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| Wed 08 Oct 2008 |
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Tag: Office
These items have all been tagged with the tag "Office", You can see other tags in the Tag Cloud| ANZ Breakout & Learning Centre - Melbourne |
| 2008-10-02 01:03:49 |
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Trust Melbourne (the city that holds Design close to its bosom) to be the home of the latest initiative from ANZ Bank; a Breakout & Learning Centre designed by Hassell. As the title suggests, this large, flexible, multi-purpose space is designed to encourage creativity, however it is in the execution that the freedom from constraints of a “normal” office environment is apparent. Forget about boring corporate colours, obvious branding and drab office furniture (in the style of hit series “The Office”). The use of unexpected materials and contradictory colors in the space and its furnishings produces startling results. Plywood, paint and patterned rubber with industrial raw finishes are topped off with a pop of fire-engine red and frog green! Various-size meeting rooms are equipped with state-of-the art technology to enhance the group experience. Perhaps my favorite design features are the “Tree of Knowledge” and the “Giant Foot”. Just like in a fairytale, the tree grows between floors in a natural raw shape reminding us that the childlike imagination is where creativity is ripest. Beneath the tree, the Giant Foot reminds us about reality and perception. – Kate Vandermeer |
| World's Most Creative Work Environments (Our 3rd book) Designers - Submit your designs. |
| 2008-08-26 09:28:19 |
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If you are reading TCH while working, stop for a moment and consider your surroundings? What is your environment like? Are your surroundings in tune with what you should accomplish? Some of us work in our homes while others stare at their computer monitors all day in a multitude of places referred to as “work.” Our environment has a direct impact on our work and on how we feel about our work. From the time you sit down with your Monday-morning latte to the moment you make the mad dash to the elevator late on Friday afternoon, innumerable stimuli affect your every action and reaction. Can you gaze out, or better yet, open a window to let in fresh air? Is your concentration broken each time a nearby coworker turns on the external speaker when he answers the phone? Do you spend most of your day away from your workstation? Are the meeting rooms and common areas in your office inviting and inspiring? Fortunately, designers have become increasingly ingenious when designing office space, but the ones making the decisions at the top deserve praise as well. We’re noticing more and more collaborations between designers and organizations that unquestionably result in satisfaction throughout the staff. The focus of attention has started to shift. As leaders, we expect employees to produce more, better, faster, cooler. But we often spend all our time and energy ‘evolving our brand,’ and don’t pay much attention to work environments. If we changed the workspace, we’d probably start seeing more of what we want. Creative environments foster and attract creative minds. Designers have figured it out – change the cube, evolve the thinking. Designers collaborate with interior architects and now the focus is on the entire space. How can we use space better? How do we create an interesting working environment? What if we did something really unusual? Like creating workspace inside a giant pipe – or a series of pipes? Designers have now also been paying attention to elevators, stairwells, bathrooms, meeting rooms and other social spaces. These previously ignored and undervalued spaces are becoming an integral part of design strategies – and not just to look good, but also to function well. By adding colour, neon, digital interiors, irregular shapes and patterns – cool stuff to look at, to touch, or to sit in or on – we’ll heighten the senses and draw out creative thinking. We know at least some of you have benefited from our previous take on innovative workspaces, aso now we're now on the hunt for more of the best creative offices for our third book - "World's Most Creative Office Environments.” Email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or nominate yourself if you think you’ve got what we want. - Andrew J Wiener |
| Virgin Media UK |
| 2008-06-18 07:29:13 |
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Mergers, acquisitions, transfer of power and takeovers are happening all around us nearly on a daily basis. The approach many companies take in a time of transition when figuring out how to seamlessly integrate a new vision into an old work environment, can present a challenge. The Virgin Media Group brought in Household Designs to re-brand over 50 buildings from Head Office to call centres throughout the UK – 150 of which had active employees. Because the average age of the Virgin Call Centre employee was 23, the design team named the new work environment ‘Our Neighbourhood’ in attempt to shift workers’ thinking from ‘them’ to ‘us.’ Primary consideration was directed at the staff’s behaviour in the space. No longer can it be acceptable to just pick a colour or a theme and apply it haphazardly into a space, which is why the Virgin Call Centres are not overly branded with oversized Vs and bright red walls. That’s not to say the spaces are boring – on the contrary, Household strived to integrate humour into the design – and they focused on underused areas of the former office – communal spaces including reception, canteen, break rooms, meeting rooms and spaces in between such as lifts, corridors and stairs. All these spaces were designed with the intention of maximising the staff’s life at work and to encourage workers to feel comfortable interacting with one another through the use of animal silhouette wallpaper, chalkboards, ‘dating car park spaces’ and more. And across the pond at the Virgin Mobile USA (pictured above) the design team at Gensler brought similar whimsical elements to the work environments. Environmental graphics, bold textures and patterns combine to create a youthful and vibrant work environment characteristic of the Virgin brand. By Andrew J Wiener |
| Kult Offices |
| 2008-06-11 02:52:02 |
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Great interior design isn't just limited to private homes, the retail world, hotels and public spaces such as art galleries. Smart employers are realizing that a creative workspace inspires greater productivity and...you guessed it, creativity. Since we first identified this trend last year, we've seen many more great examples - so much so that we've decided to launch a whole new section on creative work environments around the globe. Like this great space designed for KULT offices, located in a former school atop Mount Sophia in Singapore, the inspiration for this PR and advertising agency was to return to the uncertainty and excitement of the classroom laboratory. Remember the fascinating hours spent in the school lab - setting fire to stuff, cutting slimy things, peering into microscopes, sniffing foul liquids, adding just a little bit more of that to this to see what happens? Kult staff step into their office through a large cut in the wall, which creates an other-worldly effect as they leave reality behind every morning. A central island work-space is illuminated by a spectacular, suspended light ceiling. This techno element is balanced by the ubiquitous views of nature, delivered by windows situated above each desktop along the entire length of the office's walls. A contrasting color scheme of black and white brings it all together creating a modern space that blends harmoniously with the natural environment. We're so inspired by cool creative office design that we're going to make the subject of our next book: The World's Coolest Creatives Offices; the second in a series which kicked off on The World's Coolest Hotel Rooms, this week. If you know of such a cool creative environment please send us a tip. By Lisa Evans. |
| Google Zurich - Anything But Neutral |
| 2008-06-02 01:48:46 |
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At the end of last year we filled you in briefly on the evolution of office design from autonomous, uninspiring closed spaces to the ubiquitous cube and finally the latest incarnation of creative, motivational and dynamic workable environments. And now we’re back to tell you about one of the latest projects from the architecture and design firm Camenzind Evolution: Google Zurich. And what is truly remarkable about this project is that Carmenzind Evolution delivered exactly what Google desired, while not exceeding the costs of many conventional interior office fit-outs. The design team began by working closely with Google through the pre-design process by interviewing all 350 employees with the intention of incorporating their ideas into a new workspace. Because many companies spend excessive amounts on furniture and finishes that have nothing to do with how the employees work and interact within the space, the final design resulted in elements from which the so-called ‘Zooglers’ would benefit most. Stefan Camenzind, the design firm’s founding partner, reveals the essential considerations that led to the innovative creation for the new office space in Zurich: staff knows better than a management committee what works best based on personality types; flexibility of space allows employees take ownership and feel like they belong; communal areas can and should be outlandish and inspiring; bold, clean colour will successfully change the character of the room; cash is always well-spent on an extraordinary coffee machine rather than on soda or junk food; and finally, it’s OK and even recommended to splurge on a few signature items rather than going all out on carpet, furniture and chairs, all of which can amount to spending too much on the stuff no one notices anyway. Keeping all that in mind, let’s dissect Google’s new EMEA Engineering Hub located within walking distance of Zurich city centre in the ‘Hurlimann Areal.’ The building was originally a brewery that has been converted in to a vibrant mixed-use development of residential and commercial spaces, including shops and a spa hotel. The Google offices comprise seven storeys of 12,000 square metres of floor space for up to 800 employees. A diverse team of Zooglers was assembled and represented the entire staff by approving and rejecting nearly every aspect of the interior fit-out. Carmenzind Evolution was never given a specific design brief, but instead followed the directions and recommendations given by the steering committee. Another unique element included in the design process was the involvement of a psychologist who administered a survey to each employee identifying both emotional and practical requirement of the Zooglers. The final design strategy involved the creation of highly functional, yet somewhat basic individual workspace surrounded by proportionally larger, highly stimulating communal areas and meeting spaces. Open-plan workspaces were created for 8-10 employees, whilst glass-partitioned offices were built for smaller work teams allowing for both transparency and light from the outside, as well as creating the required degree of privacy from within. And because the average Google worker moves workstations twice a year, each area has to be exceedingly flexibly and adaptable. Every floor is individually themed and colour-coded allowing for effortless orientation. The fifth floor, the history floor, was designed to resemble an old library parlor. The meeting room has large overstuffed sofas and chairs, dark, velvet curtains, a fireplace and a chandelier. The fourth floor is the green floor – the environment floor. The communal spaces have large, cocoon-like meeting areas amidst a forest of tree trunks. Zooglers can slide down a pole from the floor above into the space. And the third floor’s theme is Switzerland. The floors have carpets that look like snow, and ski gondolas have been converted into meeting spaces. Igloo Satellite Cabins allow work teams to close themselves off to their surroundings and attend videoconferences with peers around the world. Other noteworthy communal areas include an aquarium water lounge where workers can chill out in foam-brick-filled bathtubs; a massage spa and a games room to play billiards, foosball and other video games; the Milliways cafeteria accessible via a large spiral slide where chefs use local produce to offer fresh meals; and a fitness studio offering group yoga and Pilates classes. And as each communal area is dispersed throughout the seven floors, Zooglers are encouraged to circulate and explore thereby increasing their interaction and communication with co-workers from every department. We have to admit we’re huge fans of socially-inclusive design processes – and the design team at Carmenzind Evolution were dedicated to insuring the wants and needs of each Google employee in Zurich were met – and usually even exceeded. Google, of course, is a highly innovative and effervescent company where their new relaxed work environment will undoubtedly inspire and motivate Zooglers to keep the company moving forward while conceiving provoking initiatives. By Andrew J Wiener. |
| Living On Exhibit |
| 2008-05-28 01:04:08 |
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Antwerp, Belgium-based one-year-old sculp(IT) is a partnership of two architects, Pieter Peerlings and Silvia Mertens. They have recently completed a clever office, residence and studio for themselves in what they call “Antwerp’s narrowest house” located in Anwerp’s former red-light district. They took a 2.4-meter (7 feet 10 inches) wide space between two buildings, erected a steel skeleton in it and installed four wooden floors, one each for work, dining, relaxing and sleeping, plus a bath tub on the roof. A one-piece staircase connects the floors. The walls are all glass, allowing light in and creating a feel of space. In a nod to the area’s “exhibitionist” past, each “window” to the street has a black frame emphasizing the showcase or display aspect. The multi-color lighting scheme completes the seedy notion. By Tuija Seipell |
| Diane von Fürstenberg Studio - NYC |
| 2008-04-08 06:04:37 |
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Diane von Fürstenberg Studio’s new headquarters fits perfectly in New York City’s fashionable Meatpacking District, also known as the Gansevoort Market Historic District. The new, six-story building is wedged between two historical, landmarked facades that resemble the wall props in Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba. One corner of the structure is topped by a Olot, Spain-made faceted glass sphere that is part of the penthouse suite and seems like a gigantic diamond fallen from the sky. In the design, New York-based WORK Architecture managed to combine old and new, light and dark, openness and enclosure, artistry and practicality. The building houses DVF’s flagship store, a 5,000-square-foot showroom and event space, offices and studios for a 120 people, an executive suite, and a penthouse apartment. Inside the building, the chief feature is the “stairdelier,” a wide stairway that connects the floors and distributes light throughout the building. Flexibility characterizes all of the public areas. Pivoting walls and built-in unfolding “steamer-trunk” structures allow for a wide use of the space for fashion shows, photo shoots, events and parties. WORK was founded in 2002 by Beirut, Lebanon-born Amale Andraos and Rhode Island native Dan Wood. Many of their projects are in New York, but their work includes everything from a master plan of an Icelandic town to a theatre stage set, from low-income housing towers in New York to a luxury residence in Panama, plus retail, office and residential projects around the world. WORK is also designing 14 DVF stores in 11 countries. Diane von Fürstenberg was born in Brussels, Belgium, 61 years ago. She started her fashion designer career in 1970. Famous for her wrap dresses, which she started creating in 1973, she has become a veritable fashion icon. She is also the current president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the non-profit association of America’s fashion heavy-weights. By Tuija Seipell See also Creative Work Environments |
