Project Overview

Following exponential growth, Unispace needed a larger space to house their growing team in Amsterdam while also creating an enhanced studio experience that reflected the local Dutch culture.
Amsterdam is seen as a central global destination, so our vision was to create a warm, welcoming space to host colleagues and clients from around the world. Ultimately, the key design challenge was to build a destination workplace that felt approachable and allowed visitors to drop by and work like a local, amongst the permanent team members, without feeling intrusive or crowded.

The entire floorplate needed to consist of multi-functional spaces with flexible, dynamic arrangements that cater for every task and enable opportunities to cross-collaborate. We aimed to build a seamless flow throughout the space, blended with modern, Dutch design and welcoming features. The result was a Dutch-infused destination workplace to draw people in, feel welcome and work like a local.

Organisation

Unispace

Team

- Strategy: Justin Conceicao
- Design: Phoebe Settle, Miriam van der Waal, Sally Anderson, Stuart Finnie
- Technical: Martijn Graafland
- Delivery: Luis Smith

Project Brief

Flexible spaces for everyone
Following the pandemic, we wanted to provide our people with flexible spaces that gave them value in the office, blending the very best of working from home and the workplace. We created an energising, functional environment that allowed everyone to choose a space for focus, collaboration, problem-solving, socialising and ultimately, to do their best work.

This new agile layout enabled everyone to work from anywhere, and each area has a different purpose:
• Winter Garden — A dedicated workspace for employees with a deep-rooted connection with nature. The dark green carpet complemented the abundance of greenery and floor-to-ceiling windows that provided stunning views of the neighbouring canal.
• Library Nook — A quiet focus area offering a cosy escape where teams can meet, work independently or relax. Lined with shelving for a soothing backdrop of books and magazines, the space was embellished with cushions, throws and pouffes for ultimate comfort.
• Day Bed — A small mindfulness room to relax and unwind with an ergonomic chaise lounge and pillow made from a warm tan leather material.
• Large Event Space — A completely flexible space with reconfigurable furniture, this area can be used for town halls, yoga sessions, team meetings, lunch breaks, training and client meetings for up to 80 people.

The entire office has become flexible and welcoming for visitors to drop by and work like a local.

Project Innovation/Need

Gezellig design
A key component to the design was ensuring we reflected the local Dutch culture into the materials, finishes and accessories. This was partially to create a unique local ‘attitude’ to the design of each of our studios across Europe but also to further develop a sense of belonging for our people.

The overall feel resembles ‘gezellig’, a Dutch term similar to the Danish concept of hygge, with open, inviting spaces inclusive of cosy social areas, touchdown spots and soft furnishings and decorations for anyone to feel welcome and at home. The locally influenced design consisted of dark green flooring to reflect the fishing houses seen throughout the Netherlands and hints of tan leather and orange terrazzo flecks that give a nod to the Dutch colour.

Karaoke Room — Designed for larger team meetings and socialising, this room is adaptable from a focused work environment to become a lively socialising space. Surrounded with plush velvet curtains and a disco ball-esque pendant light to create the atmosphere of a night club, there is also a presentation screen that can be connected to a karaoke machine for colleagues to bring out their inner superstar.

Materials Library – A designated space for designers to showcase moodboards, sketches and the design journey that a client would embark on with Unispace. Built with sleek shelving, drawers and display cabinets, clients are able to touch and feel fabric swatches, acoustic padding and see the proposed colour palette of their project in real life, adding to the overall experience. This sensory room also contains overhead table cameras that promote multi-country collaboration and share floorplans and visuals for client presentations with ease.

Design Challenge

As the pandemic hit, new working behaviours had formed and with hybrid working now the norm, there was a perceived erosion of company culture and a lack of socialisation amongst colleagues. We wanted to create a space that colleagues would be drawn to, and restore any company culture that may have been lost.
Our new location is situated next to a canal, making it the perfect Amsterdam location with great transport links. It’s in a central, modern part of the city for talent attraction, balancing serenity within an urban environment. Wellness was important to promote a healthier work-life balance for our people with a brighter space, outdoor areas and abundance of greenery — especially in a busy city like Amsterdam.
Following the pandemic, we have seen a positive increase in colleagues coming back into the office on a daily basis with an average occupancy of 80%, making the most of the space. Teams feel connected within the studio through the open, transparent floorplate, but also with colleagues and clients globally via the latest video conferencing technology available in each room.

The team feels truly at home in the studio, making use of each space and choosing to come into the office because they want to, rather than feel they have to. By seamlessly blending hospitality, our new studio welcomes staff coming together, maximising the best balance of colleague happiness and productivity.

Sustainability

We chose a future-proofed, sustainable space that matched our growth plans, removing the necessity to move again a few years, With its open plan design, the office layout can be reconfigured to suit at least 20 more colleagues which saves time, money and unnecessary waste that would negatively affect the environment.

We opted for recycled materials wherever possible to reduce our carbon footprint. In meeting rooms and touchdown spaces acoustic padding made from recycled shoe soles was incorporated in the wall panels. The panelling was chosen not only for its acoustic properties, but also its natural insulation, dirt-resistance and fire-retardant qualities.

We installed energy-efficient HVAC and maximised natural light from the wraparound floor-to-ceiling windows with stunning views of the neighbouring canal and green gardens. This provided a green escape and scenic vista for our people to enjoy; an environment where teams can be happy, healthy and productive within a bustling capital city.

The windows were a large part of the infrastructure, encompassing the majority of the outer walls, so it made sense to maximise their sustainability power. All windows contained a reflective film that reflects heating and cooling back into the workplace, to ensure that minimal energy was used or lost, whilst still allowing plenty of natural light through.

The lighting, workstation monitors and presentation screens were all equipped with energy-efficient sensor technology to optimise energy use, which detect movement and automatically turn off when unoccupied.