The iconic Aviva building in central York is has been re-configured to provide a boutique hotel for the Malmaison chain, providing 150 bedrooms, lounges and buisness suites in the city centre. The completed scheme includes a rooftop skybar extension providing a bar and restaurant space with unparalleled views across the historic city of York. This has been achieved with minimal structural intervention using lightweight techniques and the careful distribution of services. At the heart of the design proposals are the Malmaison brand’s Work + Play concept, which fuses traditional hotel design with business-ready technologies to appeal to a growing mobile workforce. Technology is integrated heavily throughout – a challenge in an existing building context – to allow for future evolution of the brand concept or transition to another format.