Posts Tagged ‘office design’
An Office Of Illustrations For JWT Amsterdam
March 8th, 2013 – With a founding year of 1864, advertising firm JWT (aka the oldest advertising firm ever), can now match their surprisingly young hot-shop mentality with a clever new workspace. Two talented Dutch designers Alrik Koudenburg and RJW Elsinga came together to create a playful workshop full of dreamy illustrations, upside-down castles, and a greenhouse. Here, having a conversation with a family of life size toy robots is a new possibility.
For ‘Do’ a city setup was created, which functions like a busy beehive where JWT staff organize the idea, getting it done with a team of concept producers, online- / activation- / and print producers.
Pinkeye’s New Headquarters, Antwerp
January 22nd, 2013 – “Four perfectly curved openings are placed symmetrically, which gives the entire space a funny ‘sacred’ feel,” says Pinkeye’s Creative Director, Ruud Belmans, about the company’s new headquarters. Not in a church-like way, but a childhood filled with building tree houses sort of way. There is something really cool about getting a glimpse of a space designed by a team of designers, for themselves. Designing for your clients is one things, but actually designing a space for yourself is a whole new ballgame. When the office space adjacent to Pinkeye’s Antwerp headquarters became available, the growing firm rushed at the chance to takeover and expand their workplace.
“We are a multidisciplinary design studio, with various in-house specialisms – product developers, graphic designers, interior architects, marketeers – so our way of working is very dynamic and our output is highly diverse,” Belman explained. With all these in house specialists, the need to have a strategic spacial layout is pertinent, along with small and large communal spaces.
Belman understands how crucial a functional space is to the creative process – “under the right conditions they enrich one another, which leads to novel solutions that you wouldn’t normally come up with.”
The 6,500 square foot space is divided by a long wall full of diagonal wooden beams that runs central through the entire workspace. Half moon shaped cut-outs make for windows that reveal more intimate rooms, an intervention to create quiet, private work spaces in the overall open office design.
“We had the ridges painted the same matte black as the metal sheets which clad the curves in the wooden wall, ” Belman explained. At the near end of the room there are two spaces set behind glass doors: a rather sober conference room and a more decorative creativity room.
An elongated office table houses 18 monitors, mice, graphic pads and keyboards for as many creative heads. The interior design is a mixture of design and no nonsense. Black-and-white hanging lights hover above the central work table like UFOs.
The spacious lunch area, a space that could equally serve as a bar, is set to the rear. The bar itself is clad in gold, with diamond-shaped cut-outs outlined in black. “I thought it was important for us to all be able to eat and sit together,” Belman added.
(Photography by Frederik Vercruysse)
SAP Headquarters Pavilion, Germany
September 25th, 2012 – An angular new structure sprouted up in the courtyard of the SAP headquarters. The structure is a multimedia pavilion, intended to celebrate the software company’s 40 year anniversary. The Stuttgart-based architects at Scope spearheaded the design and build of the project, titled “40 years of future.”
“The architecture of the pavilion was greatly influenced by the positioning within a courtyard of the SAP Headquarters. On a four-sided enclosed area, we designed an envelope figure, on one hand reflecting the introverted character of the utility bill and the other in an exciting interaction where the confining environment occurs,” the architects explained.
Once visitors enter the exhibition they are met by circular windows which are flush-mounted onto the wall, their arrangement is derived from the binary code of the exhibition title. This can be seen best from the exterior at night when the light shines through the “binary code windows.”
The volume of the building is divided into two polygonal bodies that break their seemingly static boundaries and are fused together in an opposite movement. The two bodies react by different heights, shapes, and colors on the programmatic structure of the exhibition.
The lower structure is a black building which penetrates the glass façade and functions as the connecting corridor to the lobby of the Headquarters. The white, seamless body absorbs inside the exhibition space with the three thematic areas for visitors to learn about the history and future plans of the company.
(Photography: Zooey Braun)
Dandenong Government Office, Melbourne
Australian architecture firm Hassell, known for their brilliant off-beat design ideas in the workplace, has recently completed some cool new digs for Dandenong’s Government Services. The new office is part of a local redevelopment package led by Places Victoria and the Victorian State Government, a major urban renewal project. Hassell wanted to create a “high standard of urban design and quality workplace in this outer-suburban region, and to assist in the rebirth of the precinct as a major mixed-use activity center.”
To meet their goal, The talented team of architects dreamed up a 14,400 square meter office space, which spans up over eight floors. The building comes with staff large communal spaces, community incubator spaces, retail outlets, food and beverage shops, bicycle facilities, and an underground car park.
Our favorite feature is the communal landscaped roof terrace which is cantilevered towards the side of the building on the fourth and fifth floors. The rooftop, also known as the ‘loggia’, is constructed out of hard wood floors and timber batten screen, which allows for sunlight to filter through. The loggia is also connected to a large conference facility and a series of outdoor rooms.
In addition to the supremely stylish design, the project was awarded a 6 Star Green Star design rating from the GBCA, sustainability features include an underfloor air distribution system, rainwater and grey water retention and re-use, solar hot water and waterless urinals.
(Photography: Hassell)
Mountain & City Sales Office, China
Taking inspiration from the surrounding mountain range in Nanshan, the newly designed Chongqing Mountain & City Sales Office has come to life. The interior architecture of the office, designed by One Plus Partnership, has its valleys and its peaks. The space is fitted with an abstract version of a mountain, by connecting triangular grey marble faces to one another. The “mountain range” is central in the office, and custom built angular bronze desks are randomly scattered around architectural element. A field of tube lighting drapes down from the ceilings creating an aesthetic of a rain shower pounding down on the rocks.
