Sinclair’s Sheung Wan office fosters camaraderie

The bright, open, and airy space creates an atmosphere of creativity.

Sinclair has set up an office with an open-space design at Sheung Wan in northwest Hong Kong to encourage teams at the public relations firm to work together.

“If you create a space that people want to be in, they want to come to work,” Kiri Sinclair, founder and CEO at Sinclair, told Hong Kong Business. “As a creative agency, we need to bring people together to brainstorm, collaborate, and be creative.”

The office has a spacious, co-working layout with three divisible meeting rooms, all designed with sustainability in mind.

"The most important aspect of our office design is its seamless, streamlined approach,” Sinclair said via Zoom. “We didn’t want lots of small desks and tables. Instead, we opted for long tables where teams can work together along the length of the space.”

The CEO, who has been running communication agencies for two decades, said most people in their business learn by listening and being around more senior colleagues.

“That's a crucial part of the learning process,” she said. “An open workspace allows people to hear conversations, meetings, and discussions.”

Sinclair said they gave architects a design direction about sustainability and about being able to reuse and repurpose things. “We were actually told that moving our furniture — taking it apart and putting it back together — would be more expensive than buying new.”

Despite the expense and the fact that there are cheaper options from Taobao, Sinclair decided that reusing existing furniture would be more sustainable. “In the end, we kept about 80% to 85% of our furniture and fittings and transferred them to the new space.”

The office is on a higher floor, with windows on all four sides, allowing natural light to flood the space. “You can imagine how bright, open, and airy it is, and I think that really creates an atmosphere of creativity. It also lifts people's spirits.”

Despite being 5% smaller than their previous office, the design creates a more spacious feel. “Removing the drop ceiling and exposing the structure above creates a much more open, expansive feel,” Sinclair said.

The office also uses abundant greenery, with plants adding oxygen to the space. “It’s a nice blend of natural design elements with an industrial feel, featuring cement flooring and open ceilings.”

The Hong Kong office hosts its local and regional teams from offices in Shanghai and Singapore. 

“The main function of the office is as a daily workspace, with most people coming in four to five days a week,” Sinclair said. “While employees are welcome to work from home one day a week, many don’t take it, which I think speaks well for our office environment.”