Innovation meets collaboration

Bottomline Technologies' innovative payment solutions help businesses work simpler and smarter. Our office design for these creative tech geniuses crafted a space that reflects their business, culture and innovative vision.

Key features

  • Private booths
  • Hot desks
  • Biophilia
  • 12m long breakfast bar
  • Furniture variety
  • Home from home touches
  • Double-height glass extension

Our original brief was ‘Show us the art of the possible’ which meant we had a blank canvas to re-define how Bottomline worked together. Bottomline decided to make a move from two offices in Reading to one consolidated HQ in Theale to support their teams and attract new employees with a real destination workplace. We did this by creating engaging spaces that took a holistic approach to help staff not only work better, but live better lives.

Crossing the threshold

Nothing offers a greater sense of arrival than a beautiful reception space. We added a double-height glass extension, with eye-catching lights to give the building renewed street appeal. We also created a secondary entrance inside the building after the reception. Known as the ‘threshold’, this signifies the moment staff and visitors enter the world of Bottomline. The idea behind the big, bold, and blue portal is to create a threshold between the outside world and the world of Bottomline.

When you step through the fully branded portal, you become part of one big collaborative, creative, and professional family. Not only is this symbolic, but the threshold also serves an essential acoustic role in reducing excessive noise transfer through the open plan space. Essentially, this doubles as a two-story acoustic barrier! Integrated into the sides of the staircase are tea points, a library and meeting space. How’s that for optimising floorspace?

We chose natural wood flooring and neutral hard-wearing carpets for high-traffic areas, used brick finishes on dividing walls to incorporate texture and made sure there was plenty of natural foliage throughout.

Inspired by Bottomline’s brand colours, the design's colur palette uses hues of cool greys and blues, modern monochrome black and white, and a dash of orange, gold and bronze.

The king of breakout spaces

Set opposite a stunning lake, we designed a multi-purpose breakout space with three teapoints and a breakfast bar to encourage people to move away from their desks. The area features timber floorboards and large pot plants, creating a year-round connection to the adjacent outdoor lake. This design creates a fun café-style vibe that’s perfectly suited for work and play.

A focal point of the breakout space behind the stairs on the ground floor is the breakfast bar. We know that the kitchen is the heart of the office, but this isn’t just any breakfast bar. At 12metres long, it’s the most extensive workplace breakfast bar ever installed, and is currently in the running for a Guinness World Record.

Natural light for wellbeing

With the help of a new staircase and skylight, natural light flows freely through the atrium into the ground floor and surrounding spaces. Scattered across both levels are huddle spots, informal meeting areas, and even a garden-themed room (complete with ample hanging plants) that leads to an outdoor terrace.

Everything about this office supports agile working. All the desks in the open plan are hot desks to encourage people to move to a new workstation each day, and every employee has their own locker to make this a reality. Each desk is sit-stand too, which means they can be raised or lowered to different heights.

No fully agile environment is complete without spaces to concentrate and recoup.

With so many collaborative areas in this office, we were mindful of striking a balance between busy and quiet zones. Focus rooms, private booths, a prayer and meditation room, and a mobile-free library, all add to the agile mix.

It's the little touches

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that make the most significant impact. People love to shop online and like to have their purchases conveniently delivered to the office; but what if it’s fresh food? Tucked away behind the reception area, we built a storeroom and installed a large chiller, especially for storing those online shopping orders.

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