Assisted Festool in the site acquisition, design and delivery of their new UK Headquarters

Festool UK Headquarters

International tool manufacturer Festool wanted to explore options for its main UK base in Bury St Edmunds when its previous lease was ending. It was considering relocation or renovation of its previous base, with the goal being to have a premises befitting its brand.

For us, Bury St Edmunds is our UK home and we are delighted to expand our operation in a building fit for purpose. Pick Everard has worked with us for a number of years to identify and secure this opportunity and they are doing an outstanding job in designing and delivering the project on our behalf.

Ole Held

UK Manging Director at Festool

Having decided to relocate to Suffolk Business Park, Festool required Pick Everard to design and deliver its new headquarters, providing office, industrial, training and maintenance spaces integrated into a modern and environmentally sustainable premises.

The new building had to project Festool’s brand message within an aesthetically pleasing, high quality development. Furthermore, the company set a target for its headquarters to be BREEAM Excellent rated, to reflect its commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

The Festool UK Headquarters has been designed with sustainability and SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) at its forefront. The entire site discharges the surface water runoff generated via infiltration.This is achieved via a mixture of SuDS.

The car park discharges via a permeable paving system, while the building discharges runoff to linked infiltration basins. The basins are linked via a swale, so that in the event of a heavy rainfall event the runoff will pass from the basin at the higher level to the lower level basin. The cycle parking building has also utilised a green roof to provide treatment and storage of the rainwater captured.

To ensure consistency across the client’s estate the designs had to reflect existing buildings in Europe, which included the recurring theme of utilising blue glulam beams for the roof. This added a layer of complexity to the design.

Our team developed high quality designs, consistent with the company’s branding, informed by visiting their sites in Europe. Furthermore, our in-house structural engineers were able to simplify the roofing design whilst ensuring the finish was still pleasing.

Due to the company’s cycling to work provision, we were able to lower the BREEAM target from Excellent to Very Good and, despite the lowered target, deliver a building which relies solely on electricity and is powered by photovoltaic cells on the roof.