D'office

In the center of Ljubljana, we furnished new offices for a young, rapidly growing digital advertising agency. The employees are "millennials" or members of "generation Y" who live and work in the digital world, for whom salary is important, but not the first priority, who desire employment in a flexible and vibrant environment. They eat lunch while typing on their computers.

In consultation with the client and the employees, we developed a hybrid office: traditional "closed" offices intertwined with open "coworking" offices. For a comfortable work environment, we covered the floors with an oiled, creaky wooden floor, a kitchen that doubles as a bar, and a spacious auditorium for socializing and presentations. The entire open area can transform into a "mini-disco" for afternoon "after work" socializing with the help of a kitchen island that turns into a DJ booth. The plants, taken care of by the employees, contribute to their sense of belonging. The bookshelf is filled with content that provides a break from the screen, a punching bag for relaxation, and a micro-office under the auditorium for a break from the "coworking" space. As the company is growing rapidly, we have foreseen the possibility of expanding current employee capacities by 30% within the existing premises.

All offices border the "black wall," a write-and-erase wall where employees can leave analog messages. Behind this wall are the most intimate spaces: toilets, a bathroom for freshening up in the morning or after a run during work hours, and a white zen room with a Cloud lamp by Slovenian designer Tilen Sepič.

The offices are rented, so we recycled to rationalize renovation costs: we removed the gypsum cardboard panels from the ceiling, but kept the structure that serves as a network for the distribution of installations, lights, hanging of the projection screen, disco ball, etc. Thus, the grid has become a strong design element of industrial appearance. We used the remnants of the gypsum cardboard panel structure to make window sill shelves that hide radiators and cabling for workplaces, which we then closed with construction panels. Rusty reinforcing grids with inscriptions are an extension of this idea.

The first thought in the design was devoted to the physiognomy of the employees' workplaces. Each employee has a felt screening panel that provides privacy and allows for attaching "pins" with thumbtacks. All desks have adjustable height. This way, employees have the option to work standing up in case of back problems. Workstations and cable organizers ensure the effectiveness of the workspace.

Offices where the boundary between home or work environment is blurred. Office 3.0