In 20016, Lavazza acquired Carte Noire, a French top-quality coffee maker with similar characteristics as to quality, customer base, attention to image and communication.

Construction work run alongside the acquisition of the subsidiary company. The new offices are located at number 58 Avenue Émile Zola, in the heart of Boulogne-Billancourt, a neighbourhood near the centre of Paris, which has undergone recent redevelopment.

Here, Carte Noire employs approximately 140 people and occupies two floors, the sixth and seventh floor of a recently constructed building, which stands out for its irregularly shaped, narrow floorplan. The interior is bright as it is flooded in natural light.

The real challenge of this project was to convey the brand’s identity in spatial terms, creating above all a warm and pleasant interior which makes room to showcase the creative work taking place as well as the quality of the product.

Carte Noire is known for its simple black-and-white colour scheme with golden details: the project was inspired by these colours to create screens, flooring, partitions, textures and seating. Gold, seen as a precious metal, evoking elegance, serves as inspiration for both interior and furniture design, which in fact mimic the simple, irregular lines of a brilliant cut diamond.

The extensive fitted carpet is interrupted by a sequence of oblique, coffee-coloured patches which slice an otherwise homogeneous space like blades, leaving sharp cuts. This open-plan space, effectively the main area of the floor, is occupied by communal workstations which benefit from this free-flowing layout, as do the adjoining 13 meeting rooms with partitions in crystal, partly see-through and partly frosted.

Dimensions: 1800 sqm

Location: Paris

Partner: Officenter srl - Gallarate