Pharmaceutical giant GSK was single-minded in making its new London HQ a healthy place to work. Paul Milligan sat down with PTS Consulting to explore the winner of the Smart Buildings category of the 2025 Inavation Awards.
British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company GSK was established in 2000 from a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham (hence GSK). In 2022, the company announced it was moving its global HQ from the West London suburb of Brentford back into the city of London, to bring it closer to the UK’s Life Sciences Hub and London’s Knowledge Quarter.
As you would probably expect from such a well-known name connected to the healthcare industry, the goals for GSK for this new building were to create the world’s healthiest, safest workplace, prioritising health, sustainability, and collaboration within a smart building environment. Key requirements for the new HQ included using intelligent building technologies for tracking occupancy and air quality, providing actionable real-time data, and creating a connected, dynamic workplace experience.
all images: Sam Phillips Photo
One of the primary challenges was ensuring the smooth integration between multiple data points such as occupancy, air quality, locker usage, room booking etc., and presenting this data in an easily accessible format for its employees. To do this, GSK partnered with ART Health Solutions over an 18-month project to analyse data and drive decisions around all aspects of the workplace.
Through this programme, GSK collected information from occupancy sensors, surveys, Fitbit data, and cognitive tests to help it understand the impact of its current workplace on people’s health and well-being. The data highlighted how much space impacts the performance of staff, while other data addressed the ideal temperature for productivity and well-being. All of these points influenced the new HQ design and the global standards that GSK will now deploy across its other offices.
It was after this data gathering period that PTS Consulting got involved. Bryan Edwards, smart practice lead at PTS, takes up the story: “We entered a competitive tender, went for several interviews, several presentations and won the project from an RFP that went out for the technical design for the project and the delivery of the smart building aspect, but also the IT infrastructure, the AV systems, Wi-Fi as well.” PTS came on at stage 2 (concept design) and went through the design stages with the design team. Edwards explains the project went out to tender at Stage 3 (rather than Stage 4), which is when a decision was made on the main contractor and the integrator, “so they could assist us during the Stage 4 design”.
The decision to build a new HQ was a significant one for a company of GSK’s size, explains Edwards. “It was a huge move from Brentford as it’s a sprawling 600,000 square foot campus, which is almost a city in itself. GSK was moving from three tower blocks which is supported by a shopping centre with its own high street with hairdressers, a bicycle shop etc., it’s an amazing place.”
What were the client’s aims in those first meetings with PTS about what they wanted to achieve here? “As it is a pharmaceutical company, GSK wanted to try and set a benchmark for the science industry going forward, to see what could be possible. It was all based around staff well-being. This is a huge wellness project because they were trying to encourage staff to come into the city centre of London, whereas before they didn’t have to commute, or if they did, they came by car, they could park their cars, and there were no worries about parking costs or travel costs. They were bringing them from that site into a relatively small building in the centre of London. There was a lot of work done around engaging with the staff, bringing them on this journey. Part of our role at PTS was to lead that smart workspace and to develop the smart requirements for the project.”
What they now have was the deserved winner of the Best Smart Building project at the 2025 Inavation Awards. The Earnshaw Building is spread across 11 floors, 160,000 sq ft, and features 8,000 sq ft of terraces over six floors. It features the largest vertical farm within a commercial office with 35,000 plants supplying fresh, sustainably grown leafy greens and herbs directly to The Orangery, a restaurant and café located within the Earnshaw Building.
The Earnshaw Building is the base for around 3,000 staff, who, in many cases, will continue to hybrid work. With flexible work models at the centre, GSK wanted to connect hybrid, remote, and in-office teams. Most new build corporate projects will emphasise the desire for flexible workspaces or a variety of collaborative space to be at the core. The Earnshaw Building has those, lots of them, but the core here was wellness, says Edwards, “that’s a huge tenet for them. There are two floors at the top that are just wellness studios. With regards to space, they haven’t piled a load of desks in either, it’s a 6:1 staff-to-desks ratio.”
PTS developed the Smart Building design, taking the findings of the ART Health Solutions report and the outcome of extensive GSK stakeholder engagement workshops held over 12 months to develop a matrix of smart use cases that defined the smart brief for the building. PTS had to figure out what the world’s healthiest workspace would mean in reality, “because smart can mean a lot of things, it’s how you deliver it,” says Edwards. The key to the new building being a success was holding workshops before the move took place, he adds. “We were in many workshops with many users going through use cases. Questions about everything such as ‘are we allowed to bring a dog?’ and then how we manage dogs on the site. We went through hundreds of use cases to make the building work for the users and to keep the costs at a manageable level.”
Having the ART Health Solutions data allowed PTS to understand how people worked within their environment, and that data helped them shape the finishes in each room, what type of sound they had in the rooms, even down to the colours of the walls, says Edwards. Using all this data, the smart ecosystem design was developed including an IoT sensor network that includes over 750 sensors and gateways. Following the smart brief and client requirements for a responsive, health-focused workplace, Appspace was chosen as the platform to deliver it.
