Office 
Construction
Design and Build
28,000 sq ft
14 Weeks
Warwick
Return to Case StudiesCaterpillar Finance
When Caterpillar Finance’s lease came up for renewal, the team saw an opportunity to rethink how their workplace could support their people. Working with employees from the outset, we transformed two disconnected floors into one joined-up space, with a new central staircase, a social hub and a choice of places to focus, meet and collaborate.
In pictures
Initial Drivers
Caterpillar Finance were approaching the renewal of their existing lease and needed to decide what the next chapter of their workplace should look like.
Occupying the first floor and a smaller area on the ground floor, the two spaces had historically felt disconnected. Employees needed to leave the first-floor workspace and use the existing stair core to reach the ground floor, meaning a breakout area previously created there was rarely used. At the same time, the existing office environment no longer supported the way people wanted to work.
Rather than simply refurbishing what was already there, Caterpillar Finance had an opportunity to rethink the workplace completely. The ambition was to create a modern, flexible environment with a greater variety of settings – from agile and hot-desk areas to quiet spaces, individual Teams booths and collaborative zones – alongside a central social space where everyone could come together.
There was also an important commercial consideration. At this early stage, CAT didn’t yet know what level of investment would be required to transform the existing space. With lease negotiations and future CAPEX planning underway, they needed to understand both what could be achieved and what it was realistically likely to cost.
By working closely with the CAT team from the outset, understanding their aspirations, developing early test fits and using Edge, our AI-powered workplace consultancy tool, to capture employee insight, Rhino was able to establish the requirements quickly and develop early budget costs.
This gave CAT meaningful information at a critical point in their decision-making process, helping to inform their lease renewal negotiations and allowing the business to put forward a realistic CAPEX provision for the project.
The Proposal
Our proposal centred around one transformational move: connecting the two floors.
Rhino designed a new opening within the existing floor slab and introduced a central feature staircase, creating a direct physical and visual connection between the ground and first floors. Suddenly, two previously disconnected spaces could operate as one workplace.
The ground floor was reimagined as the social heart of the office, with an inviting new breakout and lunch space. By deliberately locating the main food offer here, employees from different teams and departments are naturally encouraged to move through the building and come together throughout the day.
Across the wider workplace, we introduced a variety of settings designed around different activities rather than a single way of working. Agile areas, hot desks, individual booths for Teams calls, quiet spaces, collaborative settings and social areas give employees the freedom to choose the environment that best supports what they are doing.
The early test fits, employee insight, budget development and immersive design walkthroughs allowed CAT to understand the project from several perspectives – how it could work, how it could look, how their people would use it and what level of investment would be required. This gave the team confidence not only in the design, but in the wider decision to retain and invest in both floors.
Key Challenges
One of the biggest challenges was unlocking the potential of two floors that had previously operated almost independently of one another.
The ground floor had valuable space, but its physical separation meant employees had little reason to use it. The challenge was therefore not simply to redesign both floors, but to fundamentally change how people moved through and experienced the building.
Equally important was bringing Caterpillar Finance’s employees on that journey. A new workplace can introduce significant change – different ways of working, new types of spaces and new expectations around how those spaces are used. For the project to succeed, employees needed to feel that the workplace had been created with them, rather than simply for them.
At an early stage, Rhino introduced Edge to gather feedback directly from Caterpillar Finance employees. This enabled us to quickly understand what people valued, what wasn’t working and what they wanted from their future workplace.
The insight helped inform the design, but importantly it also became part of the wider change-management process. Employees were given a voice early in the journey, while the Caterpillar Finance management team gained meaningful evidence to support the decisions being made.
Look & feel
The ambition was to create a neutral, modern workplace that reflected Caterpillar’s business and industrial heritage without relying on overt branding.
Working closely with CAT’s marketing team, we developed an industrial-inspired look and feel, using black finishes, natural materials and textured surfaces throughout. Black ceilings on the ground floor create a strong contemporary statement, complemented by mesh-fronted lockers, mesh ceiling details and stony-textured floor coverings and worktops.
Wood was introduced to bring warmth and balance to the darker industrial elements, creating a more welcoming environment while maintaining a robust and practical aesthetic. Acoustic panels were also carefully selected, with a design inspired by shipping-container metal, reinforcing the industrial character while improving comfort within the open-plan spaces.
Kitchens and breakout areas were designed to feel warm and inviting, while extensive planting and subtle graphics add softness and personality. Durable, practical and sustainably considered materials were selected throughout to ensure the workplace could perform day to day while maintaining its visual impact.
The result is a contemporary, neutral workplace with a clear connection to Caterpillar’s industrial identity – balancing black industrial finishes with warm timber, natural textures and softer elements to create a space that feels both distinctive and welcoming.
From Edge to Destination
For Rhino, creating a successful workplace doesn’t end when construction finishes.
At handover, we delivered a dedicated Destination Day, introducing Caterpillar Finance employees to their completed workplace – many seeing the new environment for the first time.
Rather than simply opening the doors, we took employees through the thinking behind the space: how the different settings could be used, where to collaborate, where to take calls, where to find quiet space and how the new ground-floor social area was intended to bring everyone together.
This helped Caterpillar Finance establish new ways of working without the messages feeling like rules being imposed by management. Instead, employees were welcomed into the space, shown how to get the best from it and made part of its next chapter.
The Destination programme is now continuing beyond handover. Rhino has been asked to create a dedicated workplace video for future new starters, forming part of their induction and helping every new employee understand the environment and how to use it from day one.
From the initial employee insight gathered through Edge, through early test fits and commercial planning, design and delivery, to Destination and ongoing employee engagement, the project became about much more than refurbishing an office.
It gave Caterpillar Finance the insight and confidence to make an informed long-term property decision and ultimately created a connected workplace designed around its people – turning two previously disconnected floors into one shared destination.
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