Google is famous for providing their employees with dynamic, creative and engaging workspaces. Pictured from top left and moving clockwise: Google reception desk in an office by Scott Brownrigg; a fireman’s slide leading to the cafeteria and an orange grove both designed by Camenzind Evolution.
When we were awarded a large scale High-Tech corporate interior design project for a company in town we were extremely excited, and not only because we got the job (which was very exciting on its own!). They requested a design that was outside of the box, a space that, from both an employee and prospective client view, would have them think âI want to work hereâ. Their goal was to create an employee culture that views the company as organized and fun, but still serious and responsible in terms of the tasks they perform, and they understood that the interior design of their space was the very place to start.
The Vision
They found inspiration in the quirky and distinctive Google offices that continue to pop up around the world; while we are not working with a Google budget, we have been dreaming of designing an office that veered away from the norm and let our design talents shine.
Snagajob’s corporate office by Baskervill uses bright pops of colour and varied spaces to create a workplace that will appeal to their employees.
The company will occupy a three storey space, each floor housing different departments. The entry floor will be home to the more corporate departments and roles, the technical support groups will occupy the middle floor, and the remaining floor will be for the research and development team. One of our tasks was to create two distinct environments; one for the public entrance, corporate employees, and guests where the design should be more refined, and another for the remaining employees where interest and fun were the main requirements – all of this while maintaining a unified identity throughout the three floors.
22squared’s office by Gensler provides a variety of spaces to work in that allows for flexibility and collaboration.
The Inspiration
We set out to find our inspiration and formulate our concept. There was definitely no shortage of recent office projects with a playful design direction; we admired more than a few prior to being approached by our client. Bright colours, interesting forms, unusual materials and a more laid back and homey feel seems to be the trend. Like always, we wanted to do things in a unique way in order to provide our client with an office that was markedly theirs. While we were developing our concept, the company rebranded. The outcome gave us a ton to work with; so many bright colours that delineate their specific departments.
The round suspended clouds in the corridor of this Zuhlke Engineering AG office by RBS Group inspired us for this project.
Every image of the Yandex office by za bor architects offers a uniquely designed space; we think this office was very well done.
The Concept
Software development had us very obviously thinking about pixels and matrices, and also very quickly dismissing these all too obvious clichés. We kept trying to stray away from these ideas, but were continuously roped back in. So it was time to think about these overused ideas in a fresh, out of the box way, and the requirement for two unified but different environments provided us with just that.
We just couldn’t move away from the idea of pixels and matrices, so instead instead we embraced it and made it our own. This image somewhat informed some areas of our design.
Our concept is along the idea of a matrix or grid, something regular and definite, that is abstracted once and then abstracted again to end up with something much more chaotic and irregular. The entry floor will exhibit a more subdued colour palette and more regular workstations and offices. As you move to the middle and bottom floors the colours become more and more bold, as does the furniture in the open workstations that make up a large portion of these floors. The concept is carried throughout the three floors of this office in the walls, floors and cabinetry. The open internal stair that connects the three floors provides an opportunity to express our concept on one large plane in the form of a killer piece of sculptural art.
So how to present this to our client so that they could understand what we were suggesting prior to proceeding in this design direction? We found this DYI pixel painting on the Wit & Whistle blog that illustrated the concept surprisingly well.
Things are moving pretty steadily ahead in this high-tech corporate interior design project; check back soon to see how our concept translated into a unique and dynamic design!