Virgin’s new headquarters in Central London has transformed Whitfield Studios, a space renowned for its music history, into a modern workspace that preserves its creative legacy.

The building features distinct workspaces across each floor, tailored to accommodate various work styles. The ground floor includes social areas designed for team collaboration, while the top floor provides a quieter environment for focused work. Mixed seating options, height-adjustable desks, and varied wall finishes enhance accessibility throughout the building. It is powered entirely by renewable energy and has earned an EPC A rating, demonstrating a commitment to sustainability.

Sandy Brown helped reimagine the four-storey, 24,000 sq. ft studio into a purpose-built office. As part of the design team, we provided acoustic advice for the Cat B fit out from RIBA stages 2-4 and oversaw acoustic commissioning upon completion, ensuring high-quality acoustics throughout the space.

A primary objective was to establish the appropriate level of sound insulation between adjacent areas. This was essential for maintaining speech privacy in cellular rooms and preventing noise disturbances between loud and sensitive spaces.

Another key issue was controlling reverberation to facilitate clear speech intelligibility in areas such as meeting rooms, especially those with AV equipment, and the reception area.

We implemented acoustic treatments, including specified finishes and baffling, to absorb sound and create a more focused, comfortable environment while mitigating sound transmission and noise build-up in open-plan areas.

It was also important that noise from building services systems struck the right balance between being too noisy such that it gives rise to disturbance and too quiet such that privacy is significantly reduced.