Procon Events & Marketing: Play At Work

The bold, gritty and energising design of Procon Events & Marketing’s office by Architology matches the company’s dynamic and creative personality.

Designing an office for a creative company is no easy task. Other than providing functional workspaces, the interior designer or architect has to rise to the challenge of imbibing an equal – or more – amount of creative or conceptual vigour for its workers.

Architology’s solution for Procon Events & Marketing is a successful example. From the onset, there is a sense of dynamism and ingenuity in the interior design, with conventional notions of an office interior turned on its head. This matches the client’s request to make their workspace an “anti-office” environment, says Bu Shukun, designer and co-founder of Architology. It helped that the firm was given free reign by the client “to set up a dynamic play/work ground that breeds work passions.”

With Bu’s treatment, the original 2,300 square feet rectilinear layout in a newly constructed office building at Pasir Panjang is given a design with a twist – literally. Functions such as the meeting room, the bosses’ corner, the pantry, admin area and designers’ work desks snake along the periphery in a zigzagging manner while the lounge seating and main work space are positioned in the middle of the open-plan workspace.

Taking advantage of the tall ceiling height of 5.5 metres, the elevations of the enclosed spaces, such as the lounge cubicle and meeting room, continue the twisting leitmotif to create an office like “a ‘living organism’ with its typical office eco-systems and layout rejigged to challenge conventions,” Bu describes. The result is a space that is as fluid as it is energising.

This being a creative company, “the fluid open plan reinforces typical functions in an ‘anti-establishment’ manner,” adds the designer. For instance, the bosses sit on an open platform in full view of the office rather than being shut away from sight in rooms, as is normally the case for management staff. Likewise, rather than being tucked into a corner, the pantry is designed as a welcoming café/bar with open counters and functions as an alternative space for staff to relax.

Bu adds that in an open-floor plate, a key skill was required to create a meaningful hierarchy and separation of spaces for complex office functional needs. And so, spatially, several features ‘anchor’ the space – one example being the metal cage of a cocoon-cum-lounge wrapped with a mesh frame. Its semi-porous character matches its function as an area for casual team discussions versus the more official “fish-tank” glass meeting room, and provides an interesting welcome feature by the main entrance rather than a typical reception desk.

Another example is a metal framing-cum-lighting feature. A cluster of desks made with metal I-beams add to the dynamism of the shapes and forms in the rest of the interior architecture.

Read the full article on Indesign Live. Thank you Indesign Live for the feature!