60 Fountain Street
Manchester
Working in partnership with the award-winning JOLIE Studio, CubicWorks delivered a comprehensive refurbishment across six floors that revolutionised workplace design in the city center. We engineered a complete transformation from concept through to final construction, creating Manchester’s first multi-sensory workspace with private members’ club appeal that attracts both satellite offices and SMEs seeking spaces that truly reflect their brand values.
Location
Manchester
Client
Sixteen Real Estate
Size
Circa 2000m2
Duration
9 months
We delivered a complete building transformation that redefined workspace standards across Manchester’s Traditional Office Core. Our scope included comprehensive refurbishment of all CAT A+ floor plates ranging from 2,682 to 3,425 sq ft, a stunning new reception area and completely reimagined communal spaces, a groundbreaking rooftop conversion creating a glazed loft extension with wellness terrace, and a complete basement reconfiguration featuring cycle hub, showers, and business lounge facilities.
Working closely with JOLIE Studio’s innovative multi-sensory design approach, we integrated specialized soundscaping systems, bespoke lighting installations, and carefully coordinated material palettes that engage all five senses throughout the building journey.
This project demanded expertise that would stretch most contractors beyond their capabilities.
We faced the complex challenge of delivering a major refurbishment while the building remained partially occupied, requiring meticulous coordination to minimize disruption to existing tenants including Meridian Healthcomms and Leyton UK. The most significant technical challenge was installing a new extractor system requiring substantial ducting from basement to roof space – a costly and complex undertaking that needed seamless integration without compromising JOLIE’s sophisticated aesthetic vision. Additionally, converting a redundant plant room into a glazed loft extension while maintaining structural integrity and creating Manchester’s first truly multi-sensory workspace demanded innovative problem-solving at every turn.
The CubicWorks Difference
Our 40+ years of collective problem-solving experience proved invaluable when others would have struggled with such ambitious goals. While most contractors shy away from occupied building refurbishments with complex M&E requirements, we embraced the challenge as an opportunity to demonstrate our expertise.
Our in-house trades worked in perfect coordination to deliver the substantial ducting installation while JOLIE’s design team developed creative solutions to incorporate technical requirements into the aesthetic vision. We took genuine care to maintain positive relationships with existing tenants throughout the process, ensuring their operations continued smoothly while we engineered solutions around them. Our partnership approach with JOLIE Studio exemplified how we collaborate to achieve extraordinary results rather than simply execute standard construction work.
60 Fountain Street now stands as Manchester’s first multi-sensory workspace, attracting widespread industry recognition including features in Interior Design Magazine and Mix Interiors. JOLIE Studio won Design Practice of the Year at the prestigious Mixology North awards, validating our collaborative approach to innovative design delivery. The building has successfully attracted a new generation of businesses seeking workspaces that truly engage their people, from satellite offices of major corporations to forward-thinking SMEs prioritizing employee wellbeing. Most importantly, we transformed a standard 1990s office block into a destination with private members’ club appeal that has become a benchmark for workplace design across the region.
Setting New Standards Where Others Follow
When you’re pioneering Manchester’s first multi-sensory workspace revolution, you need contractors who don’t just build standard – you need people who engineer solutions that others can’t deliver.
Our work at 60 Fountain Street demonstrates why we’re the experienced problem-solvers that visionary clients trust with their most ambitious projects, taking responsibility others won’t accept and delivering spaces that inspire entire industries to follow.
CubicWorks
