Project Studio

The secondary reception at Block B, One Eastside, takes the visual language established in the main Block A arrival and reinterprets it through a softer, more natural palette.

As the wellness-focused block, we wanted the reception to feel connected to the landscaped courtyard surrounding the building. The architecture and materiality remain consistent with Block A, but the colour palette shifts towards layered green tones, creating a calmer and more natural arrival experience.

Brazilian granite introduces green detailing to the reception desk, complemented by lighter oak veneers across the built-in joinery. Green lime render and paintwork continue the palette across the walls, while green chrome tiles and soft window voiles introduce further layers of texture and colour.

Integrated planting completes the connection to the courtyard, bringing a sense of the landscape directly into the arrival experience. For us, this was about creating consistency without repetition.

Block B needed to feel unmistakably part of One Eastside, while also having its own identity; one that responds to its wellness-focused offer and relationship with the surrounding landscape. It’s a reminder that a strong design language doesn’t mean every space needs to look the same.

The most successful developments can have a recognisable identity while allowing individual spaces to respond to their purpose, setting and users.

The detailing was brought together with:

Domus – Cromie Tiles
J-Carey – Bespoke Joinery
Bert Frank – Feature Pendant Lighting
Audo – Table Lamps
Agar Stone – Window Treatments
Clayworks & Coat Paints – Wall Finishes

Client: Pension Insurance Corporation plc
Project Type:
Apartments: 667
Amenity Areas: 20,000 sqft

What makes an amenity space worth leaving your apartment for?

At One Eastside in Birmingham, the level 49 games lounge forms part of a carefully considered collection of spaces designed to support different aspects of resident life.

Alongside the co-working lounge, focus pods, podcast suite, content creation room, private dining suite, residents’ bar and roof terrace, the games lounge offers something quite different: a space designed around leisure, interaction and spending time together. It’s a good example of why we approach amenity design as an ecosystem rather than a checklist.

Not every resident will use every space in the same way as some might want somewhere quiet to work. Others might want to meet friends, host dinner, relax with a drink or, in this case, enjoy a more playful and social environment.

The level 49 amenities also benefit from their position within the scheme, creating a destination above the everyday spaces on the ground floor.

Throughout One Eastside, our design strategy was rooted in hospitality thinking; balancing comfort, functionality and style, while drawing inspiration from Birmingham’s industrial heritage. The result is a collection of spaces with distinct identities, but a consistent sense of place.

Client: Pension Insurance Corporation plc
Project Type:
Apartments: 667
Amenity Areas: 20,000 sqft

At the top of One Eastside, the Luminary Lounge & Bar was designed as a dramatic social destination overlooking Birmingham, reinforcing our ambition to create more than simply a place to live.

At the heart of the space is a circular, brass-clad bar but the story behind its design began long before the materials were selected.

Historic research into the site revealed that this location was once home to the Midland Brewery. That discovery led us to explore the architecture and processes of brewing, including the way sediment settles within the bottom of a brewing vat. We translated this idea into the bar through two contrasting brass finishes.

The lower section is clad in weathered brass, with its darker, heavily patinated appearance referencing the sediment collected within the brewing vats. Above this, mirrored brass reflects the light, space and views beyond, representing the air sitting above the sediment.

Together, the two finishes create a sculptural focal point that changes throughout the day as the Birmingham skyline is reflected across its surface.

The bar provides a self-service drinks offer, alongside a dedicated back bar for resident events. To the north, a dance floor, mobile DJ booth and lounge seating create a more energetic destination, while carefully positioned seating takes advantage of views stretching across Birmingham and beyond.

For us, the Luminary Lounge is about taking the history of the city and translating it into something contemporary, social and unmistakably connected to its place.

It’s also a good example of how historical research can become more than a reference point. It can directly inform the story, materials and experience of a space.

Suppliers:
Domus Group – Cromie Tiles
J-Carey – Bespoke Joinery
&Tradition – Wall Lights
Audo – Table Lamps
Agar Stone – Bespoke Rugs
Warwick Fabrics – Bench Fabric
Pholc & Bert Frank – Pendant Lighting

Client: Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC)
Project Type:
Project Status: complete 2026
Apartments: 667
Amenity Areas: 20, 000 sqft

High above Birmingham, the Level 49 private dining space at One Eastside was designed to feel more like a destination restaurant than a typical resident amenity.

As part of the wider amenity ecosystem, the space provides residents with somewhere to host friends, celebrate occasions or simply enjoy food and conversation in a more intimate setting.

