Project Overview
After the Covid-19 pandemic, Astellas Pharma was keen to create a workplace that would suit their people’s evolving needs. They reached out to Unispace to create a bespoke design for their new office located in Madrid’s new business district of Cuatro Torres.
Conveniently located in the most modern and futuristic side of Madrid, with several hotels nearby that allow business travellers to stay close to their workplace, Astellas Pharma’s new office is positioned in a very central and vibrant location. With stunning views from the 31st floor of Torre Emperador Castellana, their new workplace is a humancentric environment that steps away from a traditional hierarchical corporate structure. A flexible and adaptable space where people feel empowered to choose the type of space they want to work in according to their needs and type of activity.
Delivered in only four months, the project so successful that led to future collaboration across the globe, from Europe to North America.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Designer: Carmen Malo Sanz
Project Manager: Luis Smith
Project Brief
Flexibility and adaptability were the key elements of this project. The space has been designed to include several agile environments, such as sitting booths, phone rooms, touchdown areas for informal meetings, a hive bar and a communal kitchen area.
An improved layout promoted incidental interaction between teams to help spark new ideas and foster innovation. With this new design, people were empowered to choose the type of space they want to work in according to their needs and type of activity.
Aiming to create a more human-centric environment to step away from a traditional hierarchical corporate structure, we integrated warm and natural colours into the design providing a welcoming and calm experience. We enhanced this human-centric atmosphere in the welcome area through the use of warm colour tones and soft ambient lighting that make the space look more inviting and less formal.
Astellas Pharma was a big advocate in transforming their way of working to a modern and agile style. As result of the project’s success, we are partnering with the company to transform more of their workplaces across Europe and North America over the upcoming months.
“We’re very pleased with the Unispace team. Our new flagship workplace in Madrid has a modern look and feel that showcases Astellas Pharma’s brand and enables bespoke flexible working patterns.” - Jeroen van Schooten - Facility Officer, CRE & FM, Astellas Pharma
Project Need
To create an environment that works for their colleagues and would assist with the long-term goal of retaining talent, we took the time to understand what Astellas Pharma’s employees wanted from their new office. We interviewed key stakeholders to align workspace needs with business drivers and ran detailed employee surveys to better understand current and future working patterns. We carried out around 12 sessions with the teams to better understand their preferences and needs, receiving an enthusiastic response from the team members, with 90% of their people replying to our surveys and taking part to our sessions.
Our survey results highlighted the need to create a workplace focused on enabling social and collaborative activities. 87% of Astellas Pharma’s colleagues who answered the survey ranked building social connections and professional networks as the number one benefit of working from the office, which is what they miss when working from home.
In light of these results, we used subtle dividers to create neighbourhoods without disrupting the natural flow of the space. Elements like acoustic curtains provided privacy whilst maintaining a welcoming feel, eliminating the need to physically divide the space through walls.
Organic shapes, such as curved sofas, rounded rugs, coffee tables and circular wall lights, added to balance and soften the existing architecture, also created multiple subtle neighbourhoods in the space for people to naturally huddle together generating a separation without disconnection.
Design Challenge
Unispace was challenged with designing and delivering an exquisite bespoke design with a quick turnaround of just four months from initial concept to handing over the keys, reflecting the global pharmaceutical company’s culture, without compromising any aspect of quality.
In addition to the tight deadline, our team was also challenged with future-proofing the space. Choosing a future-proofed sustainable space that was larger than what their current team needed was essential to avoid the necessity to move out a few years down the road. With its open plan design, Astellas Pharma’s office layout can be reconfigured to suit the company’s growth which saves time, money and unnecessary waste that would negatively affect the environment.
Last but not least, our local team designed a space that would maximise the best balance of happiness and productivity for Astellas Pharma’s people. With a zero desk ownership, people are encouraged to move around and sit somewhere different every day. This encouraged colleagues to build better relationships outside of their immediate teams and improve productivity by working in a space that suits varying moods day to day. Previously split between two floors, Astellas Pharma’s team now feels more united by moving to a single floor office space.
Delivered in a record time, the result is a welcoming and collaborative workspace made with Astellas Pharma's colleagues front of mind, with a long-term goal of retaining top talent.
Sustainability
Astellas Pharma’s new office is located in Torre Espacio Castellana, the tallest building in Spain, built among a four-skyscraper complex at the end of Madrid’s Paseo de la Castellana.
The building has been accredited as Spain’s first BREEAM sustainability certified office building, rated “excellent” in the section that evaluates several aspects of the building’s construction and facilities.
This certification recognises the location as an international benchmark for a sustainable work environment and was obtained on conclusion of a nine-category assessment process including; Energy, Health & Wellbeing, Water, Materials, Pollution, Land Use & Ecology, Waste, Transport and Management.
With a Class A energy rating, the building is supported by an elevated number of active façades on its glass curtain wall, over 60% of which comprises quadruple-glazed windows with air circulation through the inner chamber.
Indoor air quality is guaranteed by a vast air renovation capacity. People can control the main heating and lighting comfort parameters at their workstations and use the interstitial blinds (located between the panes of glass) to keep out direct sunlight and glare. This also prevents the office from overheating by controlling the passage of sunlight through the glazing, allowing colleagues to better maintain internal temperatures and rely less upon air conditioning and mechanical means of climate control.
Interior Design - International Commercial
Open to all international projects this award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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