WD-40 Company Limited

WD-40 Company Limited is the maker of one of the world’s most instantly recognisable brands, used in households and by trade professionals across the globe.

WD-40 acquired their central Milton Keynes office in 2018 and subsequently decided to undergo a complete refurbishment. We were tasked with completing the Cat B fit out to each of the three floors of the building, to create a cohesive work environment for their new European Headquarters. 

Employee wellbeing is at the heart of WD-40’s ethos and formed a key element in our project brief. The organisation insisted that we create a comfortable, positive workspace to support a healthy work-life balance and give individuals a choice of environments to work and relax in. The base build was a square donut consisting of three floors of workspace infilled with an open, internal atrium space. Our first challenge was to re-organise the building structurally to transform the space to encourage collaboration. We installed a glazed roof to enclose the atrium which now houses a helical staircase to link all three floors.

Nine tonnes of steel was used to construct the staircase, which was then finished with WD-40 and exposed welds.

This works well with the look & feel of their brand and the design concept of the project; an industrial yet high-quality fit out to transform the building into a space defined by innovation, built for functionality and yet retaining their company’s culture.

The ground floor is inset beneath the upper two, forming a colonnaded walkway around the exterior. The upper two floors, which have better views and light, have been given over to the principal office workspace, with desks, meeting rooms and a variety of open and cellular work settings. The ground floor houses the main staff canteen and breakout space which feeds into the reception and atrium as well as a gym, showers and changing space, a research and development laboratory and storage/packaging studio areas.

The variety of alternative environments is beneficial and accommodates different ways of working and individual preferences. These include height adjustable desks throughout, secluded booths and upholstered seating benches, enclosed meeting room/office spaces and open collaborative tables.

• Project

  252 The Square, Milton Keynes

• Value

  £2,750,000

• Duration

  29 weeks

• Project Manager

  Spring4

• Architect

  Burtt-Jones + Brewer

• QS

  Spring4

• Services Consultant

  GLP Consulting Engineers

• Structural Engineers

  The Morton Partnership