GlaxoSmithKline office | Firma d.o.o. Sarajevo

Project description: Pharmaceutical company Glaxo,Smith&Kline was looking for a new office space in Sarajevo, which would not only be different from their previous space, but also enhance the social atmosphere and encourage collaboration among employees. The new office is designed as a functional, yet open and colorful space where employees can spontaneously share their ideas and communicate. It supports vibrant working atmosphere providing variety of work settings suitable for large and small team meetings, quite phone booths, informal lounges, presentation areas and formal workstations. Our main challenge was balancing between client strict working policies and needs on one hand, and short time frame on the other. Since the glass facade provides generous natural lightning, we decided to leave most of the facade free, concentrating majority of our work stations within the central area. Two meeting rooms and quite booths designed as translucent glass boxes with some graphic decorations in order to provide certain level of privacy are the only spaces in direct contact with the facade. The heart of the project is a large team bench that works as a node where employees from different departments, visitors and clients meet. The reception desk is a combination of clean, minimalistic lines and luminous orange color - reflecting corporate design philosophy right from the entrance. Material and detailing strategies: From the beginning of the design process, we followed a very simple structural scheme, taking into account the utility and economic constraints of the project. We used colorful wall decorations in public zones such as entrance lobby, reception and corridors in order to create liveliness and sense of motion in these areas. Our design scheme was inspired by both the corporate colors and the natural color palette. Even though initially simple industrial carpet seemed as a restriction, at the end it was key to the design, helping to identify connections between different areas within the open plan space. Our general idea was to create a spatial sequence of colorful and fresh corners, consisting of surfaces with playful composition of smaller and bigger squares as leitmotif. These small spaces are intended to have a special aura of oasis, metaphorically, and provide moments of joy and positive stimulation for employees during their long working hours.