National Recognition for Mesh in The Sunday Times Best Places to Work
Doug Johnson
Mesh is Recognised as One of the UK's Best Workplaces
The Sunday Times Best Places to Work has been published in partnership with WorkL, with Mesh receiving recognition as one of the top small organisations to work for in 2025.
This national survey highlights the Best Places to Work in seven categories and provides valuable insight into what makes a good workplace.
To achieve recognition, each organisation had to score highly in six areas – reward and recognition, instilling pride, information sharing, empowerment, wellbeing and job satisfaction.
Zoe Thomas, Editor of The Sunday Times Best Places to Work:
"The Sunday Times Best Places to Work list is the UK’s biggest survey of employee engagement. Spanning a raft of sectors and located throughout the UK, the organisations in this year’s list range from innovative start-ups with a handful of employees to big multinational corporations staffed by thousands. These organisations know that happy employees are the superpower helping them thrive.”
Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL:
“Many congratulations to those featured in the 2025 Sunday Times Best Places to Work list. The recognised organisations lead the way in employee experience and will now benefit from improved retention and recruitment for the year ahead.”
Doug Johnson, Founding Director of Mesh:
“We are thrilled that Mesh has received this national recognition.
Everyone has their own ideas about why the culture of an organisation matters. For me, a positive culture is a catalyst, amplifying the abilities of individual team members. If you feel happy and valued at work and can be yourself, you’re far more likely to explore beyond your comfort zone, ask questions, be proactive, and accelerate your learning. You will also be motivated to go that extra mile for your customers, knowing you’ll be appreciated and rewarded in turn.
This is the ethos and vision behind everything we do at Mesh whilst working hard to improve the sustainability of the built environment as part of the drive to netzero.”
Some of our employee initiatives include:
- A standardised performance metric – to balance productivity with salary to enable us to recognise great work without bureaucratic delays.
- Flexible working – we want everyone in the business to have a healthy balance of life and work. As long as the work is done, our teams can work to their own timetable.
- Remote, hybrid or in-person working – we have an office in Surrey, but our teams live all over the country.
- Annual leave – in addition to a generous holiday entitlement that exceeds the statutory minimum, everyone has the opportunity to earn additional leave for annual service.
- Team building – every couple of months we bring the team together for different outings and activities – from go-karting and clay pigeon shooting to rounders in the park.
- Parental leave – we offer four months of fully paid leave for either parent, which in addition to our regular keeping in touch days and flexible working, help to make our staff feel supported as much as possible.
- Monthly challenges – we challenge the team to undertake a variety of light-hearted activities through the year with some healthy competition – from steps walked to random acts of kindness and spending time in nature.
- Spot bonuses – we recognise exceptional performance by rewarding individual team members with a spot bonus of £1,000.
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Mesh Founding Director Doug Johnson has been invited to join the judging panel for this year’s Building Innovation Awards. These awards are a fantastic opportunity to showcase the incredible industry pioneers, innovations and technical advancements in UK construction. Together with a panel of influential clients and Tier 1 decision makers from across the construction sector, he will be evaluating the entries ahead of the awards celebration in Birmingham on 29th September 2026. The Building Innovation Awards the only awards scheme in the built environment sector to be recognised with the prestigious Outstanding Awards Trust Mark from the Independent Awards Standards Council (IASC). Doug Johnson: "It is an immense privilege to join such as esteemed panel of clients and industry professionals. We have so much to be proud of in the built environment and these awards are a brilliant opportunity to celebrate innovation which keeps our sector advancing, particularly in the areas of sustainable development and construction as we work towards net zero and the vital need to accelerate decarbonisation. Innovation is absolutely central to that." More details about the awards here .
Building performance specialist Mesh has completed a building services design project for a new flagship art gallery in Savile Row – Sadie Coles HQ. The six-storey Grade II listed Georgian townhouse in London’s Mayfair, which dates back to the 1730s, has been fully restored and transformed by lead contractor Work Ltd, to create a unique space for contemporary art. The building, once home to the Burlington Fine Arts Club in the 19th century, had been bomb damaged in World War II and used as offices post-war. It has now been sensitively reinstated as a space for artists to exhibit their work in a part of London which has a long association with contemporary art. The key aim of this extensive refurbishment project was to work to a fast-track programme for the gallery’s opening to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair. Mesh was appointed to develop a holistic MEP building services strategy, from concept through to detailed design, and in keeping with the character and constraints of this heritage building. Enhanced control of the internal environment was required to maintain visitor comfort all year round and in the context of continually fluctuating occupancy levels, including events for up to 200 people. Working within a Grade II listed building required a highly considered approach at every stage – historic architectural features were revealed and restored internally and externally, and extensive structural improvements were required to accommodate art loadings. These factors had to be reflected in the services design and specification. Mesh used dynamic thermal modelling for different scenarios of use to understand the heating and cooling loads required and to allow the services to be accurately sized for each room or gallery. Two priorities were cooling and for each area to be individually controlled according to occupancy levels. Discrete but robust heating and cooling provision was designed for the gallery areas and the MEP services were concealed in void spaces to avoid impacting on the architectural features of the building or the layout of the galleries. Plant and equipment had to be sited in compliance with stringent planning requirements, which limited the number, size, position and visual impact of the external units. Passive measures were introduced to reduce energy consumption and included actuated openable rooflights in a glazed lantern to purge warm air during the day and reduce the reliance on the active cooling system. Giles Reid, Giles Reid Architects: “The new gallery has succeeded in its ambition – to reaffirm that London has an important position in the global art world. This was a complex project which had to be delivered in just nine months from planning approval for the fixed deadline for opening, and despite having to carry out extensive structural alterations. The building is performing well from a services perspective, including at the opening event which was attended by around 800 guests. The M&E design in contemporary art spaces like this must never detract, visually or acoustically, from the art being exhibited and this has been successfully achieved. This is a fantastic statement building which has been acclaimed and the Client is thrilled. It is a credit to everyone involved that this historic building has been brought back into use for contemporary art.” Doug Johnson, Founding Director of Mesh: “This project demonstrates exactly what intelligent building services engineering should deliver – an integrated, high-performance solution to deliver year-round-comfort for visitors and users of the building whilst maintaining a clean aesthetic. Working within a Grade II listed building with complex planning restrictions required genuinely creative engineering rather than a conventional response. We are really proud to have contributed to this outstanding building transformation.” The Project Team: Client: Sadie Coles HQ Lead contractor (design and delivery): Work Ltd Architectural partner: Giles Reid Architects MEP design / building performance: Mesh About Mesh Mesh offers a range of design and engineering services to help organisations in the public and private sectors to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings, housing and estates. This includes support for architects; planning; thermal modelling and overheating analyses; carbon reduction strategies; feasibility studies for renewable technologies; MEP design, and regulatory compliance. Architectural images - Joseph Asghar
Building performance specialists Mesh names in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work List 2026
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