| UXUS Design Offices |
| 2008-02-18 07:31:28 |
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We always thought that fables anthropomorphized animals, plants and inanimate objects, giving them human-like character. For us, the word fable evokes thoughts of rich, organic colour - a sort of Cirque du Soleil Varekai world. So when we heard that the new office of the Amsterdam-based UXUS Design was inspired by the fables, we expected a riot of colour. Instead, we saw a predominantly white interior with transparent walls, white, gauzy drapery and residential-style floor lamps. A few wall graphics and some organic furnishings do give a nod to nature and, without doubt, the office is a cool background for colourful ideas. It is a stylish base for UXUS, founded in 2003 by USA-born co-creative director Georg Anthony Gottl, Costa Rica native Erica Gottl, and French-born co-creative director Oliver J.P. Michell. Their collective experience spans the globe and their work includes interiors, architecture, retail, hospitality, identity, graphics and packaging projects for clients such as Levi's, Nokia and Adidas. By Tuija Seipell. |
| Straps Band Chair by Yahïa Ouled-Moussa |
| 2008-01-09 17:13:42 |
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Paris based designer, Yahïa Ouled-Moussa, has a way with reinventing old clothing or fabrics into funky and functional design objects. He studied interior architecture in Paris, but it was through a job with a French cabinet-maker who specialized in restoring period furniture where he developed his passion for furniture and design. Ouled-Moussa transforms sturdy, vintage French linens, army sacks or antique porcelain tea sets into stylish smocks, small sitting stools, and bound sculpture. His “strap bands chair” uses old canvas belts that you may have worn in the 1980s, (and those born in the 1980s may be wearing today), and weaves them onto discarded, wooden chairs to create the seat and back. The unwoven part of the belts hang under the seat or along the back, giving the piece an added, looser dimension in contrast to the tight weave of the front. The “strap bands chair” has been made in shades of pinks, as well as in a mix of bright yellow, red, blue and orange. There is also a military version, which incorporates old canvas military belts in green, brown and beige. Chairs can be commissioned by the piece or bought directly from his boutique on rue Nollet, in Paris’s 17th arrondissement. By Blaire Dessent |
| CREATIVE WORK ENVIRONMENTS - Do you work in one? |
| 2007-12-04 07:01:32 |
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Chances are if you talk to any CEO within the traditional corporation model they will most likely agree that productivity is primarily measured in monetary terms (i.e. profits and margins). If numbers continually rise or remain stable, then change within an organisation should be avoided at all costs. If, at any time, productivity declines, the CEO will undoubtedly be the first to take notice, and a top-down chain of events could result in layoffs and downsizing and consequently evoke fear and panic from the bottom up through the ranks. But what about a change to the physical environment within which people operate – create – innovate? Most companies adapted to the so-called ‘open plan’ lining employees up in rows of cube-shaped spaces essentially allowing working minds to adjust according to stimulus created in the workplace. Individuals who became accustomed to hiding inside their own closed off sanctuaries were suddenly forced into listening and discussing openly and candidly work-related problems and ideas abandoning the ability of retreating into isolation. Those who had a difficult time acclimating were either kicked out or discredited for not being able to operate effectively. During this phase in the evolution of work space design many larger companies who could afford to do so, spent money on architecturally impressive buildings from the outside – modern, sleek, media-attracting structures – while simultaneously neglecting following through within where the work generally takes shape. The office cube became synonymous with monotonous, uninspiring highly systematic office space. A new era of work space design was dawning, and design professionals across the world began to seriously consider the practices of an organisation as an essential prerequisite for subsequent design briefs. Jump Studios in London have made a substantial contribution to the new generation of work spaces in their innovative design for the Red Bull Headquarters. Ideas about work environment design centred around feelings associated with adrenaline and energy – directly associated with the brand itself. The offices are spread across three floors in a nineteenth century