A high priority for the school was to provide a ‘business like’ yet studious environment that matched the nature of their subject. Using this brief as a starting point, the team at SouthernsBroadstock visualised an interior design with a Scandinavian feel, blending soft timber tones and a muted natural palette with the occasional dash of colour to create bold focal points. The furniture also reflected this style with designs that balanced form and function. Each piece was selected to create settings that felt clean and professional, with plenty of space for work and collaboration.

With building work delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was essential to maintain a strict social distancing policy when the main contractor of the project resumed construction. Our team quickly adapted to these new working conditions to provide a complete FF&E solution throughout the whole building. This included furnishing meeting rooms, lecture halls and even an on-site café area to allow staff or students to socialise during their free time. The café interior boasts a range of seating options, from private booths to leather effect upholstered chairs, making further use of the ‘skandi’ theme with metal accents and wooden wall panelling.

In furnishing The York Management School, our approach was to make every room as versatile as possible. Each area was to act as a multi-functional space, giving staff the freedom to use rooms for departmental use as well as for teaching, study and group work. In this sense, it captured the essence of the school itself, preparing students for modern business practices and different ways of working. Study areas ranged from more traditional classroom layouts to styles that matched corporate board rooms, including a mix of private work areas and expansive open-plan interiors.

In addition to furnishing study spaces, we were also called on to provide areas where students could unwind. We achieved this with a mix of informal gathering places, from hubs where groups could meet, to extra corridor seating and larger breakout areas. The furniture supplied for these spaces was chosen to exude a contemporary feel that lent itself well to social meetings and quiet individual work. The school emphasised a need for sustainability, requesting items that were pre-owned, good quality and from responsible sources. Our robust sustainability policy of repairing, recycling or remanufacturing our products allowed us to meet this need head on.

Working with Interior Design from DLA, SouthernsBroadstock was able to deliver a comprehensive furnishing solution for The York Management School that took into account the needs of their students and their staff. The emphasis on simplicity and versatility was a conscious choice in order to give the school the ability to grow and evolve over time, changing layouts and rooms as they saw fit. The end result was a fully furnished interior that would engage and inspire from the moment students entered the building.