Our customer
Global travel leader Skyscanner, recently relocated its 180 strong Glasgow team to a new office space in the city centre.
With the previous lease coming to an end, the company grasped the opportunity to relocate and create a more sustainable workplace whilst expanding the square footage available for collaborative working.
Since the Edinburgh-founded company revolutionised travel back in 2003 with the launch of its flight comparison website, it has flourished, championing its vision to make travel effortless for customers.
Today, Skyscanner employs 1,500 in 3 continents and boasts over 100 million monthly users.
Looking after that team is a top priority at Skyscanner, so with a focus on physical and mental wellbeing, incorporating plants into the new Glasgow office design had huge importance.
Gonzalo Silva, senior workplace manager, Edinburgh and Glasgow, said: “Plants improve air quality and create a calm ambience, allowing people to be more relaxed and have more of a sense of home.”
Equally important was the design. At the project outset, Gonzalo visualised a vast array of foliage bringing natural texture and colour to the interior.
Project
Working closely with office fit our company BW Workplace Experts, GP Plantscape were commissioned to bring the space to life with plants.
With the growth in hybrid and collaborative working, team members no longer have a dedicated desk but can book a space daily, whether that be a quiet pod, meeting room or open-plan desk.
The state-of-the-art workplace lent lots of scope to bring greenery inside, adding vitality to the environment.
Desk space
In the open-plan office, cabinet tops filled with luscious foliage create privacy, absorb sound and add natural vibrancy. While overhead units containing artificial plants soften the light and ambience.
Café Wander
Alongside the fantastic kitchen, fully equipped with top of the range appliances and free snacks and drinks for all (who’d want to work from home?), a large café area boasts soft seating with built-in planters. The leafy solution comprising varieties of aglaonema is designed to introduce jungle-like textures and tones at varying heights, replicating the natural environment.
Social spaces
Passionate and creative people need to have some fun. Skyscanner employees can find this around the ping pong and foosball table, playing music, or simply reading a book with a cup of tea in the massive, bright games room; which also contains plants, adding a homely feel ideal for relaxing.
Green compliments
Travelling around the office between pods, meeting rooms, and offices, staff can always spy some greenery. Floor-standing contemporary pots show off shiny green specimen plants strategically placed to draw attention to the building’s vantage points and complement city views. While quiet and unassuming, but naturally beautiful, smaller plants in desk bowls compliment shelves, kitchen worktops and reception desks.
Result
A move in location has enticed more Skyscanner employees back to the Glasgow office to check out their new ‘home’ and Gonzalo says ‘real’ plants do make a difference.
In this 21st century, cutting-edge workplace, where passionate people work together to develop solutions to make your travel effortless, plants have an important place.
Skyscanner promotes life at the company as The Real Deal and recognises the health and wellbeing benefits plants bring to the workplace, while at GP Plantscape we work to ensure our customers’ plants thrive and flourish.
The senior workplace manager said: “I have worked with GP Plantscape for over 10 years, and Lesley (interior plant technician) has been amazing when it comes to communication, and this has been one of the biggest factors in our continuing partnership.”
Skyscanner shares 2025 Travel Trends, revealing that from data gathered, UK travellers are gravitating towards horticulturally influenced experiences. Read more.
