sedgemoor district council reception
sedgemoor district council are located in bridgewater and house their internal departments as well as their public reception in one building. in 2019 the council looked to give their office a refurbish to update their environments and shortly after in 2020 they also decided to update the existing reception which is public facing.
the reception houses all customer facing services including enquiry points for housing, tax, benefits plus external consultants such as citizens advice bureau and social services. Sedgemoor district council wanted a more open space, welcoming and intuitive to use. the space needed to help all demographics and allow every user the confidence to access services. this meant retaining face to face customer services while reducing desk areas, retaining meeting rooms but increasing the light and facilities to them, providing self serve points and ensuring a good level of access to those with needs.
the new space is warm, open and colourful with a dedicated childrens corner within the waiting space.
Steer Design was the Interior Designer and FF&E Consultant working directly for Sedgemoor District Council working alongside Allen Construction Consultancy. We created a close team to align the vision and while we worked to a budget, the council were keen to create a long lasting scheme to make sure the investment is well spent. We removed the existing meeting rooms and rear corridor to these thereby putting more space back into the overall area. Existing door barriers and lobby frames were retained and simply powder coated for a refresh.
Key spaces include: children’s play space in the waiting space, a secondary waiting space between meeting rooms to allow visitors a semi private space if waiting during sensitive consultations, self serve machines, customer service desk, semi private booths for ad hoc 1 to 1 meetings. We also positioned new meeting rooms to both the rear and front of the building to allow more privacy by not having them open to customer facing spaces. The new environment includes photos from in and around the council district, timber screening and LVT flooring, warm colours that represent not only the council but balances out the palette for a n optimum feel.