More often than not, the design of a creative workspace turns out to be too random, even oppressive. Every day at the workplace, you feel either estranged because of its impersonal design, or tightly constrained by its lack of freedom. The logical question is then: can creative work in an office be as comfortable as working in your own living room?
In 2016, LATITUDE was commissioned to design an office space of 700 square meters for the advertising department of Hopson Development Holdings, a renowned Chinese corporation. To bring out the full potential of the space, we designed an office 25 meters deep and 27 meters wide, leaving a double-height space along the façade of the building, to visually connect the access floor with the mezzanine, two levels of the construction that in turn are physically connected by a staircase located at the center of the space.
The access floor is organized primarily as a landscape office for team workstations. The mezzanine contains management spaces located mostly in enclosed rooms. Both levels are built with the same range of materials: wood that makes the space warmer and familiar to the employees; and copper, used on the frames of doors, windows, and decoration items that collectively portray a sense of magnificence. The third material was expressly chosen to relate the interior’s landscape to urban life: large areas of green walls and horizontal pots deliver a truly expressive horizon to the employees when they rest their eyes away from the computer screen. The green color of the landscape is naturally paired with the dark wood floor used to indicate circulation areas, and the gray carpets that indicate workspaces.
In addition, the furniture has been expressly designed for the project. Tables are imbued with the spirit of the office as they portray the same range of materials and colors of their surroundings, and a geometry that comprehends the particular needs of each employee. Furthermore, the configuration of the furniture, and the combination of workstations and social spaces, emphasize the importance of teamwork, fostering the idea of sharing knowledge and energy on mutual endeavors.
故此，员工置身办公空间中，舒适感油然而生。自然而然，员工们亦彼此熟络并对所处环境产生依恋情愫。
As such, employees working in this office space feel comfortable, familiarized with each other and emotionally attached to their environment.
