Agora

Invited competition 2018 | Mention and purchase | New office space concept and furniture exchange in the prizewinning HQ of Agora S.A. – a media empire in Warsaw | Team: Jan Strumiłło, Maksymilian Dobkowski, Jan Dybowski, assistant – Zuzanna Rostocka | We competed against a select group of just seven other designers | Scroll down for more

Our grand strategy was to remain in the background, letting architecture keep centre stage. We wanted our furniture system to stay almost invisible, to feel as natural as if it had been there from the start. To achieve this we sampled materials, colours and shapes from the Agora building.

We assumed that as they move back in the occupants will gradually refill the office with life i.e. plants, posters, coffe mugs, silly posters etc. Taking all this into account we boldly went for brown and gray palette – robust, practical, easy to maintain, loved by sensible adults worldwide. In the spirit of sustainability we chose almost exclusively local Polish design. The scale of prospect commission – 1700 workplaces – allowed us to hope for deep customization. We fundamentally rejected all plastic-covered tabletops and furniture fronts opting for varnished plywood instead.

Our design was led by acoustics and based on extensive use of soft divisions in different heights. We proposed a system of modular soft felt-upholstered blocks. We gave them slightly convex surfaces so that they could lead onlookers’ thoughts towards chocolate and other pleasant curvy objects. We mixed those with glazed and multimedia-carrying modules to generate a diverse but elegant working environment.