The lounge area is anchored by a brass-clad water vapour fire, creating warmth and atmosphere against a dark-stained timber-clad backdrop. The darker material palette deliberately makes the space feel intimate and cocooning, creating a sense of contrast against the expansive views beyond.

At the centre of the dining space, a large island with a weathered brass worktop and integrated ice troughs becomes the social heart of the room. Stacked tile detailing to the island ends adds another layer of texture, sitting alongside a fully equipped kitchen with granite worktops and splashbacks.

Flexibility was central to the design. The private dining room can be completely closed down for more intimate events and private hire, while a large sliding pocket door allows it to open directly into the main residents’ lounge.

This means the space can adapt depending on how it is being used, from a quieter dinner with friends to larger gatherings, parties and resident events. The result is a space designed around hospitality, balancing intimacy and flexibility with a material palette that feels rich, tactile and deliberately residential rather than overly corporate.

For us, it’s another example of how BTR amenity can move beyond simply providing facilities. The most successful spaces are those that give residents a genuine reason to use them and the flexibility to use them in different ways.

Suppliers:
Clayworks – lime plaster
J- Carey – bespoke joinery
bioethanolfires.co.uk - water vapour fire.
Domus Group - tiles
Luxury Flooring - flooring

Photo: Ed Reeve

Client: Pension Insurance Corporation plc
Project Type:
Apartments: 667
Amenity Areas: 20,000 sqft

At One Eastside in Birmingham, the ground floor café lounge forms part of a wider resident amenity ecosystem, designed to support community, wellbeing and everyday living. Rather than designing a conventional café, we created a flexible framework that could adapt to changing services, operators and resident experiences.

The café sits within the larger double-height arrival space as a dark-stained timber veneered box, giving the space a strong architectural presence while helping to define the café as its own destination within the wider reception.

On the west side, the space operates as a self-service deli by Pantree, providing residents with an everyday food and refreshment offer. On the east, a punctured weathered brass service hatch houses a Top Brewer coffee machine, while also providing a flexible platform for different F&B operators to come in and host events for residents.

This flexibility was an important part of the design.

Rather than prescribing exactly how the café should be used, the space has been designed to evolve alongside the needs of both residents and operators. A series of tiled benches and integrated planters appear to grow out from the floor, creating a strong and robust datum across the lower ground floor. They also provide informal places for residents to sit, meet and socialise.

As the café sits within such a large double-height volume, acoustics were an important consideration. Heavy planting helps absorb sound and soften the space, while timber beam baffles span the upper volume to help control reverberation. For us, this is where the success of the space lies.

It takes something highly functional and makes it architectural, tactile and flexible, creating an amenity that can adapt to how people actually use it, rather than prescribing a single way of living.

Suppliers:
Domus Group – Cromie Tiles
Clayworks – Demi-Rustic Clay Plaster
J Carey Design– Bespoke Joinery
Iron oxide Design – Bespoke lighting
Andtradition Korea – Wall lights
Audo Copenhagen – Table lamps
Bute Fabrics – Bouclé bench fabric
Agar Stone – Bespoke rugs
Warwick Fabrics UK Ltd – Bench fabric

Photos: Ed Reeve

Client: Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC)
Project Type:
Apartments: 667
Amenity Areas: 20,000 sqft

We're thrilled to announce another project completion – One Eastside.

The design of One Eastside is rooted in the city’s architectural and industrial heritage. Extensive research into the site and its surroundings informed the material palette, detailing and identity of the amenity spaces.

A key influence was the Victorian architecture of Birmingham City Law Courts, with its red brick, sandstone and distinctive stepped archways. This has been reinterpreted within the main reception through a series of stepped red lime-plaster arches, creating a contemporary interpretation of the building’s architectural language.

At the heart of the reception, a bespoke desk clad in fluted timber and topped with red granite provides a strong, tactile focal point. Behind it, sheets of weathered brass conceal access to the building’s operational and management services, turning what could have been a purely functional requirement into an integral part of the design.

Over time, the brass will develop a natural patina, adding to the character of the space and reinforcing our focus on longevity and materials that evolve rather than simply age.

The detailing continues underfoot, with tiles containing 70% recycled content laid in a traditional brick format across the floor and carried through elements of the furniture and planters.

The result is a reception that feels distinctly rooted in its surroundings, while remaining contemporary, tactile and built for longevity.

