There's a question every landlord should ask before signing off on a refurbishment: when someone walks into this building for the first time, what exactly does it tell them?
More and more, the answers are found outside the lettable office space, in the places people share; the lounges, the cafés, the shared meeting rooms and, most importantly, the entrances that either set the right tone or squander it.
Because these, the parts of a building that everyone experiences but nobody’s directly leasing, have gradually become one of the biggest factors in whether a modern office building feels like somewhere that people want to be.
And for landlords competing for the best occupiers in cities like Leeds and Manchester, that's a significant shift - one that’s turned communal space into one of the most powerful tools at your disposal to make your building stand out for all the right reasons.
Design Tonic X Rose Wharf, Leeds
The gap between the brochure and the behaviour
Here's a trap that can catch even well-funded projects: there are communal spaces that must have looked spectacular rendered in CGI but that, in real life, never get properly used.
The double-height lobby that looks magnificent but gives people no reason to linger; the breakout that ticks every box on paper but sits too far out to earn a real place in the daily routine; the café that lives where there was space for it rather than where people naturally pass, and is now waiting for footfall that comes all-too infrequently.
In examples like these, the intention was right - to create somewhere for people to gather - but the execution missed how people really behave.
Real communal space isn't about installing features that shout collaboration and hoping for the best.
It's about understanding the real rhythms of a working day: when people arrive and how, where they naturally pause, what makes someone choose to have a coffee and a conversation in the building rather than dashing out, what draws a team down from their floor rather than keeping them at their desks.
When you bridge that gap between what a space is designed to do and what people instinctively do, communal areas come alive and become a real asset.
And that’s where out-of-this-world design thinking earns its keep.
Design Tonic X No.1 St Michael’s, Manchester
First impressions: a building's opening line
Nowhere is that more important than at the front door.
A building's reception and entrance are its opening line; the first thing a prospective tenant sees on a viewing, the first thing their staff and clients experience every day, the first thing that tells everyone who walks in what kind of place this is.
So a tired, generic or just functional entrance can easily undermine the rest of the building, while a well considered one does the exact opposite: setting a tone of quality and design intent that carries all through.
This is exactly the thinking behind our work at No.1 St Michael's in Manchester - one of the city's most prestigious new schemes, delivered by Gary Neville's Relentless Developments.
We were appointed as the communal interiors partner, responsible for the reception, business lounge, multiple lobbies and shared facilities that greet and support the likes of S&P Global, Channel 4, Pinsent Masons and the other blue-chip names who’ve taken space there.
For us, it’s really telling that a building that placed this much importance on its communal experience was pre-let in full, and at the highest office rents in Manchester - showing that, when the shared spaces set the right tone, the right tenants follow.
And it’s a principle that scales down as neatly as it scales up.
At Caddick's own Yorkshire headquarters, we brought the interiors of a striking new double-height atrium reception and café space to life, creating a welcoming entrance that feels open, modern and on-brand, as well as being packed with practical, flexible usable space.
Whether it's a 9-floor Manchester landmark or a regional HQ, the principle is the same: the entrance is doing the introducing, so it needs to say the right thing.
Design Tonic X Kinrise at 34 Boar Lane, Leeds
The spaces people choose to use
Beyond first impressions, the communal areas that earn their keep are the ones that give people a genuine reason to use them - and more and more, commercial interiors are borrowing from hospitality to do that.
The influence of coworking and the best members' clubs is everywhere now.
People have grown used to shared spaces that feel relaxed, sociable and genuinely enjoyable, and are looking for somewhere to work differently for an hour, meet informally, or simply have a proper coffee - and they bring those expectations into every building they spend working time in.
That means that, for landlords, a well-designed café, lounge or communal hub has become one of the most effective ways to make a building feel alive, not just occupied.
Our work with Kinrise at 34 Boar Lane in Leeds shows what that looks like done (really) well.
Here, the high-spec, high-quality communal and café-style spaces do the hard graft to create a relaxed, sociable heart to the building that draws people in and keeps them there - the kind of environment that gives all shapes and sizes of tenant the options they need to tip leasing decisions in a landlord’s favour.
And we built the same idea into our own Leeds home at Rose Wharf, where the coffee shop and its riverside terrace give the whole building a natural social heart; because space people will choose to be in is the kind that pays for itself.
Design Tonic X Wizu Workplace, Glasgow & Mackenzie Stuart, Leeds
Connection, without forcing it
There's an important balance to strike here though, and it's one we see a surprising amount of workplace designs get wrong.
The truth is that people naturally gravitate toward connection when the spaces on offer suit the moment, but they avoid them where it feels forced.
The key is variety. The best communal spaces encourage people to gather, collaborate and connect by offering genuine choice - think quiet corners to take a call, relaxed lounges for informal catch-ups, café space for a proper break and shared meeting zones for when a team needs to come together properly.
At Wizu's coworking space in Glasgow, for example, that meant shared areas designed to feel genuinely uplifting, from an impressive reception through to sociable, brand-led spaces people actively want to spend time in - and elsewhere, it shows up in more unexpected forms, like the golf simulator and yoga room at Mackenzie Stuart, both of which give employees a reason to step away and connect on their own terms.
The lesson for landlords and employers alike? Give people a spectrum of spaces and the freedom to choose, and connection isn’t something you have to engineer; it just happens.
Design Tonic X Caddick Construction HQ, Wakefield
Why communal space is a landlord's advantage
Commercially too, the logic for landlords is compelling because, in a competitive property market like this one, the quality of a building's shared spaces is what separates your offer from your competition.
It's what makes a building memorable on a viewing, what gives agents something extra to sell and what an occupier's own people notice every single day.
Communal space that genuinely works helps a building let faster, command stronger rents and hold onto tenants for longer - because when a workforce enjoys being in a building, their employer is far less inclined to move them out of it.
It also spreads the value of exceptional space across an entire building - a beautifully designed shared lounge or café gives every tenant, however large or small, access to something they might struggle to justify creating within their own footprint.
And the market backs the power of communal space up too.
Here, the RICS Property Journal notes that well-judged communal amenities improve occupancy, reduce void and re-letting costs and support higher rents at new lettings and renewals - improving net operating income, and with it, asset value.
And research into City of London offices has even put figures on it, citing shared amenities like public terraces or rooftops commanding rent premiums of £13 and £6.50 per sq ft a year respectively - while interestingly, also confirming our point that amenities people don't genuinely value add little - underlining the fact that it all comes down to creating spaces people actually want to use.
In other words, the communal advantage is real - get these spaces right and they’re a large part of what makes your property worth choosing for the best tenants.
Ready to make your building somewhere people choose to be, not just somewhere they happen to work? Our team would love to help you create something genuinely out-of-this-world - get in touch today.
