On the first day of summer, Danilovsky Event Hall hosted the eighth annual Best Office Awards. Live music sounded in the halls throughout the evening, and between the tables with refreshments and drinks and a huge number of guests - the organizers say there were about a thousand of them - one could see the amazing stands and installations of the participating companies.
This evening, the Best Office award has often been compared to an Oscar. And during the announcement of the winner of the Grand Prix, the presenters even tried to act out on stage that confusion with confused envelopes that took place on the stage of the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. True, here everything was limited to a joke, and it was those who were supposed to rise to the stage. I must say that the awards ceremony, which was held by the organizer of the award, Sergey Konnov, was generally distinguished by extraordinary ease: the winners went out for awards with whole teams, some with a glass of champagne, and some with a selfie stick, everyone joked and sincerely congratulated colleagues from other companies. …
This year, the prize brought together 117 participants, who were presented in both traditional and new nominations. There were four new ones at once: “Environment and infrastructure of a business center or business district”, which assessed the design and attractiveness of the urban environment of business centers; Office Renovation, where projects and ideas for the renovation of office and public areas were considered separately; “Third Place” - a special nomination for coworking spaces and business clubs; and "Flexible Office", which focused on multifunctional solutions, variety and choice of location depending on the work scenario. As always, the joint work of the designer and the client was assessed.
The culmination of the evening was the presentation of the Grand Prix of the competition and the announcement of the name of the "Person of the Year": here all the awards went to ABD architects. The head and general director of the bureau Boris Levyant was named the person of the year. Last year, a similar award was given to the developer who has implemented the most prominent business spaces. This time they chose among the architects.
The Grand Prix
Adidas Group office
Architectural bureau ABD architects
The Adidas Group office project, which received the main award in the Brand and Image nomination, won the Grand Prix, beating out such contenders as the UNK project with a Microsoft office project and Kleinewelt Architekten with its own office interior design. The designers of ABD architects also competed with themselves: another project was nominated for the main award - the Avito office in Moscow.
According to Denis Kuvshinnikov, director of the interior department of ABD architects, who, together with his colleagues, had to go on stage four times, the project of the Adidas Group office was implemented very quickly - in just four months. Moreover, the designers began work on December 31, on New Year's Eve.
Adidas headquarters occupies six floors of the Krylatskie Hills business park. Three floors are reserved for the central office, two more - for a corporate fitness club and brand stores, on the sixth floor there is a sports academy with lecture halls and auditoriums. The total office area is 20,000 m².
The main concept of interior design is built around the Adidas logo, its logo and the name of the office itself - Home of sport. The corporate identity determined the color scheme - mainly black and white, but with the introduction of bright color accents. The office floors are each designed in its own color: orange, green and blue. Bright accents in the form of decorative elements, furniture and lamps on the ceiling in the form of a pattern of a soccer ball are concentrated in the central part of the floor, in the area where meeting rooms, lounge areas and coffee points are located. The workspaces located around the perimeter look stricter, but are built very ergonomically - with a spacious individual work area and the possibility of its transformation for internal negotiations.
The recognizable logo of the Adidas company is interestingly beaten in the interior. The three stripes represent the white capsule meeting rooms on a black background, located one above the other on each floor. The similarities are well read when viewed from the atrium. If you look at the inclined end walls of the meeting rooms from the office, they fold into another symbolic figure of Adidas - the famous shamrock.
The interiors of the fitness center and the sports academy develop the themes proposed for the open-space zone: black metal, self-leveling floors, white glossy furniture. Graffiti on the walls is reminiscent of the sporty orientation of the interior. The same purpose is served by scooters, on which any employee can move around the floor along specially designated paths.
Organization of space
Kleinewelt Architekten office
Architectural bureau Kleinewelt architekten
The winner in the Space Organization nomination was the Russian bureau with the German name Kleinewelt Architekten. The interior of the Kleinewelt Architekten office was created for themselves, taking into account their own needs and taste preferences. That is why the space turned out to be so rational, balanced and, at the same time, colorful. The heads of the bureau decided to transform the interior in connection with the expansion of the company's staff, which, accordingly, required the appearance of additional space.
The office of the bureau is located on the territory of Artplay. Its windows offer a view of the Yauza and the Andronikov monastery. Location, city views and the desire to combine comfortable workspaces with the creative atmosphere of an architectural studio were the main factors that determined the direction of the project.
