Workers' playtime

5 April 2012

Once the bastion of pies, chips and sponge puddings, the works canteen is making a comeback, but without the old-fashioned comfort food or the greasy walls.

Modern canteens come with exotic salads, imaginative vegetarian dishes and fruit-and-yoghurt deserts - plus slimline designer furniture and adventurous dé£¯rs to match.

"There is a new wave of café³ and restaurants appearing in the workplace," says Bill Vickers of catering company Compass. Its Eurest division specialises in workplace catering. "The number of staff eating lunch in work café³ has doubled in the past three years, rising from about 16 per cent in 2000 to more than 35 per cent now."

Vickers adds that companies most likely to offer in-house food are those employing a workforce of about 150 or more. Speed is a key reason why people choose to eat at work - it suits the grab-andgo culture - but style is another: chic café³ and bars are appealing places to meet people.

A recent survey by Eurest revealed that the traditional British lunch hour has been slashed by more than half, with the average midday break now clocking in at a meagre 27 minutes - nine minutes have been shaved off lunch in the past three years alone. But to tempt workers to them, works cafeterias must be more than fast fuelling stations, says Jason Turner of architecture and design company BDGworkfutures.

"Companies are spending more to make the place a real destination, and it has become a focal point for staff. They can socialise and network with friends and colleagues, have informal meetings or just take a break and read a book," he says.

It is a rare case of everyone wins: the company keeps the workforce on site and staff don't waste their ever-diminishing lunch hour standing in sandwich-shop queues.

Food for the flexible

The buzz of a New York deli was the inspiration for the staff restaurant at the revamped Empress State office tower in Earl's Court. The problem for the designers was that it had to be finished before anyone knew how large a workforce it would cater for, or what their tastes would be. The building is comprised of flexible, serviced office suites.

"We worked closely with the catering company, Compass, and the building's operator, Landflex, to build a picture of the potential diners and the food they would want to eat," says architect Paul Baker of Wilkinson Eyre, which took on the complete refurbishment of the 1960s landmark tower.

The result is a crisply detailed and well-lit restaurant where diners are greeted by a stainless-steel deli area, before they flow through into an open-plan dining area.

"One of the key features of the Landflex idea is that the building is able to offer smaller companies the range and standard of facilities you would expect in larger organisations; the restaurant is an important part of that mix," says Landflex spokeswoman Susie Gray.

The ground-floor space is designed for 250 diners. "It's a big area, and to avoid that service-station look, we have landscaped the space and provided different types of seating, with some tables set on raised platforms, into the base of which we've incorporated fresh-air vents," says Baker. "There are bench-and-stool areas that are ideal for people in a hurry or who want to sit alone, large and small tables for people sitting in groups, and then, at the edges, quieter areas with banquette seating."

The beautiful plywood banquette seating and chunky plywood tables are by London furniture maker Opus Magnum.

Landflex: 0870 242 1768. Wilkinson Eyre Architects: 020 7608 7900.

We are how we eat

With its table football, snooker and cosy booth seating, the new cafeteria at branding company Media Edge CIA in Southwark looks more like a private club than a staff canteen. Called a "caféclubbar", it has played a special role in uniting two workforces after a merger deal. "We wanted the area to express the new company's values of being imaginative and collaborative, and to be a place where people from different departments could mix and talk," explains the company's Gill Hunter, who adds that staff were consulted on the design from the start of the process. She says: "Table football and snooker were high on the list."

A major feature of the design is that it stands as a complete contrast to the sleek, bright, open-plan offices above. It was a way of tempting people away from their desks. "This had to be a distinctive place, a destination and somewhere that the young workforce would want to go," says designer Jason Turner of BDGworkfutures.

Details include the toaster and microwave-oven area, where staff can prepare their own food, a bank of large fridges for storing food shopping,

computer points in the bench seating areas for informal presentations and high-quality lighting and sound systems, which, once a month, transform the café into a club for the evening.

BDGworkfutures: 020 7559 7400.

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