The Headline Amenity Spaces

74 has completed the amenity space designs at The Headline for client Grainger plc. The new BTR residential development is located in Leeds on the former site of the Yorkshire Post offices and printing works. The new-build, 18-storey building, with extensive frontage looking directly out over the River Aire, features a stepped design from the 13th to the 17th floor, with parking at below-ground level. The 242-home scheme was designed by architects The Harris Partnership, with 74’s remit covering the interior design of the 595 sq m ground floor residents’ amenity space – where social areas are combined with a reception area, residents lounge, co-working space, a fitness-on-demand wellness studio and a gym – as well as a 155 sq m ‘Sky Lounge’ on the building’s 11th floor, with private dining room and additional external terrace space.

Design Treatment
The design treatment for the two amenity spaces was aimed at enabling residents to relax immediately on entering the building. Light, soft tones – neutrals with feature soft blues and greens for the ground floor and a strong orange/rust colour in the Sky Lounge – combine to create a striking and fresh palette, with refined and minimal contemporary detailing, as well as strong statement furniture and dramatic feature lighting.

Bringing the outside in via greenery and natural materials to prioritise resident wellbeing was also an imperative, as were the quality cues provided by the scheme’s materials, which include solid surface finishes, such as beautiful porcelain floor tiles and natural light oak. Brass is used for the scheme’s furniture, lighting and design detailing, with gold finishes to metalwork creating a sense of warmth.

The newspaper heritage influence can be seen in the choices of set dressing – from typewriters and a series of eight wall clocks showing the time in major cities throughout the world – through to the influence of printing production rails, whose echo can be seen in the dramatic, curved framework rails around the booth and sofa seating. Lighter touches reflecting printed text, the formation of lettering and newsroom styling also find their way subtly into the design via the scheme’s wayfinding, created by f.r.a. This was complemented by the work of Widd Signs, who fabricated and installed all the enhanced wayfinding.

Design: 74
Contractor: Gariff Construction
Photography: Gunner Gu, courtesy of Grainger