The entire space of the workshop is focused on Yauza, the workplaces are concentrated mainly near panoramic windows that fill the interior with natural light. Clear zoning of the premises made it possible to divide them in accordance with their functional purpose. Moreover, the space is structured both horizontally and vertically - due to the organization of an additional mezzanine floor. His device, in turn, made it possible to obtain the missing square meters.
The mezzanine is supported by a spectacular post-and-beam structure, which sets a clear rhythm for the entire space of the workshop. Nikolay Pereslegin, one of the bureau's partners, compares the nature of her graphic lines with the works of Piet Mondrian. As for the atmosphere of the entire interior, it resembles a seaport or a ship, where the mezzanine and hinged consoles can be imagined in the form of a deck and captain's bridges.
Meeting rooms and offices are separated from the open-space zone with the help of large spanning Italian glazing, without seams and joints. The main finishing materials, besides glass, are concrete, wood and metal. Furniture made of glass and metal supports the overall architectural solution of the space. Additional expressive accents are the iconic Barcelona interior items designed by Mies van der Rohe.
Comfort and ergonomics
Avito office in Moscow
Architectural bureau ABD architects
Avito's office is located in the White Gardens business center and occupies four floors. Bureau ABD architects developed the design for two of them, offering yachting as the main theme. Ship masts and holds, lifebuoy bench and submarine deckhouse, bright colors and drawings on the theme of sea travel - all this turned the office space into a fascinating and almost fabulous world.
At the same time, the authors of the project emphasize that all design solutions are functional. So, "ship holds" are two-level sleeping boxes. Bold colors highlight the workspaces delimited by mobile partitions, and the white yacht gloss that covers the walls is done with marker paint to draw on the walls with a marker.
The strong artistic image did not prevent the designers from effectively organizing the workspace. There is a corresponding zone for each process, and none of them are the same. Thanks to sliding partitions, most rooms can be transformed or combined. A large conference hall is organized according to the same principle, including a group of meeting rooms. Sliding partitions allow you to combine meeting rooms, a hall and the adjacent dining room into a single space for holding mass events. Furniture in the dining room can be lifted to the ceiling with the help of winches, like on a yacht. Places for recreation are no less ingeniously designed: a gym, a billiard room, a game room with a kicker and a console, an impromptu climbing wall.
Lighting design
ABB office
Architectural bureau MAD Architects
ABB's office located in the ICube business center on Nakhimovsky Prospect became one of two winners in the Lighting Design nomination. The jury highly appreciated the ingenious lighting solutions. For example, the designers proposed integrating LEDs into a decorative panel depicting a globe, and on the ceiling they created a pattern of broken lines of ceiling lighting.
The headquarters are located on the fourth and fifth floors of the center. The reception area, administrative offices and a conference room are located on the fifth floor. The open-space workspace is on the fourth. The architects offered a variety of scenarios for work and communication. For example, some workstations are assigned to employees who work outside the office most of the time and can book a workplace through the concierge service. In addition to traditional meeting rooms, small rooms are offered - teem rooms and collaboration zones, "telephone booths" are provided for private calls.
The design idea is based on the ABB brand book. The corporate identity defined the basic black and white colors and pattern themes on the walls and ceiling. The office is equipped with a smart home system installed by ABB.
*** Strigino airport, business lounge
Architectural bureau Nefa Architects
Strigino Airport was built in Nizhny Novgorod. The Nefa Architects workshop has developed a design for the interior of a business class lounge for domestic airlines with a total area of about 300 m². A comfortable space had to be created in a room with a fairly low ceiling and no daylight. The architects decided to compensate for these shortcomings with the help of a bold design solution for the ceiling and spectacular artificial lighting. Original lamps were created especially for the project. Part of the furniture was also designed according to the author's drawings.
The space of the business lounge is conveniently zoned. The reception is located in the center. In the left wing there is a media area, in the right side is the restaurant. Soft zones suggest comfortable communication or privacy in specially equipped niches.
The main idea of the project is related to the industrial character of Nizhny Novgorod and its rich history. Contrasting combinations of ocher and patina with an almost black metal surface, cuts of giant pipes in the solution of the ceiling, the use of steel surfaces, textures of rusty metal and concrete are a reference to the industrial past of the city. Red-brick tones in the decoration of the premises repeat the range of old bricks of the Kremlin wall of Nizhny Novgorod.
