Located in Seba Ofis Boulevard, the office can be addressed as an interior renovation project. With the growth after their affiliation with Koç Holding, this office space is their first center in Istanbul. The project area consists of a 700m² closed space and 300m² terrace area surrounded by the urban fabric and some greenery. The client requested a sharp, dynamic, modern, vibrant and a young working environment which will represent the firm’s technological identity. Enabling usage of social areas and the terrace, the firm is in a need of an office area consisting of large and small meeting rooms where finance and payment services can both use while representing the technological, innovative, and people-oriented structure of the firm.
Hosting the finance and payment departments of the firm, the office space includes several administrative units as well. The first challenge at the schematic phase is to integrate these administrative units into the open office are without creating closed rooms with partitions attached to the existing structure and façade. After effective discussions with the client, it was suggested that the department would work together in an open office area instead of enhancing the hierarchy between the department and their heads by giving a closed room the administrator, which complements the changing world. Departments are located according to their relationships. Ones which need privacy are put inside closed offices. To make short, one-to-one private meetings, technologically equipped meeting rooms with low sound permeability are designed. These rooms are positioned around the core which hosts a busy kitchenette at its center. Surrounding the core, a shell has shaped at the center of the plan, infolding the meeting rooms and social units. The shell enhanced an optical axis connecting the entrance door and the exit leading to the terrace, building a relationship in third dimension. Hence, when entering the floor, the greenery outside terrace became more perceptible. Located at the right and left sides of the entrance, open offices and meeting rooms shape up the working areas.
To enhance the main entrance and the optical axis, a “portal” was designed to bring the technological identity of the firm into the forefront. Working as a secondary entrance opening to the office, this portal was framed by screens.
To create a multi-functional gathering area, the existing winter garden at the terrace was preserved. The table at the center was designed to host both social gatherings and to work on. The rest of the terrace is filled with joinery and outdoor furniture answering to different functions like working, entertainment and relaxing while enabling the greening of the terrace, enhancing the relationship between the existing greenery outside.
Main design principals which shape up the sharp, dynamic, modern, vibrant and a young working environment work as a “manual” for the finishing material decisions of architectural surfaces, furniture, and joinery.
Hosting a new dynamic, innovative and young technology firm which continues its growth under one of Turkey’s most long-established firms, a democratic and creative workspace was designed. Representing the brand’s identity, the office is designed using the floor space in the most efficient way but also enabling flexibility and co-working, equipped with powerful social areas and a green fabric complementing the existing greenery outside.
