Contract - November/December 2011 - (Page 65)

How to Make an Office Feel Like a Start-Up • Design a live/work space. Workers are more likely to spend time in the office if it has the comforts of home, such as food and couches. At AOL, the social hub is the cafeteria, which is outfitted with pool tables and even beer on tap. “Have one break area, instead of two or three, to provide a setting for cross-pollination and those accidental meetings,” says Orpilla. • Create a workspace within which employees can sit with their laptops in a variety of places. “More firms are accepting that, to be creative, you’ve got to get up and move around—you can’t just work at your desk all day long,” says Alexander. • Make sure that some meeting rooms don’t need to be reserved to be used. “We encourage companies not to make every conference room reservation-only,” says Alexander. The firm positioned the company cafeteria and play area right off the lobby, and in a sensible move, installed concealed drop-down screens in the space for large-crowd presentations, essentially turning the cafeteria into a Town Hall for all-company meetings. With an open floor plan, Studio O+A grouped desks and added low dividers. But rather than gut the space entirely, the designers kept the central core of meeting rooms and enlivened them with cut-out windows. The designers were also very strategic in where they removed dropped ceilings “Open ceilings are very costly,” Alexander points out. The full ceiling height is revealed only along the primary circulation paths and in the reception area, creating a sense of depth and space while reusing much of the existing lighting. Studio O+A also stuck to a simple white palette, so that personality is expressed by the inhabitants rather than the decor. To promote impromptu meetings, a number of whiteboards line the walls. When walking around the office, one can see various doodles, notes, and URLs scribbled out. A formula for collaboration After designing offices for so many start-ups, Studio O+A has its own formulas for creating an environment that encourages collaboration. One of the firm’s key tenets is more density. The www.contractdesign.com c ontract november/december 2011 65 http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - November/December 2011

Contract - November/December 2011
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Product Briefs
Product Focus: Classic Touch
Product Focus: Generating Buzz(i)
Gelfand Partners Architects Office in San Francisco Designed by Gelfand Partners Architects
Sorg Architects Office in Washington, D.C. Designed by Sorg Architects
Sauerbruch Hutton Office in Berlin, Germany Designed by Sauerbruch Hutton
Roth Sheppard Architects Office in Denver Designed by Roth Sheppard Architects
AOL West Coast Headquarters in Palo Alto, California Designed by Studio O+A
Red Bull Canada Office Expansion in Toronto, Ontario, Canada Designed by Johnson Chou Inc.
Goods Shed North in Melbourne, Australia Designed by BVN Architecture
Bota Bota Spa in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Designed by Sid Lee Architecture
A’maree’s in Newport Beach, California Designed by Paul Davis Architects
2011 Contract Brand Report Awareness Survey
Sources
Designers Select: Building Products
Ad Index
Perspectives

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