Southwark Borough Council

AMA has been involved in a variety of design consultancy projects for Southwark Council - from transforming the old Walworth Town Hall into a ‘one stop shop’, to smaller, fast turnaround jobs like specifying a new look for the Chief Executive’s office suite and for the Register Office. Recently, AMA helped create a new administrative headquarters for over 2,000 staff at 160 Tooley Street and helped implement ‘modern ways of working’ across the Council. AMA made an initial building appraisal of the preferred building and then developed the strategic brief for the design, fit-out and implementation of modern ways of working. Key outcomes included an assessment of appetite for change, recommended share ratios of desks to people, a clear set of Council-wide principles to support modern ways of working, guidelines on the IT, HR, facilities management, and change initiatives required to support modern ways of working. AMA was subsequently commissioned to design the entrance and reception area at Tooley Street, to provide change management, and to provide cost effective training using webinars to 900 employees. The Council completed this highly successful project on time and within budget in September 2009. Having invested energy in change management, several departments are operating at more radical share ratios (up to 6 desks per 10 people) and modern ways of working principles such as clear desk policies, reduced team and personal storage, have been adopted with relative ease.