When work gets monotonous and tiring, properly designed office spaces can provide support. These should support concentration while working, allow for a break from the daily routine, and allow for emotional bonds with those who are in them. All these qualities can be found in an office for a fin-tech company, designed by the AKA Studio studio. There is no other like it!
What kind of interiors we stay in has a not inconsiderable impact on our well-being. Neuroscience has a wealth of evidence that our emotions or levels of concentration depend on the color of lighting, the shapes of designed forms or the finishing materials used. The office designed by AKA Studio does not have a homogeneous expression - the design team focused here rather on adapting the room's design to its function, at the expense of consistency and coherence. Was this the right decision? Time and the sales columns will tell, while the logic behind such design is most appropriate.
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo credit: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
seriously...
And so in the conference rooms - places where employees meet for a limited time for a specific purpose - primarily dark materials were used, such as dark blue carpeting and dark wood laths. The subdued rhythm of the latter, seamlessly transitioning from the wall surface to the ceiling, may have a positive effect on the ability to focus in this space. The reception area and the tranquility area were designed similarly. In the latter, the design team used soft lighting, a green wall and built-in seating, enveloping on all sides.
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo credit: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
Adequate sensory comfort is taken care of by soundproofing panels (some of which were designed by AKA Studio!) and an intelligent lighting system that adjusts the color and intensity of light according to the season and prevailing weather conditions.
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo credit: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
... and colorful!
The rooms in which employees relax from their daily tasks look completely different. Here it is colorful, striking and humorous. The furniture has rounded, fanciful forms, and under the ceilings stretch thickets of installations painted in pastel paint.
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo credit: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
The decor of the two kitchens connected to the dining rooms is based on a complementary contrast of dark blue and orange. The interiors give the impression of being "bustling" even when no one is inside - circular ceiling panels ofvarying sizes, cartoonish murals on the walls and fancy twisted neon signs stretching across the ceilings of the rooms make the kitchens look lively .
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo credit: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
in a healthy body a healthy spirit
The most vivid example of this philosophy is probably the playroom - here the author's team decided to use an extremely intense canary yellow, which illuminates the entire room and adds energy. The equipment included not only leisure elements, but also objects encouraging physical activity - metal tubes and wheels suspended from the ceiling, ladders attached to the walls, which "twenty-year-olds", who are the main audience of these spaces, remember well from kindergarten or neighborhood playgrounds. Fancy lounge furniture and board games are also available for employees tired of working at the computer. A fully analog space!
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo credit: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
not a non-place
Many of the office spaces could be described using the term "non-place," coined by French anthropologist Marc Augé. In a gross simplification, non-places are spaces that, through their lack of characteristics, make it impossible to establish emotional ties with them. Classic examples include airports, shopping malls or train stations, but nevertheless many of the offices, designed in a generic, unrelated way, also fall into this category.
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
In the case of the interiors designed in Warsaw by AKA Studio, the situation is quite different. It is not only colorful here, but also thematic - the individual expression of the interiors is influenced by murals covering some of the walls. The compositions were prepared by the artistic duo of Tomek Domanski and Mikolaj Olizar-Zakrzewski "Takie Pany", who strongly alluded to the specifics of working in the Fin-Tech industry, located at the intersection of finance and technology:
Murals in the creators' distinctive style - mechanical and electronic - decorate office corridors and the kitchen connected to the dining room. They act as visual carriers of "inside jokes," whose codes are readable only by team members.
- explains the AKA Studio team.
The office of a Fin-Tech company
Photo credit: Mood Authors © AKA Studio
knowing expectations
The distinctive design and layout of the office space designed by AKA Studio is also the result of the experience the team gained while working on a twin commission:
We started designing this space a few months after the handover of the office in Poznań, so I can confidently say that we had a unique opportunity to get to know well the specifics of the work and the needs of the team, most of whom are in their twenties. Again, we conducted surveys and workshops among employees. They allowed us to create a design with people at its center - their needs, comfort and emotions
- says architect Karolina Kowalik, co-owner of AKA Studio.
