Warner Music UK HQ / Woods Bagot

Interior Designers: Woods Bagot
Location: Wrights Lane, Kensington, London W8 6TA, UK
Photographs: Gareth Gardner

Project Manager : Capita Property and Infrastructure
Quantity Surveyor: Capita Property and Infrastructure
M&E Engineer: Medland Metropolis
Contractor: Overbury
Furniture Dealer: Dovetail
Move Manager: Merit Office Installations

From the architect. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music (WM) is the world’s third-largest recorded music business. It is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Atlantic, East West, Parlophone, Rhino, Warner Bros., Warner Classics and leading music publishers Warner/Chappell Music.

In recent years, WM’s operations—previously across six buildings in London—had outgrown the spaces they had occupied, with some lease terms expiring. Woods Bagot‘s design approach seeks to optimise the consolidation of WM’s property portfolio into three buildings in West London, bringing its key music labels under one roof in the new ‘HQ Music House’, 27 Wrights Lane.

This property strategy allows the key functions of the business—the record labels, the publishing arm and the back-of-house functions—to operate more efficiently and within close proximity of one another.

The HQ project required a modernisation through fit out and refurbishment of the base building that celebrates the distinct identities of each label, whilst still providing a unifying design language.

The design delivers high quality interiors that offer recording artists an attractive and comfortable environment—far from a conventional office design—in which to interact with WM executives, as well as creating an exciting and enjoyable workplace for staff.