Housed in one of the most emblematic buildings in the Parque das Nações, the Microsoft headquarters was recently renovated by Vector Mais with an architecture project by Openbook. The new office reflects the culture implemented by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and the changes that have taken place over the last few years in how people work and the company's own business.
Seven years after moving to the Parque das Nações, Microsoft completely restructured the interior space of its headquarters, creating new spaces and a more familiar and comfortable environment, perfect to foster creativity and collaboration. Now the headquarters has more than 500 workstations, 105 meeting and collaboration rooms, phone booths, lounges and cafeterias, all developed with a strong spirit of functionality and sustainability.
Celebrating 30 years of presence in Portugal in 2020, the project also highlighted the connection to the country, visible in details such as the use of Bamer's partitions, Amorim Wikanders flooring or Ferreira de Sá rugs, among others.
“The future is today. We have been operating in Portugal for 30 years, but the business has changed and grown, so the space had to follow this innovation. Our mission is to empower all people and organizations on the planet to achieve more and we believe that this more comfortable and inviting space will help employees unleash their full potential and challenge customers and partners so that together we can create more value.
We want this space to embrace talent, cultivate productivity, activate creativity, and stimulate growth. And even being all that, it is still a place that is familiar to us and where we feel almost as comfortable as if we were in our home.” Paula Panarra, General Director, Microsoft Portugal
“For Openbook it was a very interesting challenge. The office reflects the new work trends and it was great to apply them here. We achieved this with very good acoustics in the spaces, using warmer and more comfortable materials like wood and cork, which is very Portuguese. With the amount of space and traffic paths that we have created, with meeting points allied to this more cosy environment, we have been able to give the entire building a less corporate and more comfortable appearance.” Ana Silveira e Castro, Architect, Openbook
“It was a big challenge, we are talking about a 5000 m2 building with four floors and Microsoft has operated in three of them during the construction. We acted on one of the floors, we demolished the whole space and rebuilt it according to the project. Here we have built a home environment, we feel that we are not in a traditional office, but rather in a space that is very comfortable. The carpentry elements were clearly very important in the construction of the space. We had to match the building materials with the specialties and lighting, which had a great deal of weight in creating a scenic environment, in creating spaces of comfort.” Duarte Aires, CEO, Vector Mais