Suppliers:
Domus – Cromie Tiles
Clayworks Natural Plasters – Lime Plaster
J Carey Design – Bespoke Joinery
Bert Frank – Feature Lighting

Client: Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC)
Project Type:
Project Status: complete 2026
Apartments: 667
Amenity Areas: 20, 000 sqft

A contemporary take on 1920s Art Deco, Willen House sits within an existing Art Deco-inspired building in Islington, and has been transformed into a premium all-studio scheme, with the interior design drawing directly from the character and detailing of the original architecture.

The reception is anchored by a bespoke, sculptural walnut desk, with its layered curved profile referencing the geometric forms synonymous with the era.

A restrained monochromatic tile floor creates a strong foundation, while brushed chrome detailing across the lighting and ironmongery introduces a subtle sense of glamour. Dark walnut joinery brings warmth, depth and richness to the space, balancing the cooler tones of the metal and tiling.

Project: Willen House (Prestige Student Living)
Location: Islington, London
Sector: PBSA
Client: RED Construction Group
Photography: Ed Reeve

The resident should be part of the brief. In , it is easy to begin with a schedule of spaces.

◾Reception
◾Co-working
◾Residents’ lounge
◾Private dining
◾Gym

But that approach can quickly become formulaic if we do not first ask a more important question: How will people actually use these spaces? The best amenity environments are shaped around behaviour, not assumptions.

Some residents will work from home several days a week. Some will want somewhere social in the evening. Others will value privacy, quiet or simply a comfortable place to sit outside their apartment. That means we need to consider different patterns of use throughout the day, rather than designing each area for one fixed purpose.

Furniture layouts, acoustics, lighting, circulation and zoning all play a role in that. A space that feels like a co-working area at 10am may need to feel completely different by 7pm. This is why we believe successful residential interiors should start with people before they start with products.

Instead of asking, “What furniture should go here?”, it is more useful to ask, “What behaviour are we trying to support?” That shift in thinking can have a significant impact. It helps create spaces that feel more intuitive, more useful and more relevant to the people who actually live there.

As Build to Rent continues to mature, resident expectations will only become more varied. The challenge for designers is not to predict one way of living, but to create environments that support many.

What makes a space feel good?

It sounds like a simple question, but in interior design the answer is rarely visual alone. A space can be beautifully styled and still feel uncomfortable. Equally, a room can be relatively restrained and yet immediately put people at ease.

That difference often comes down to the less obvious elements of design.

◾How does sound travel through the room?
◾Are there places to sit without feeling exposed?
◾Does the furniture encourage conversation, or create a sense of distance?
◾Do the materials feel warm and tactile, or cold and transient?

In residential amenity design, these questions matter because the spaces are not being viewed for a few minutes. They are being used repeatedly, often every day. That means interior design has to create more than a strong first impression. It has to support comfort, familiarity and a sense of ease over time.

We often talk about functionality and aesthetics as two separate ideas, but the most successful spaces tend to blur the distinction. A well-positioned chair, a softer acoustic treatment, a lower lighting level or a change in ceiling height can make a space feel far more inviting without being immediately obvious.

For us, this is where design becomes more interesting. It is not just about what people see, it's about what they feel. We invite you to discuss what you think has the greatest impact on how comfortable a space feels?

National Dog Day this week gave us a good excuse to talk about something we’re very happy to see becoming a bigger consideration in residential design: pets. If we’re being specific, dogs.

Changes introduced through the Renters’ Rights Act mean landlords in England can no longer simply rely on a blanket ‘no pets’ approach. Tenants can request permission to keep a pet, and landlords must consider that request rather than unreasonably refusing it. For , we think that creates an interesting opportunity.

Rather than viewing pets as something a building needs to accommodate reluctantly, why not consider them properly from the beginning?

We’ve already designed dedicated pet spa spaces within residential schemes, giving residents somewhere practical to wash muddy paws after a walk without bringing everything straight through their apartment. However, pet-friendly design goes much further than adding a dog wash.

Flooring can be selected with scratch resistance, durability and ease of cleaning in mind. Upholstery and finishes need to withstand greater wear. Layouts should consider how animals move through shared areas, while entrances and circulation spaces can benefit from surfaces that cope well with wet paws, dirt and frequent cleaning.

There’s also the resident experience to consider. For many people, a pet is part of the household. Designing a development that makes everyday life with an animal easier can therefore become a meaningful amenity rather than simply another feature on a specification list.

As Build to Rent becomes increasingly focused on long-term resident experience and retention, understanding how people genuinely live [pets included] feels increasingly important. We’re firmly in favour of more four-legged residents.