All around the Earnshaw Building you’ll find sensors to monitor air quality, humidity, CO2 levels, temperature, artificial and natural light levels, and occupancy levels across the estate for better utilisation of spaces and to ensure they are being used in the most efficient way possible. This allows GSK to regularly review the data and make changes to spaces in real-time to better suit the day-to-day functions and operations of those areas. All of this collected data is also communicated to employees in real-time through the Appspace app, on open-floor digital signage display screens via the digital content platform, and on room booking panels outside meeting rooms.
The 80 meeting rooms in the Earnshaw Building rely heavily on Cisco hardware, says Edwards. “They all use exactly the same technology, so when you walk in it’s the exact same user experience. There are some key areas with more technology, such as the event spaces, town halls etc., but again they’re easy to operate and simple to use.”
To help the Earnshaw Building achieve its many accreditations—so far including BREEAM (rating: Excellent) and LEED (rating: Platinum)—GSK opted for a Moodsonic soundscape system, supported by 1,371 soundscaping emitters and 64 noise sensors to enhance employee well-being. It’s the largest project of its kind in Europe. Edwards explains how it works: “Moodsonic soundscaping is a sound masking system fitted around the whole building, in which they have over 900 Biamp ceiling speakers. They’re all zoned and there are hundreds of zones around the building, so it means they can tailor the sound to the whole building. That could be brown noise, white noise, or other typical things to drown out noise pollution. Moodsonic uses natural sounds which are fed into the spaces (it’s not looped, it’s a live feed) and it follows circadian rhythms, so when the lighting changes through the day to match your biorhythms, the sound does as well. If they’re playing it into a space—the sounds of the Amazon jungle for instance—it’ll follow what the jungle sounds like in the morning, right through the day until sunset.”
This gives GSK complete control of what audio to pump into spaces and can match the sound to an event or have background noise for collaboration. “If you go to a rest space, the music will be different, which gives them complete sonic control of the buildings,” adds Edwards. The control of the audio is automated, so doesn’t require human intervention. It can dynamically change the sound depending on the number of people or other noises happening in that space. “It’s automatic but also learns how the spaces behave as well,” says Edwards.
The approach by GSK integrates biophilic soundscapes, which create a multi-sensory experience. Research has shown that combining biophilic soundscaping with natural elements such as plants increases its effectiveness and enhances employee productivity. The system also extends to nurturing inclusivity and can cater to diverse sensory needs as part of GSK’s inclusive strategy. Neurodiverse zoning within office neighbourhoods supports different cognitive styles, allowing for tailored spaces that suit various work preferences. Additionally, the 64 noise sensors identify potential noise distractions to support a more comfortable work environment.
As well as controlling the audio environment, how do these sensors allow the employees to benefit from all the data being captured? A lot of buildings measure occupancy, so you know how many people are in the building at one time, says Edwards. “Here we know it right down to every single desk—did they actually sit there? How long did they sit there?” To allay any concerns over employee privacy, the data collected is all non-personalised, so it doesn’t know who the person at the desk is, just if there’s someone sitting there or not.
This system has two benefits, he explains: “Firstly, they can control the environment around them. Secondly, it’s to understand space usage over time, to help them spot trends, to see if that area is working. If not, they can remodel it, or perhaps on a Friday, shut that entire floor down if it’s not needed and save the energy,” adds Edwards.
It can also subtly alter employee behaviour by suggesting the adoption of healthier options day-to-day via what it calls ‘digital nudges’. “The system promotes wellness while they’re in the building, it gives them digital nudges to get up and have a walk around, to go and find a colleague. If you’ve got a meeting, it gives you a nudge and tells you that you have a meeting in 10 minutes in the meeting room on level 8, and suggests walking via the stairs to help achieve your daily step count. It’s all focused on the health and well-being of its staff. It monitors the air quality throughout the building, in meeting rooms and on the display outside on the room booking panel, so you know if you’re within a good air quality area or not.”
It doesn’t stop there. “While you’re in the meeting, it will give you a nudge on the screen and say that you’ve gone beyond the normal time, and suggest taking a break or booking a different meeting room to give you a break. It’s all focused on the staff,” explains Edwards. It will also notify you when a colleague arrives in the building. “If you’re going for a meeting, it will give you a nudge to say while you’re on your way to level 8, pop into Level 3 because John’s desk is in that area. They are keen to make sure that people don’t just come in and sit with their headphones at their desk all day. Part of wellness is collaborating, talking, and socialising.”
Going forward, PTS and Appspace are providing ongoing service and support, with a team ensuring the systems perform at peak efficiency and adaptability as GSK’s requirements evolve. A training program for GSK’s facilities and IT teams was also delivered.
The project has clearly been a success. You only have to look at the number of awards and accreditations it has picked up in its first six months. Another one may be on the way, as it was recently named a finalist for Workplace of the Year at the British Council for Offices Awards. What are the keys to its success? “The building is tailored around the people in it,” says Edwards. “It’s more about the people and how they use their building and the services they get in the building.”
KIT LIST
Airthings air quality sensors
Appspace smart user app
Biamp ceiling speakers
Metrikus smart data and analytics platform
MoodSonic Soundscaping System, sound emitters, sensors
Rigardo presence detection sensors
Xovis footfall counters
XY Sense occupancy sensors