 countries around the world.

The new AECOM London HQ office based at Aldgate Tower brings together more than 1,000 AECOM employees from across the city to improve collaboration and support growth. The office is part of a new Greater London Campus, which includes Excellence Hubs at St Albans, Croydon and Wimbledon, as well as a full-service multidisciplinary office in Basingstoke.

How did Icons win the project?
Icons of Denmark has a long history of supplying furniture to AECOM’s commercial interior projects. Throughout the years, we have collaborated with AECOM’s interior team on a large variety of impressive interior projects for clients including Heinz, National Grid, BMS, Cisco and Rolls Royce. When it came to the design of AECOM’s own office, we were delighted to be asked to contribute. For the Aldgate Tower project, Icons of Denmark collaborated with AECOM on the design of large, customized, modular GRID shelving solutions with bespoke writeable surfaces, along with a large number of hot desks, meeting tables and loose furniture for reception, dining and collaboration areas.

How many workshop lamps did you specify for the project in order to meet the lighting needs?
AECOM specified 8 x W2 lamps for tea point areas as well as 45 x W4 and 33 x W5 lamps for meeting rooms and hot desk areas.

In the process, Made By Hand was asked to supply all workshop lamps with a special diffuser – why?
During the design stage of the project, we were asked if the Workshop lamp was available with a diffuser. This was a criteria set by the lighting designer. We passed on the challenge to our colleagues at Made By Hand in Copenhagen who were happy to take on the task of developing a new product for the iconic Workshop lamp – within a very short time frame. It was a pleasure to work with Made by Hand on the diffuser project, and it gave us insight into their detail-oriented and almost perfectionistic approach to creating a new products.

Looking into 2017, how do you see the changes in what companies will require from Icons of Denmark?
Over the past few years, Icons of Denmark has become known as the London home of Danish Design for commercial interiors. We are seeing a growing demand for beautiful and well crafted furniture, lighting and systems for the commercial interiors sector both in the UK and beyond. The combination of classic Danish midcentury and new, progressive and playful design seems to be a good balance that tells the market the story of what Danish design is all about. Architects and designers need to keep pushing the boundaries as end clients are demanding more ‘wow factor’ in their office environments to both retain and attract the right people. With Icons of Denmark’s approach to curating products for commercial interiors, we help the architect choose the products that will work, impress and stand the test of time.