MK office | Mikhail Kozlov

Designing your own office is a significant task. On the one hand, the space should tell a story about you as an architect and convey the key values of your practice, on the other hand, it should remain a place where you and your team focus on tasks and spend most of your life.

Usually, in our work we come up with the general concept for the project and develop detailed visualisations for our clients, but this time we wanted more freedom, especially regarding our own decisions. We didn't start making precise models, and we didn't know until the end what our office would look like. Decisions changed during the construction, which, of course, made the builders uncomfortable. But we wanted to go through the process without a clear understanding of the outcome. The space itself informed us what techniques would work best and what would create the atmosphere we needed.

Our office is located in a Stalin-era apartment block. After the demolition process, it became clear that the key elements would be the distinct textures of light-coloured, warm bricks and concrete. These textures did not require a clean look and were left untouched with all the layers of time. All the newly erected structures were painted white and became a sort of antithesis to the rough textures of the ceiling and enclosing walls. The interior was highlighted with furniture, décor and lighting. Working in contrast to the light background, they added even more brightness to the space and merged different techniques into a single visual framework.