As a busy real-estates developer who had worked with our firm on several residential projects, we knew our client professionally. This time the brief was for our client’s own workspace and for that, we needed to understand his personal taste and how his business worked.
Our investigation highlighted a preference for contemporary furniture and coffee shop culture, which informed the central theme for the office interior, however it was the flexible nature of the space that took the design in its ultimate direction.
An important feature of the new office was the separation between front of house, where clients would arrive, and back of house, where the staff worked – both of which had their own access.
In addition to the main entrance foyer and reception area, the client area housed a 20-seat boardroom and two smaller 4-6 seat consulting rooms. On several occasions, however, our client would have up to 40 people visiting from China, so the space needed to be flexible in its layout to accommodate this flux in numbers.
A creative approach to the floorplan, furniture, doors and walls was needed to create an office that could retain the private meeting areas but also adapt to become a larger communal space when required.
The design team at Dreamscapes proposed a non-traditional reception area; one with a central, unmanned concierge desk, frequented by our client’s staff to help visitors when needed. Designed to be self-serve, the desk was surrounded by a lounge area, where clients would be free to help themselves to refrigerated soft drinks and great coffee from the La Marzocco coffee machine.
Our client had impeccable taste in furniture and accessories, which we were keen to source for the new office. In the kitchen, we specified a self-boiling system with Billi taps and fine styling finishes that included Georg Jensen Water jugs and glassware.
Above the concierge desk sat a bespoke shooting star ceiling light, which we commissioned an exceptional local joiner to produce. This made a striking first impression and design statement on entrance to the office.
The outstanding feature of this workspace, however, was the beautiful, highly flexible and functional transformation facilitated by the centre-pivoted aluminum doors, which surrounded the foyer. When closed, these doors created acoustically sound, single meeting spaces but, when opened, the barriers of each individual space were broken down and the reception, boardroom and meeting rooms connected to became one, large open office.
