Just in time for our earlier discussion on hotdesking, we’ve come across some images of Microsoft‘s Amsterdam headquarters. Designed by Sevil Peach and Veldhoen + Co., a leading activity-based workplace consulting firm, the office space has no assigned desks and no offices for senior employees. The office layout also gives the company a chance to actively show off the flexibility of their software in a working environment.

To enhance working collaboration, the design boasts a variety of types of work areas that include “teamwork benches, enclosed and semi-enclosed meeting rooms, open informal meeting areas, concentration booths, individual work carousels and work lounges.”

Beyond work, employees are also given opportunities to mix, mingle, and relax throughout the space using another set of office design parts; a coffee shop and indoor and outdoor staff dining, as well as relaxation zones and sleep pods. The coffee shop is located on the first floor, in an area designed to hold large numbers of employees to encourage interaction from entry-level employees to executives.

Employees are also given lockers in which to store personal belongings.

Microsoft, in a 2010 press release believes that the space has worked wonderfully. They note that the new style of working has given the following benefits:

• A 30% reduction in real estate costs
• Increased productivity
• Enhanced market reputation and ability to attract and retain top talent
• Increased employee mobility
• Benefits for the environment

What about employee resistance? Microsoft did not just spring the idea onto employees either. The design process took several years, included employee feedback, and was a natural step for the already mobile workforce. [For additional information on this process, read this interview]

Photography by Gary Turnbull, Harold Pareira

“Honest and humble industrial materials such as steel, plywood, glass and cement are all applied in the architecture which has been composed in the interior of this former industrial space; nothing is clearly set; everything is a matter of perception. The result in this restored and redesigned former shipbuilding factory is a carefully struck balance of structure, simplicity, elegance and fascination all against an industrial backdrop.”

Enjoy!

PHOTOS: Ewout Huibers

With Tribal DDB our goal was to create an environment where creative interaction is supported and to achieve as much workplaces as possible in a new structure with flexible desks and a large open space. All of this while maintaining a work environment that stimulates long office hours and concentrated work. As Tribal DDB is part of an international network a clear identity was required, which also fits the parent company DDB. The design had to reflect an identity that is friendly and playful but also professional and serious. The contradictions within these questions, asked for choices that allow great flexibility in the design.

Situated in a building where some structural parts could not be changed it was a challenge to integrate these elements in the design and become an addition to the whole. i29 searched for solutions to various problems which could be addressed by one grand gesture. At first a material which could be an alternative to the ceiling system, but also to cover and integrate structural parts like a big round staircase. Besides that, acoustics became a very important item, as the open spaces for stimulating creative interaction and optimal usage of space was required.”

The company’s space is very much an old factory building, right down to the slanted roof. The company has employed a large corridor that can be used for all hands on deck meetings.  Offices line the second level, giving employees shared work zones with teams separated by single walls, but essentially still connected. Stage lighting surrounds the office and gives it a wonderful atmosphere that is fitting with the company’s goal.

The office project was completed by Concern.

The Discovery Channel offices in Netherlands serve the Benelux region of Europe and look from the outside like everything I could have imagined as a child. On the inside, the space has some great elements. White and grey, with a smattering of red throughout adds some very interesting variation. My personal favorite portions are the curved glass windows, the kitchen, and oddly enough the cement ceilings. For some reason, those seem to have the raw look I would expect from Discovery.

Images by Ahrend.