“There's no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated”. - Sir Richard Branson.
When our clients discussed their brief with us, you could see the passion in what they wanted to deliver for their business but more for their staff. The focus on providing an environment that is inspiring, flexible, and comfortable was the key takeaway from our first meeting.
As you walk through these doors, you’re transported. With an abundance of greenery internally, a breakout lounge, and a fully loaded pantry, the ergonomic furniture became the bare minimum.
Well-designed spaces & great company culture ensure employee retention, productivity, innovation, and exceptional quality - if you’re looking to bring that to the fore in your office spaces, reach out to us. Bringing your brand of work to life and not just another Pinterest board is our expertise.
It’s common to throw a few unusual and fun elements in a workplace to make it more interesting and engaging but we realized that this is not the case here. The primary reason, the space is small, and it has to house a huge storage space since the firm deals with papers and files. So, we wanted to create a home-like office environment - From vibrant and comfortable couches to bean bags & poufs to the home pantry, the primary aim here is to make the workspace as stress-free and relaxing as possible.
When we were commissioned to create a concept for this firm, we wanted to create a Resi-mercial design (Residential + Commercial) a unique, contemporary office but with two major concepts incorporated – A home-like working environment and a Biophilic design which has become a trendsetter in the market these days. The most important task for this assignment was to create a young, vibrant working space as there’s not much daylight flowing in. Also, the firm’s story had to be told through the design. To create this concept, we were inspired by the firm and its values. The design concept includes frequent use of work productivity and brand-related colors, plants, and warmer tones to achieve the home-like cozy feel. Upon entering the office, one will be welcomed by the warm, wood-looking vinyl flooring with a bespoke reception counter, comfortable yet colorful poufs, and plants. The back wall is a muted, concrete-looking texture wall that houses the firm’s logo followed by a unique curved, wooden slat wall as a see-through partition behind the waiting area. The wood on the floor and the walls along with the warm lighting, add a very soothing and pleasant waiting experience.
The beating heart of this workspace is the breakout lounge behind the reception area which is housed in between the open workstations and the pantry. It had a writing board within a glass partition to its left and a custom-designed metal display partition to its right. This space takes the primary location in the office which has plenty of natural lighting cascading through the arch-shaped windows. It has a glass partition and a see-through partition on it’s either side to make sure the natural light seeps into the other spaces as well. To make it a very comfortable flexible workspace, it has a comfortable, chic-looking sofa, armchair, bean bags, and an adjustable working table. To the left of this breakout, the lounge is the pantry for the staff to enjoy their lunch or a cup of coffee. The pantry houses an in-built coffee machine, oven, chiller, and an induction hob – all departments ticked. Rather than going for the usual pantry seating, we preferred to have a picnic table concept that’ll give the staff the bubbly, summer outing feel with some gastronomic shades and wall graphics.
Coming to the Open workstation area, the firm had to house a huge number of papers and box files and we dint want to go for the flexible file storage units which will contradict having a home feel environment. So, we decided to create tailor-made ‘U’ shaped wall storage units which run across three sides of the open workstation area in the hues of the brand color. To break the monotony and the large collection of box files, the storage units were further broken down into compartments for planter boxes. The workstations were divided into two rows and instead of making the staff staring at the screen for a longer period, a row of the free-standing planter at the table level and suspended planter boxes with creepers and indoor plants were introduced. This biophilic approach to design is also considered when looking at the use of color, material, indoor plant selections, and even artwork/stickering as they help to reinforce the connection back to nature. The theory behind the biophilic design is that it improves both physical and psychological health. Indeed, the biophilic design reduces stress and enhances mood. Hence, the office was made to look plush with greenery.
Since their employees spend most of their hours at work and not at home, designing a home-like environment filled with physical comfort and stress reduction is a powerfully effective motivational factor for them.
