Onoffice magazine

Internet companies are vague and mysterious entities: it can be hard to work out what they actually do. Architects seem to be aware of this too, and when their client’s product exists in web space there is seemingly less to inspire them as a starting point. In the past they’ve adopted a number of approaches, from questionable node graphics to glassy meeting boxes and the obligatory exposed ductwork. Skilfully and thoughtfully weaving in some of these…

Corridors really are the workhorses of the office design world aren’t they? While receptions have been sexed up and made multifunctional places to meet, greet, research and party in; canteens are the place you’re most likely to encounter the CEO in these days; and even the humble staircase is heralded as a place of chance encounters and encouraging movement in the office, the corridor has maintained its unremarkable mundanity. At Yarn, a new shared office space…

“We have known each other for a very long time and worked on many projects together,” says Joost Ector, partner at Ector Hoogstad, about his latest client, Rotterdam engineering firm IMd. So it must have felt a little like business as usual when IMd asked the practice to design its new office. In a way it was almost the repaying a favour – the engineers had acted as consultants for Ector Hoogstad’s own office revamp,…

Welcome to Office 04, Dutch architects i29’s latest work. It’s in Amsterdam, designed for global advertisers Tribal DDB, which describes itself as “the greatest digitally-centric agency in the world.” With statements like this one might expect an uber-tech workplace that comes complete with hoverbike rack and teleporter pads. Not so. In reality the client restrained itself to a simple monochrome palette that prioritises functionality, chiming with the project’s understated sequential moniker. i29 is a practice…

Although now a global giant, sports brand Adidas is still based in the small German town where its founder Adolf “Adi” Dassler and his brother Rudolf Dassler – the father of rival sports brand Puma – were born more than 100 years ago. Since the 1990s, the brand’s headquarters have been situated in a decommissioned Second World War American military base, nestled in the Bavarian countryside. In this green and leafy landscape, Adidas has built…