Design idea
Re: sources_ (Publicis_Groupe) office
Architectural studio VOX architects
The new office is located in the Bolshevik business center on an area of 870 m². In the past, an industrial building has left large windows, high ceilings, brick walls as a legacy to new users. The authors of the project decided to preserve the loft style: some of the walls were left intact, and the open ceiling communications were simply painted blue.
The office space is organized quite traditionally: meeting rooms, islands of coffee points, open-space for employees, separate offices for management, a large kitchen-dining room, as well as areas for informal communication with high sofas and hammocks.
This project received an award for a bright design idea. The authors themselves define it as follows: "a gold bar soaring in the clouds." This is exactly how, according to the head of VOX architects Boris Voskoboinikov, the designers tried to convey the attitude of the company's employees. The idea is embodied quite literally: the reception desk is made in the form of a 999-carat gold bar, the role of clouds is taken on by stylized lamps with a soft matte light. The theme of clouds is also developed by drawings on the walls and designer furniture. The blue ceiling and the general pale blue palette of the interior depict the morning sky in the rays of sunlight.
The best atrium of a business center
Cultural and business complex Bolshevik
Architect bureau John McAslan + Partners
The architectural bureau John McAslan + Partners was engaged in the renovation of the Bolshevik complex with its adaptation to a cultural and business center. One of the important tasks was the organization of the atrium, which united three separate buildings at once. Their close proximity to each other made it possible to create a single public space with free access to all buildings, its own microclimate, infrastructure and recreation area.
The glass roof of the atrium is supported by tall, branched columns. The roof itself is covered with patterned snowflakes, which are silk-screened on the glass. In the dark, the columns are softly illuminated, which creates a fabulous New Year's atmosphere inside the atrium.
Showroom, business space in public interior
Showroom of the Neva Towers complex
Architectural studio HBA
The showroom on the territory of MIBC "Moscow City" had to be built before the start of sales of Neva Towers apartments. The famous London bureau HBA was involved in the creation of the interior design of the sales office, which developed the interiors of the public spaces of the complex.
The showroom is a small glass pavilion. On the ground floor there is a reception area and client meeting rooms, designed in the form of living rooms with sofas and plasma touch panels. The central object of the interior is the architectural model of the future complex. Mediastena broadcasts an image of the interiors of the apartments and panoramas opening from their windows. The reception desk is made of natural stone, the floor is decorated with geometric patterns, whose rhythm is supported by linear lights on the ceiling. A wide spiral staircase leads from the client area with double light to the mezzanine floor.
The main finishing materials are marble, wood, onyx and granite, which make it possible to clearly see the high quality of future high-rises.
Environment and infrastructure of a business center or business district
Comcity office park
Architectural studio Cigler Marani Architects
The Comcity office park, which has received an award in the new category “Environment and Infrastructure of a Business Center,” is located in New Moscow, not far from Vnukovo Airport. The architectural concept of the complex was developed by the Czech bureau Cigler Marani Architects. It was also engaged in the arrangement of public spaces and the improvement of urban planning of the territory.
The space between the buildings forms a large courtyard - landscaped and landscaped. Winter gardens are located in the atriums. The main walking trails are arranged on two levels. The lower one includes a shopping gallery, which is a one-story covered street with shops, recreation areas, cafes and restaurants. The upper tier of the stylobate is designed as a green garden for outdoor walks and recreation. All adjacent territories are designed in such a way that a picturesque view opens up from the windows of the offices.
Office renovation
Microsoft Office
Architectural bureau UNK project
The project for Microsoft's Moscow office, developed by the UNK project bureau, is the result of a change in the company's policy as a whole. The company's management wanted to transform the existing offices in accordance with modern trends, in which the office is a place not only for work, but also for life.
The office occupies five floors of a business center on Krylatskaya Street. The floors are laid out according to a single scheme. The workspace is an open space with a central block of meeting rooms and a relaxation and communication area, including a coffee point. The authors of the project themselves define this space as a HUB. The HUB is a kind of small club inside the office. Somewhere it accommodates table tennis, somewhere - mini-football.
