Avon calls on RyderHKS for new HQ

Avon Cosmetics is to get a new UK headquarters, designed by architect RyderHKS International.

The new offices, to be built in Northampton, will create more space for the cosmetics company, which is currently housed in a 1950s building with ‘limited flexibility’ in terms of space, according to RyderHKS architectural director Alan Palmer.

RyderHKS took on the brief in July 2006 to look at interiors for the 304 800m2 building.

The space will be designed to create a ‘multi-purpose facility’ that provides each department with a suite of shared facilities.

The Avon base will include a new reception, staff restaurant, café, seminar and conference room, meeting rooms, interview rooms, photographic studio, open-plan workplace and terraced gardens.

Palmer says, ‘The design provides as much access to daylight as possible, with large picture-framed windows looking out across the River Nene.’

The staff restaurant, café, seminar and conference facilities will open out on to a terrace fronting a riverside walkway.

A spokesman for RyderHKS says the building will be complete in July 2009.