(Photographs: Ajax Law Ling Kit and Virginia Lung)
Lexington Avenue Agency Office
When Ana Hernández Palacios of studio Masque Spacio examined photographs of New York City, she saw colors, lights, and larger than life skyscrapers. These images became her inspiration for the Lexington Avenue Agency office in Valencia, Spain. The industrial space is minimalistic yet powerful! Yellow and Black Stripes streamline the walls and ceilings representing the taxi cabs and the height of buildings. A clear plastic curtain with the company’s logo on it gently divides the space into two, in order to keep the flow of natural light into the reception area. Masque took a small space and made it very interesting!
(Photography Credits: Araski Kuro & David De Cualiti)
De Cardenas Styles The Office of Ford Project
Interior Designer Rafael De Cardenas of Architecture at Large is better known for his chic use of bright color and geometry in his projects, but when the designer styled the offices for the Ford Projects he toned down the bright colors and glammed up the workspace in with an elegant mix of modernism and 1920′s decor.
Ford Project, the new art gallery branch of the great Ford Modeling Agency, is housed in the penthouse of a historic building on New York’s Upper East Side. The space (which was previously a private residence) was transformed into a beautiful art gallery and office space for employees. De Cardenas used classic elements and soothing colors to create a harmonious office and gallery for Ford’s sophisticated clientele.
In the office lobby sits a grouping of modern sofas and chairs which are wrapped in fine velvets. To highlight the fireplace, De Cardenas dressed the mantel wall with a floor to ceiling hand painted wall covering which pops off of the surrounding oak wood walls and is properly lit by 1920′s style globe light fixtures. Instead of cubicles, De Cardenas stretched desks together to create a grand family style work place. The desks are directly in front of an existing wood fireplace with intricate detailing and under a cluster of mobile lighting fixtures.
It seems as though De Cardenas knew exactly how to create a relaxing and harmonious office for people working in a fast paced industry!
(Photography Provided By Architecture At Large/Floto+Warner)
A Swedish IT Firm Gets A Colorful Workspace
Contrary to what you may be thinking, Dynabyte is not a prehistoric predator from the Cretaceous period. It happens to be a Swedish IT consulting firm. The company is young, fresh and full of ideas, and yet in experiencing the growing pains of a too-small workspace. That’s when they placed a call to PS Arkitektur, a design agency with a creative and colorful reputation.
PS found it important that the workplace met all business requirements and functionalities but that it be a mixture of playful and serious elements. The concept parallels Dynabyte’s moto for their relationships with their clients and the market. PS set a goal to create a workplace with a mix of private and neutral jobs that would meet the requirements of flexibility Dynabyte desired for their business.
The team achieved success by creating a dynamic blend of open and closed spaces, family style public areas, and tiny private conversational niches. All spaces were dressed in bright colors on the floor, ceiling, walls, and throughout the furniture pieces. It wasn’t until they created the perfect juxtaposition of functionality and fun that Dynabyte was satisfied that they had created a stimulating workplace for their employees.
Electric Dreams Takes On A Fabric Giant!
Together, Catharina Frankander and Joel Degermark are the dynamic design duo behind Swedish based firm Electric Dreams. The team could not have picked a more perfect name for their firm. In essence, Electric Dreams describes the youthful and playful elements incorporated into their exaggerated designs. Frankander and Degermark tell a different story in every project, each as gripping as the last.
Their most recent project is titled ‘Fabricville,’ the headquarter offices for Fabric Retail Glbl in Gothenburg, Sweden. Electric Dreams approached the design with the idea that a busy company headquarters is much like a little working village. The ‘little village’ concept is the result of what you see in the design. Long corridors resemble streets lined with gingerbread-esque offices with windows and doors, and connote the feeling of walking down the small roads of a quaint town.
We caught up with lead designer Catharina Frankander for some Q & A where explained a little more about how the design of Fabricville was executed:
Knstrct: What was your inspiration for this design?
CF: The inspiration behind this design was the idea that a busy company headquarters is very much like a little village – it gathers many types of occupations, each with different spatial requirements, and many different sorts of activities are going on at different times. Open public as well as private enclosed spaces are needed, work places as well as recreational spaces. The aesthetic is very much inspired by traditional Swedish wooden cottages.
Knstrct: Did you face any design challenges?
CF: The office was originally divided up in several offices with different tenants, then it was all clashed together to form the 3-floor, 1500 sqm
Fabricville office. The space bore traces of several different, conflicting renovating schemes…some from the 80s, some from late 90s…The space
had endless dull corridors with a mishmash of window and door types, and lots of different ceiling heights. The space was difficult to navigate since everything looked pretty much the same anywhere where you went.
Knstrct: What was your design goal?
CF: The Fabricville concept came about as a way to turn all the space’s shortcomings into an advantage. The three-floor office was to house 150 employees for Fabric Retail, Weekday and Monki: an interesting mix of fashion designers, buyers, construction managers, and PR people. Our wish was to bring it all together in one visual identity, to house a family of fashion brands, each with its own different personality.
In the Fabricville office, the long narrow corridors became a busy village street, with workshop buildings for the clothes designers, office
buildings for the marketing people, and brightly coloured cottages for conference rooms. The main street is lined with laser cut MDF hedges on each side. The canteen is the green park in the middle. Each floor has a different color scheme to match the identity of the brand that is sitting there. This project was done in collaboration with our brilliant colleagues from Fabric Retail, Sarah Otley and Rong Guan.
(Photographs Provided By Electric Dreams)
