The Neo Geo business center is located in a building on Butlerova Street, which was formerly occupied by the Krasny Proletary machine-tool plant. Its industrial past can be easily guessed: huge windows and skylights, high ceilings with open trusses, a "flattened" entrance area, appropriate for a factory entrance, but too cramped and disproportionate for a modern business center. This layout is complemented by a significant difference in relief: those who enter the business center from the side of Obruchev Street immediately go to the third floor - it was decided to give the first two levels for parking.
T + T Architects designed the interiors of common areas for Neo Geo, having received a ready-made volume for work, where there was little structurally possible to change. The concept of the first stage of the business center was developed by the ATRIUM bureau, their project at the time of the start of work had already been commissioned and implemented. The total design area, which went into the work of "T + T Architects" was 14,000 m2, it includes common areas, including entrance lobbies, shopping galleries, six atriums, etc.
“We are inspired by simple spaces where functionality is clear. We are not fans of complicating and decorating everything. On the contrary, we are more likely for clean walls, we love free, uncluttered interiors. Elements should complement the space, not be disorienting,”says the chief architect of the project, Anastasia Abasheva.
First of all, the lobby was in need of simplification, three-colored, high, but "compressed" in length. Its disproportionate geometry and the severity of the visible horizontal levels of the parking lot were mingled with the vertical lines of load-bearing columns and glass lifts. They decided to visually divide the space in height: the first two floors, which belong to the parking area, were painted with light paint, and the third, from where the “highway” of the shopping gallery begins and stretches to the opposite entrance, was made dark. “The lobby has visually expanded: due to the highlighting of the light walls, it began to seem a little larger,” explains Anastasia Abasheva.
A semantic axis was created for the verticals: between the columns, behind the reception desk, an installation was designed from round solid metal pipes with a diameter of 100 mm. Elevators move behind this "lattice", which is quite rare - it does not clutter up the space, but attracts attention. The reception desk, which is located in the tactile zone, was made of white corian with a built-in navigation touch screen.
The long shopping arcade - it stretched for almost 120 meters - was divided into proportional segments with open wooden semi-arches. The decision was partly forced: in the center of the corridor with a step of 6 meters there are load-bearing columns, it was to them that the recreation areas were attached. Five- and six-lumen atriums of various sizes are “pockets” from the gallery.
“The client wanted all the atriums to be functional. He immediately set tasks for us, and we already did zoning for them: a place for presentations, meeting rooms, a kind of art gallery, a cafe and just a recreation area,”says Anastasia Abasheva.
A restaurant is located in the only atrium where you can immediately leave the offices. The volume, where food is prepared and sold, was installed almost in the center of the room - so that it would not be an obstacle on the way of those who just want to wander. Vines and balls made of artificial plants were attached to the ceiling: the height of the room is very high, and this made it possible to visually fill the void of the upper part.
A similar technique was used in the neighboring atrium, only instead of vines under the ceiling there is a red dummy swinging on a swing. There are more than two dozen of its brothers in the interior of Neo Geo, they are tactfully "settled" throughout the space, as if bystanders. Together with a pair of 3D printed red dogs, these elements support the idea of decorating the atriums as a street space - they have a lot of daylight, and the idea suggested itself. The theme of the "inner street" is picked up by lamps in the manner of lanterns, wooden benches, living plants, artificial lawns - some of them seem to grow out of neat slabs of the floor covering, the abundance of green itself also makes you feel "in a city square", which is important for the recreation of employees.
There is one more motive in the interiors of the business center related to the previous concept. Since the name Neo Geo is associated with geographical discoveries and with the Earth, its design should combine the primary elements: water, earth and fire.
"T + T" denoted the elements metaphorically, in semitones. Water is symbolized by the very installation made of pipes at the entrance: when it is illuminated with blue and greenish light from rgb lamps, it resembles a waterfall. Fire-red mannequins were entrusted to personify fire, while plants should remind of earth. In one of the atriums there is an image of a turtle - the symbolic carrier of the earthly firmament, but it is so abstract that it looks like a turtle only when viewed from the upper levels.
In a sense, the elements are also embodied in materials: plaster for concrete and earthy-gray floor slabs, glass, large-format thin porcelain stoneware with fiery “rust” marks.
The architects treated the construction nuances scrupulously: two people were assigned to the designer's supervision, who came and left the construction site every day at the same time as the workers. Some details were redone several times.
Mixing bright textures, their combination with the severity of entrance areas and shopping galleries create exactly the effect that a business center needs. On the one hand, they form a strict business attitude, and on the other, they allow you to relax and get distracted. Exactly in the same way as the ghostly dream of new lands does not allow you to feel sad from the routine, but does not lead too far from reality.
