The headquarters of the ProfMedia company is located in one of the buildings of the Danilovskaya Manufactory - not so long ago, after a large-scale, albeit delicate reconstruction, it turned into one of the largest and well-known business centers in Moscow. ProfMedia fully rented one of the buildings of the former factory: an austere red-brick building with a poetic name “Calico”. The architects were offered to create a space within its walls that does not look like a familiar office, organically combining the factory aesthetics and almost home comfort. The authors of the project, architects of the UNK project bureau Nikolai Milovidov and Anna Dykhanova liked this task - which allowed them to create a humanly lively, friendly atmosphere inside the office, far from the hackneyed notions of the exhausting strict monotony of the "workspace". In the architectural bureau, the name "anti-office" was even assigned to the project.
Meanwhile, no one canceled the business function - and the main difficulty was precisely in creating a visually diverse space, sometimes even close to the setting of a private villa, while correctly organizing all working functions as a whole and taking into account the specifics of ProfMedia in particular, - says Nikolay Milovidov. So, the premises are distinguished by special ergonomics and convenience: convenient ways of moving around the office and details of workplaces are thought out to the smallest detail, and the furniture decorating the recreation areas, which may seem to an inexperienced observer transferred from the French interior of the time of the notorious Lucien, meets the comfort indicators of the best office samples. In a word, the dualism of space, outwardly home, but in fact working, is everywhere here.
The main theme that allowed architects to combine different things is given by the specialization of the company. The building houses two Promedia divisions: the third floor houses the ProfMedia Management management company, and the second floor houses the Central Partnership, which specializes in film production and distribution. Hence - large black-and-white photo prints that reproduce the best shots of cult and modern cinema - one of the most noticeable and "talking" details of the space.
But not only prints, many details make the interior look like - however, quite fleetingly - to a pavilion cinema decoration, or its remnants, a set of commemorative film artifacts, interspersed, as in a theatrical foyer, with photographs. The imagery of the cinema pavilion, which is best manifested in the neighborhood of blue mafia-style sofas with a portable soffit, makes the shine of a baroque frame on a rough, deliberately textured brick wall, an "antique" leather chair with rivets, a combination of wooden Viennese chairs at the bar - with furniture on aluminum tubes in the spirit of the sixties. All together it looks like fragments of scenery, rare and beloved artifacts that have accumulated over more than a hundred years of cinema history, however, not redundant, but neatly arranged in space in such a way that it does not lose its business laconicism.
The theme of the history of cinema allows not only contrasting comparisons of various objects with which the interior is inlaid, it also explains the variety of textures. For example, there are no walls of any uniformity: photographs coexist with white office surfaces, open brick surfaces and lattice frames of glass planes - they are complemented by large waves of Roman blinds framing tall factory windows with wooden bindings. The grayish, fawn color of the curtains softens the contrasts and finds its continuation in restrained, beige and light gray tones of office furniture, calm and businesslike, but also not bright white, which are also designed to combine the feeling of an expensive comfort with an environment conducive to working concentration.
It was not only glass and acoustic partitions that were traditional in the office genre that helped the architects to divide the working open space into zones - open shelves, on which the archive of the media holding is stored, became a very functional means of zoning. In addition, built-in furniture helped to save space: tall cabinets made of glass and light wood stretched along the walls, to match the furniture and curtains, and storage cabinets built into the partitions.
To help natural light from large factory windows, the architects have developed a whole system of lighting for workplaces: gentle ceiling arches are accented by reflected light, light chandeliers are hung in rows, complemented by familiar spotlights. Light, as we can see, also combines modern office techniques with traditional ones, not alien to the flair of recent history.
The first floor of the building is reserved for the entrance area and the vestibule, from which you can go down to the staff dining room and the meeting room area, mostly located in the basement. A sufficient number of meeting rooms was one of the main conditions in the design of the new office; their restrained and at the same time spectacular image is solved in the current spirit of “new ornamentalism”: the illuminated pattern on the ceiling echoes the floral ornament of the floor covering from the so-called. "Carpet slabs". A similar technique was repeated in the interiors of the offices of the second and third floors; monochrome ornamental carpets are found everywhere, alternating with the equally warm texture of oak laminate (?). Note that the ornament not only enhances the present in the interior a touch of Art Deco, the time of cinema classics, but also, on the other hand, reminds of the past of the factory building, which, as we remember, is called "Calico". It turns out doubly contextually.
The interiors of the offices of the management company "ProfMedia Management" are made in the same style. Most of the space is occupied by the offices of employees; the zone of the leadership and the president, as expected, is filled with air and light. There is also a small recreational area, although it must be said that there are very few special places for relaxation in the building - except for small coffee points on each floor.
Consistent colors, a harmonious combination of ornaments, a roll of textures, a play of light and shadow, forms and meanings - all this creates an atmosphere inside the building, in which, as the authors emphasize, despite the relaxing atmosphere, it is pleasant not only to be, but above all - to work.
