Designing an office space as a stimulus for ideas, Archetonic added a façade of green woven plastic cables, colourful sculpture and private outdoor patios to each meeting room.
Mexico City-based architecture firm Archetonic has overhauled a minimalist family home into a workspace in a western city suburb. Defined by its domestic previous life and verdant surroundings, the new design segues the pensive quality of nature into fluid working facilities. To passers-by, the office’s minimal façade and residential backdrop suggest no trace of the building’s professional occupation. ‘The idea of generating a more cosy and homely working experience naturally and unwillingly comes from recycling a residential structure,’ explain the architects, ‘otherwise the result would have been a more conventional office solution.’
From the wide sliding doors that open up to a patio, to the steel girders overhead, and the small dipping pond, the office indeed breaks convention. Daylight abundantly drapes over dark marble flooring and light wooden wall fixtures in the entrance, producing an interior ambience more akin to a spa or hotel lobby than a reception. Meeting rooms in various configurations orbit this central space, each with an individual outdoor terrace overlooking the east-facing garden flooded with sunlight and calming tree views.
