Abbott Laboratories Case Study

The brief

The decision to have plants was made primarily for environmental reasons. The customer wanted an attractive setting for staff to work and relax in. As well as plants and art in the offices, there is a large atrium restaurant and plenty of green recycling facilities throughout the building. There are over 300 staff in the brand-new 3-storey building. The building is mainly open-plan, but there are breakout areas, a few enclosed offices and several large meeting rooms. The building is glazed on all sides.

The solution

Ambius provided a mixture of free-standing plant displays (72 in total) using a mixture of plants from the Dracaena family. Our client did not want too many different types plants in order to maintain a sense of design continuity. There are also a number of specimen plants that are positioned so that none that are near each other are the same. The atrium restaurant and reception houses 8 large Ficus trees (each over 3.5 metres tall), which fill the spaces without encroaching on the the art and furniture.

The results

The site is very clean, open-plan and fitted with low filing units. The plants make the building feel warmer and a more pleasant environment to work in. The client is a pharmaceutical company and a lot of the staff already understand the benefits plants bring to their offices, so much so that many people have named their plants and are extremely protective of them. They all know their Ambius technician by name and ask her advice about the plants they have at home.