YASA

YASA, a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, is developing advanced electric motor technology from its new facility at Bicester Motion. Across three interconnected buildings, its teams span engineering, testing, production and business functions – bringing very different ways of working together in one place.

For the interiors, that relationship was fundamental. Rather than treating the workplace as separate from the highly specialist environments around it, we considered how people move between technical work, individual concentration and collective problem-solving throughout the day.

The result is a workplace that provides a counterpoint to the harder, more industrial spaces without feeling disconnected from them. Warm, welcoming interiors, shared amenities and spaces to meet or step away sit alongside the production and engineering environments, creating a more cohesive experience of YASA as a whole.

Understanding how YASA’s people actually work was central to the design. Through workshops with teams across the business, we explored not only what different groups needed from their immediate surroundings, but where interaction between them could add value.

That thinking informed the workplace and shared spaces across the three buildings. Open-plan working sits alongside meeting rooms, quieter settings and informal areas, giving people different places for focused work, conversation and collaboration. Shared amenities create further opportunities for teams who might otherwise spend much of their day in different environments to cross paths.

Just as importantly, the interiors consider the moments between these settings. Moving from a technical environment into a meeting, taking time away from concentrated work or bringing different disciplines together all create different demands. The workplace provides spaces that support those shifts rather than treating every part of the working day in the same way.

YASA’s technology also became a source of inspiration for the interiors. Rather than applying a corporate identity to the finished workplace, the design draws directly from the engineering happening around it, creating a visual language rooted in what YASA does.

The interiors create a warmer, more human counterpoint to YASA’s highly technical environments, while maintaining a clear relationship with the industrial character of the buildings. Timber, planting and tactile finishes bring warmth to the workplace, balanced by exposed structure and darker detailing that keep the spaces grounded in their setting.

That focus on people extends beyond materiality. Contrasting textures, changes in flooring and embossed wayfinding provide additional environmental cues, helping people navigate the workplace and supporting a broader range of sensory needs.

Meeting, breakout and informal social spaces are woven throughout, giving people opportunities to step away from their immediate working environments and come together in different ways. For teams whose day-to-day work can take place across very different settings, these shared spaces are intentionally located and designed to provide common ground for conversation, collaboration and exchange.

Longevity within the interiors comes from creating spaces that can continue to serve YASA as its teams and ways of working develop. A range of workplace settings gives people choice in how and where they work, rather than relying on a single uniform environment.

Material choices also bring natural elements into an industrial context, with timber finishes, planting and internal trees contributing warmth and biophilic qualities across the workplace.

By concentrating on the experience and usefulness of the spaces – how people meet, focus, collaborate and move between different parts of their working day – the interiors are designed to remain relevant beyond a single way of working.

Ultimately, the interiors bring the different sides of YASA together. By responding to the highly technical environments around them while creating spaces for people to focus, connect and collaborate, the workplace gives YASA a setting that feels distinctly its own – rooted in its engineering, but designed around the people behind it.