building in the West End. Visitors are received at the main reception from the top floor – an area that serves as the social space for the employees complete with a bar, café, various meeting areas as well as the central boardroom. A continuous carbon fibre feature links the entire space together – starting as a canopy outside the building, winding inside and around the boardroom, through the reception area, enclosing space for an actual slide between floors, and finally forming an additional informal meeting area on the lowest level. This ramp-like feature is a direct reference to the various extreme sports associated with Red Bull. A number of projects have also been completed by the Danish company of Bosch & Fjord that fulfill the changing needs of work space design. One recent project saw the creation of a series of meeting rooms, a reception area, a café and several meeting spaces for the Lego Group in Billund, Denmark – where the majority of the world’s Lego products are conceived, produced and manufactured. In the hands-on world of a company such as Lego, creative talent thrive in dynamic spaces that encourage interaction among people, products and thought, and the Bosch & Fjord design team successfully followed through by producing meeting rooms and furniture that truly inspire. And what about adaptability for the changing needs of an organisation? Again, Bosch & Fjord believe that people should not accommodate a room; a room should accommodate the people. In an office, often the physical surroundings need to be shaped according to what is happening within the company. In this sense, the social aspect of design eliminates conventional hierarchies among employees, and thereby enhances communal exchange and communication. Bosch and Fjord created a furniture system for Innovation Lab’s new space at the IT Uni in Copenhagen. Rooms are designed within raw shipping crates that include three types of workstations: a small meeting room, a kitchen box and a large worktable that are packed, unpacked, arranged and rearranged with ease and flexibility. A new model without guidelines or conformity has been established for work place design yielding visually interesting and mentally stimulating environments. Steve Jobs hired Bohlin Cywinki Jackson to design the gigantic Pixar Animation Studios outside of San Francisco (BCJ have also designed ten Apple Stores worldwide). While Jobs insisted on including a swimming pool, soccer field, basketball court and fitness centre, his main concern was about the longevity of the design. The interior space also includes a 10,000 square foot atrium used as a reception and lounge area, a café, screening rooms and a large theatre. The workspaces are laid out in 46,500 square foot wings accommodating offices for the 650-person staff. Interestingly, office spaces are individual and fully enclosed set out in units of six – each around a central meeting area. The San Francisco based firm Garcia + Francica installed the fit-outs based on Jobs’ recommendation of mid-century classics and his love of colour. Pieces from Cassina, Ligne Roset, Eames, Aalto and Platner can be found throughout the entire space. Perhaps the most impressive aspect is a series of handwoven Tibetan floor coverings that add a level of comfort to the large office areas. Clive Wilkinson Architects, based in Los Angeles, designed the space for Google’s headquarters – known at the Googleplex with a combination of open and closed spaces allowing for maximum flexibility for all members of the organisation. Employees are grouped in three or four-person clusters - and each shared space includes a meeting area with sofas. Other office amenities include a fitness centre, spa complete with massage rooms, various video and table games spread throughout the complex as well as a full service café and snack rooms. Again vibrant colors are splashed around the space – colored glass panels, bright red walls, green, grass-textured flooring – all set against white work stations. Ultimately there seems to be no general guidelines set that reveal how to create the perfect office environment. From the designer perspective, it becomes apparent to understand the type of work that will be carried out in the space, and plan accordingly. The cookie-cutter open-plan office spaces are no longer an effective means of stimulating creativity. Physical dimensions such as light and surrounding noise undoubtedly affect the way people work with one another. Even subtle alterations in the colour of a wall or the angle of a work station may result in highly sustainable creative thinking efforts. Not everyone does their best work from their own desk either. Individual work spaces may serve as an organisational area – a home base to return after meeting with coworkers in a nearby meeting room – or in a shared informal conference space – or even after a competitive round of ping pong or foosball. New and improved stimuli have only just begun to inspire a new way of working and relating to our corporate peers. Is your office (or one you know of) a super cool, creative space that defies the usual drab rules that dominate most work environments? If the answer's yes, send us This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it By Andrew J Weiner. |
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