With the new office of the advisory and consultancy company, the characteristic volumes of the Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Building gain an unconventional complement: wide and neutral spaces mark the 350aqm that open like an art gallery connected to the outside.
The project’s concept born from the desire for an office that “don’t look like an office”, with spaces that have personality and convey a sense of movement. CEO Gustavo Kruger’s interest in works of art and voyages on the high seas inspired the development of environments where artistic productions are the protagonists.
Divided into three zones – public, semi-public and private – the office meets the diverse demands of users without sacrificing the fluidity and connection of spaces. A large gallery welcomes the public area, with a retractable panel that allows for easy transformation of the space. As a smooth transition, the semi-public area houses bathrooms, a pantry, facilities and a meeting room for eight people. Finally, the private area is home to individual and collective workspaces, with floating tables and stations, as well as CEO Gustavo Kruger’s aquarium-like room, which remains visually connected to people and the landscape.
Taking advantage of the terraces, planters and large openings that are characteristic of the building, the Perkins&Will team intensified the connection between interior and exterior by applying coatings that already characterized the outdoors, such as the wooden lining of the terrace that invades the interiors. Oscar dos Santos Emboaba also inspired the production and selection of furniture: the geometric shapes of the façade echoes in the Virá Shelf and the HON Cabin - both developed by Hitchpen especially for this project; used, respectively, to display sculptures from the client's personal collection and to provide privacy for video conferences.
The materialization of this office in the form of an art gallery was possible thanks to the balance between technique and creativity. To maintain the functionality of such large spaces, the architecture and design team resorted to the innovative use of panels: “The sliding panels in the public area were very complex to execute, involving carpentry, metalwork, engineering, electrical and lighting work. Another major challenge was the execution of a large steel panel to attract the magnets of the paintings, so that the art exhibition could be easily transformed into different scenarios”, shares Carlos Andrigo, Senior Project Designer at Perkins&Will.
Amplitude, neutrality and lighting are the project’s highlights, as they elevate the works of art to the position of protagonists, in combination with the light tones’ palette, which lends sobriety to the environment. Wooden grids support the large light fixtures in the public area, which bathe the environment indirectly, completing the visual effects created by the lighting applied to the sliding panels in allusion to the sailboat that also inspired the project. “In the art panels and niches, we washed the wall with direct light to highlight the works. It is as if the pieces were transformed into light fixtures, reflecting their colours in the environment”, adds Carlos Andrigo.
