The Nest
Alderley Edge
When Bruntwood SciTech, the joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General, needed to transform a basement space within their £30 million GlassHouse development into a cutting-edge tech hub, they chose CubicWorks to tackle what others saw as an impossible challenge. Working in partnership with Bruntwood and Space Invader, we delivered the CAT B fit-out over 18,000 sq ft, engineering the transformation of what was described as “literally a blank canvas” – a vast underground space with no natural light – into Nest, an award-winning workspace destination that has become the beating heart of Alderley Park’s thriving innovation cluster. Launched in December 2022, this project demonstrates how visionary design and expert execution can create extraordinary results even in the most challenging environments.
Location
Alderley Edge
Client
Bruntwood
Size
18,000
Duration
12 months
We delivered a comprehensive CAT B fit-out over 18,000 sq ft that achieved both WELL Building Standard and LEED green rating certifications – remarkable achievements for an underground space. Working alongside the Space Invader design team, we created open plan collaborative working environments with a sophisticated mix of touchdown spaces and diverse meeting solutions including phone booths for private calls, dedicated yoga rooms supporting employee wellbeing, larger meeting rooms and boardrooms for various business needs, a fully equipped client kitchen for hospitality and team collaboration, a professional presentation stage for company events and client showcases, and a large gaming area where staff can unwind during leisure time.
Every element was precisely engineered to create a vibrant, tech-enabled workspace that defies its basement location while supporting the diverse needs of innovative tech companies.
This project presented complexities that would intimidate most contractors – delivering a CAT B fit-out across 18,000 sq ft of windowless basement space that needed to accommodate an extraordinary variety of functions.
The fundamental challenge was creating open plan collaborative environments alongside specialized spaces ranging from intimate phone booths to professional presentation stages, all while maintaining acoustic separation and optimal functionality in an underground setting. We needed to engineer solutions for diverse requirements including quiet yoga rooms, professional client kitchens, dynamic gaming areas, and various meeting room configurations, all while ensuring the space achieved WELL and LEED certifications despite having no access to natural light. Most critically, we had to coordinate with Space Invader’s design vision to create a cohesive environment where every zone – from touchdown spaces to boardrooms – would feel purposeful and inspiring rather than constrained by the basement location.
The CubicWorks Difference
Our 40+ years of collective problem-solving experience proved essential when confronting the challenge of delivering such diverse functionality within a basement environment. While others might have seen the underground location and complex brief as impossible constraints, we embraced the opportunity to demonstrate our expertise in coordinating multiple specialized spaces seamlessly.
Our in-house trades worked in perfect harmony with Space Invader’s design team to ensure every element – from acoustic separation between gaming areas and meeting rooms to optimal lighting for yoga spaces and presentation stages – was executed flawlessly. We took genuine care to understand how different user groups would inhabit the space, engineering solutions that made phone booths feel private, collaborative areas feel energizing, and leisure spaces feel completely separate from work zones. Our partnership approach enabled us to balance the technical demands of CAT B delivery with the creative vision needed to make an 18,000 sq ft basement feel like a destination rather than a compromise.
Nest at GlassHouse now stands as proof that exceptional workspace design can overcome any environmental challenge, having attracted specialists in cutting-edge tech sectors to an underground location within Alderley Park’s internationally recognized innovation campus. The space has achieved both WELL Building Standard and LEED green rating – extraordinary accomplishments for a basement transformation that demonstrate our technical expertise and commitment to sustainability. Nest has become an integral part of the broader GlassHouse development that now houses over 60 companies, contributing to Alderley Park’s reputation as a premier destination for tech and life science businesses. Most importantly, we’ve proven that with the right expertise and vision, even the most challenging spaces can be transformed into extraordinary work environments that inspire innovation and support business growth.
Engineering Excellence in Impossible Spaces
When others see constraints, we see opportunities to demonstrate what’s possible with 40+ years of collective problem-solving experience.
Our work at Nest proves why we’re the experienced contractors that visionary clients like Bruntwood SciTech trust with their most ambitious projects – taking responsibility others won’t accept and engineering solutions that transform impossible spaces into innovation hubs that set new industry standards.
CubicWorks
