Insurance, insurtech, and the architecture 215
simplicity, and platform sensibility. Companies like Lemonade commission
instagrammable content and employ social media to perfect conversational
tones of voice. This lightness of tone is also expressed in the architecture.
It is no accident that Aviva’s digital venture chose Hoxton as their location or that they chose to keep many of the building’s features. In doing
so they followed an established path of creative tech industries moving in
to ‘gritty,’ rapidly gentrifying urban areas formerly colonised by artists in
search of large, loft or warehouse spaces in line with ‘creative city’ policies
(Zukin 2014). This path also has an established architectural signature –
bare brick, exposed services, open plan work and coffee spaces, sofas, rugs,
splashes of colour. Office furnishings are modular, and walls are partitions
that can easily be relocated.
The style is very much in evidence in the building interiors Lemonade and
Hippo, another insurtech unicorn, feature on their corporate websites (see
Figure 15.5). As Lemonade puts it, ‘Our workplace looks more like a workshop than an office. We despise corporate politics, emails, and never-ending
meetings. Macs are our weapons of choice, Slack is our (only) mode of communication, and we put our trust in the cloud’ (Lemonade 2021). Aviva’s
Garage adopts the same style and has made extensive use of it to promote
the company’s digital credentials. At the time of its opening, Mark Wilson
gave numerous interviews to the trade press (Farey-Jones 2016), the building
was widely photographed, featured in architectural and design magazines
and websites, and hosted dedicated tours showcasing it as an example of
workplace and insurance innovation.
Everything about this vernacular suggests an airy, lightness. The Aviva
Garage was fitted by SC Projects that specialises in stage deck platforms,
designed to provide multi-functional, adaptable, ‘edgy’ workspaces.
Employees have room to explore, develop, and test new insurance ideas
and services within an environment similar to a highly flexible and
personalised tech startup. […] We supplied fifteen 1m x 1m stage decks
to the Digital Garage, along with two different heights of legs to give
them quick change flexibility. They have been put into use all over the
building, from coffee tables to display stands in the development areas,
and can be quickly altered in height to suit what’s required that particular day. 10
Insurtech, in one sense, signals a quite different landscape from traditional
insurance. The emphatic architectural language of post-industrial, repurposed, retro-fitted buildings and interiors is a world away from the messages
of solidity and permanence of the first purpose-built insurance offices with
company names emblazoned on every available surface (c.f. Dickens 1994).
In another sense, insurtech’s promotional assemblage bears a strong family resemblance to its predecessors. Insurance brands, their names, graphic
identities, and the specific form of their buildings are still central to the
simplicity, and platform sensibility. Companies like Lemonade commission
instagrammable content and employ social media to perfect conversational
tones of voice. This lightness of tone is also expressed in the architecture.
It is no accident that Aviva’s digital venture chose Hoxton as their location or that they chose to keep many of the building’s features. In doing
so they followed an established path of creative tech industries moving in
to ‘gritty,’ rapidly gentrifying urban areas formerly colonised by artists in
search of large, loft or warehouse spaces in line with ‘creative city’ policies
(Zukin 2014). This path also has an established architectural signature –
bare brick, exposed services, open plan work and coffee spaces, sofas, rugs,
splashes of colour. Office furnishings are modular, and walls are partitions
that can easily be relocated.
The style is very much in evidence in the building interiors Lemonade and
Hippo, another insurtech unicorn, feature on their corporate websites (see
Figure 15.5). As Lemonade puts it, ‘Our workplace looks more like a workshop than an office. We despise corporate politics, emails, and never-ending
meetings. Macs are our weapons of choice, Slack is our (only) mode of communication, and we put our trust in the cloud’ (Lemonade 2021). Aviva’s
Garage adopts the same style and has made extensive use of it to promote
the company’s digital credentials. At the time of its opening, Mark Wilson
gave numerous interviews to the trade press (Farey-Jones 2016), the building
was widely photographed, featured in architectural and design magazines
and websites, and hosted dedicated tours showcasing it as an example of
workplace and insurance innovation.
Everything about this vernacular suggests an airy, lightness. The Aviva
Garage was fitted by SC Projects that specialises in stage deck platforms,
designed to provide multi-functional, adaptable, ‘edgy’ workspaces.
Employees have room to explore, develop, and test new insurance ideas
and services within an environment similar to a highly flexible and
personalised tech startup. […] We supplied fifteen 1m x 1m stage decks
to the Digital Garage, along with two different heights of legs to give
them quick change flexibility. They have been put into use all over the
building, from coffee tables to display stands in the development areas,
and can be quickly altered in height to suit what’s required that particular day. 10
Insurtech, in one sense, signals a quite different landscape from traditional
insurance. The emphatic architectural language of post-industrial, repurposed, retro-fitted buildings and interiors is a world away from the messages
of solidity and permanence of the first purpose-built insurance offices with
company names emblazoned on every available surface (c.f. Dickens 1994).
In another sense, insurtech’s promotional assemblage bears a strong family resemblance to its predecessors. Insurance brands, their names, graphic
identities, and the specific form of their buildings are still central to the