The office of the world famous film distribution company is located in the right place - the project of converting the former factory into a business center, completed in 2007, has long earned the highest praise from critics, and on the eve of the BEST OFFICE AWARDS ceremony was even awarded the RIBA (the author of the project is London bureau John McAslan + Partners). The Walt Disney Studios Sony Pictures Releasing office was designed by the UNK project bureau. This project received the Grand Prix not only for its aesthetics, but also for its technological complexity - a full-fledged cinema is included in the office, but film screenings do not interfere with the work of the company, thanks to well-thought-out soundproofing issues. The white luminous volume of the cinema "floats" in the center of the room like an iceberg, and next to it drifts a "breakaway ice floe" of the reception desk made of white Corian. The architects left the brick buildings of the Stanislavsky Factory untouched - so, in their opinion, the interiors resemble Hollywood studio hangars as much as possible, convey a kind of "guild spirit". Thus, open vaulted concrete floors, old cast-iron columns, "shabby" porcelain stoneware and even veneered doors intricately mounted into glass partitions appeared in the office.
This year, two new ones have been added to the BEST OFFICE AWARDS nominations - "business zones for public interiors" and "executive offices". The winner in the first was the recently completed Barvikha Hotel & Spa as part of the Barvikha Luxury Village. The extravagant billionaire shelter was designed by highly fashionable designer Antonio Citterio. It is curious that from super-expensive materials, such as cedar and black slate, Citterio has turned out to be a rather restrained space, the style of which balances on the verge of modernity and tradition. For example, the staircase with a massive chandelier and wooden wall cladding a bit resembles the ceremonial interiors of concert halls of the Brezhnev era, although Citterio himself hardly knows about it.
The best executive office was recognized as the representative part of the Moscow office of the Yota company, which was designed by the St. Petersburg bureau Archi-Do in collaboration with the famous architect Gaetano Pesce. The sources of inspiration for the authors of this project were quite unexpected: the Great Gallery of the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace for the meeting room and shots from the fantastic film "The Island" with Evan McGregor for the Yota director's office.
The St. Petersburg project of the Quattro Corti business center, developed by the Italian studio Piuarch, won in the traditional nomination "Atrium of a Business Center". This is a very interesting example for St. Petersburg of embedding modern space into the historical fabric: from the roof of the Quattro Corti it is a stone's throw to St. Isaac's Cathedral, but neither its attic nor ultra-modern courtyards are completely invisible from the nearby streets. Having preserved the historical facades of the buildings during the reconstruction, the architects placed 4 courtyards behind them, painting them in the palette of the facades of St. Petersburg: gold, emerald, azure and terracotta. The Italians have also implemented the principles of an eco-office in this project.
Among the best foreign projects of this year, the PĀRVENTAS Mediatheque was named, built according to the project of the young INDIA bureau in the Latvian city of Ventspils. The center of the composition in this white and airy room is a huge amphitheater, where you can work on a laptop or read while sitting on colorful pillows. If you remove the latter, you get a scene that can be used for cultural events. Another design find was the book shelves, located along the ramp leading to the upper floors, and allowing you to find and take the desired book along the way.
The Audience Award, which was determined during the voting on the award website, was won by the project of the new office of the RTS stock exchange, which recently moved to the business center on Vozdvizhenka (designed by the GINT-M Group of Companies). The office of the Siemens concern won in the Space Organization nomination, which decided to unite several of its branches in one 6-storey building near the Paveletskaya metro station. The project was carried out by architects ABD Architects, who came up with several mobile solutions for it: for example, pedestal benches with living plants and lamps that can be rolled out of the atrium to free it up for a conference, as well as mobile meeting rooms (so-called "think tanks").
In the "Brand and Image" nomination, the award was given to the Yandex office designed by Atrium JSB. The project also fought for the Grand Prix and it is understandable why: in one of the buildings of the reconstructed Krasnaya Roza factory, the architects created an extremely spectacular and at the same time cozy space, as if pushing employees to creativity and search for non-standard solutions. Its walls, for example, are partially lined with wooden shingles, into which "beds" with vertical landscaping are inserted, and cozy floor lamps act as office lamps.
This year, as always, in parallel with the award ceremony, there were presentations of office novelties (the so-called OFFICE TREND SHOW) and a conference (OFFICE EVENT), but exhibitions of young architects - participants in competitions held by ProjectNEXT and the OfficeNEXT portal, which in 2010 attracted a lot of attention of professionals and the press - on the contrary, it was not. But some of the young people this time were among the nominees: for example, architects Fyodor Dubinnikov and Pavel Chaunin from the MEL studio presented their unusual office-gallery for the competition, located in one of the repair shops of the Krasny Oktyabr factory. The architects retained the industrial attributes of the premises, such as the crane-beams and the hoist (overhead lifting device with a mechanical drive), as well as the geometry of window and door openings and the texture of the brick walls, while the walls and ceiling were painted with acrylic paint in white. In addition to the workshop, there was also a place for exhibitions and shows of familiar designers and artists - a mirror partition separated the office from the gallery and visually enlarged these spaces.