In each country, the renovation of Microsoft offices was thematic in nature, and each interior had to express national identity. The architects of the UNK project proposed to reveal this topic, showing the history of the country's achievements. As a result, the HUB, meeting rooms and glass partitions on each floor received an individual design in one of the five proposed directions: literature, music, theater, visual arts, technical achievements.
Flexible office
Sberbank office, 15th floor
Architectural bureau IND Architects
In the "Flexible office" nomination, three projects were awarded at once, but all of them were carried out for Sberbank of Russia. The management of the company decided to involve young architectural bureaus in solving the interior design of its office located in the President Plaza complex on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Each bureau was asked to develop the design and layout of a separate floor. A young team of IND Architects worked on the 15th floor of the complex and was awarded for creativity.
The floor is divided into six parts, connected by a “circular” route, which can be traveled either on foot or by scooter. Each part is completely self-contained and accommodates workspaces along the glazing front, meeting rooms, lounge areas, coffee point and bathrooms. The interior is designed for an agile management system, so it is not tied to departments, there are no executive offices, and all work areas can be easily transformed and combined.
The authors named their project “City of Opportunities”, inspired by Moscow. Six parts of the office symbolize six iconic places of the capital: Sokolniki Park, Arbat, Krymskaya Embankment, Gagarin Square, VDNKh, Red Square. Each zone has its own original design, supported by the names of the meeting rooms - "Fox hole", "Birdhouse", "Attraction".
*** Sberbank office, 13th floor
Adetale Architectural Bureau
Bureau Adetale won the award for innovative solutions, transforming the office into an airy and permeable space.
The floor with an area of 7.5 thousand square meters has a regular rectangular shape, which made it possible to use it as efficiently as possible. Most of the floor is dedicated to open space. Zoning is carried out using glass partitions with a pattern applied to them. Meeting rooms and recreation areas have been designed in the same way. Many of the elements had to be made to order, such as lamps in the form of hollow cubes with orange edging on the inside, or six-section lamps, similar to a bar of chocolate.
*** Sberbank office, 14th floor
Architectural bureau Aurora Group
The ergonomic planning solution made it possible to make the office quite spacious, despite the fact that according to the terms of reference, the 14th floor was supposed to accommodate the largest number of workplaces - about 750. Nevertheless, the designers were able to arrange all workplaces along the perimeter of the floor, providing maximum natural light. Recreation areas and informal communication, coworking spaces and coffee points, libraries and meeting rooms have taken place in the central part.
The interior uses environmentally friendly materials, comfortable furniture, bright colors. But the main character is still the panoramic views from the windows.
Third place
Coworking-14
Architectural bureau Megabudka
Megabudka became the winner in the new nomination dedicated to coworking spaces. Coworking 14 is located in the center of the Aerocity tower in Khimki. The designers were tasked with creating a multifunctional and flexible space that is convenient for tenants. The situation was complicated by the initially angular floor plan. By smoothing the corners, the designers were able to conveniently arrange both open work areas and cozy alcoves on the floor. Some parts appeared to be raised on rounded catwalks. In the center, there are administrative offices hidden in circular volumes covered with galvanized sheets. From the outside, they look like giant columns or cisterns. Mini-offices have been created for small groups of people in the coworking space. There are even cell rooms for one person. A transformable conference room, playroom, wardrobe and several print zones are organized in the central zone.
The atmosphere of the coworking space is largely shaped by the selected finishing materials: galvanized, glass blocks and concrete. The flooring is made of lacquered metal sheets. Wooden podiums and plank ceilings contrast with metal and concrete.
Best foreign project
Opera Software office
Mode: lina architectural bureau
The interior of the office of an IT company in Poland was named the best foreign project. The company's headquarters are located in the Hieroniumus business center in Wroclaw, in two townhouses. The first one dates back to the beginning of the 19th century, the second dates back to 1913. The spacious hall, workplaces, meeting rooms and dining areas cover 4,000 m². The interior design concept is based on the numerous bridges of Wroclaw, which stands on the Odra River. In the office, you can see arched structures, decorative elements and the outlines of the spans of the most famous city bridges. Architects also use other city attractions - the covered market, the central railway station or the Shchitnitsky Park. Their recognizable features have been introduced into the design of dining areas and kitchens.
