Inspiration Office

POGADE, Daniela. 2008.
Inspiration Office: How To Design Workspaces
Germany: DOM Publishers.

This book is delightfully presented. The hardback cover is matt black, with text screenprinted in slightly raised, gloss black ink. Corners are rounded on the cover itself and on the pages throughout the book. A silky yellow ribbon page-marker is bound into the book.

Inside, all pages are printed with a grid to give the impression of squared paper – perhaps a little contrived, but fun and interesting nonetheless. Tactility and warmth are achieved through soft matt printing, using lots of superb, high-quality colour photographs on uncoated paper, the ink soaking into the paper so that the warmth and texture of the paper stock is not lost. A choice of modern, technical, condensed serifed font used throughout completes the overall effect.

Beyond the presentation of the book itself, the content is also an enjoyable and informative read. I’ve selected a few extracts from the introductory text by Pogade which I found particularly interesting or relevant:

Pp. 6

“The unique selling proposition (USP), the outstanding individual characteristic, is the ideal essence of a marketable product. And, as competition grows, a company – whether it produces heating pipes or sells PR – needs to position itself uniquely; it must be clearly identifiable at long
range; and this identification needs to use physical attributes. That is why it is becoming ever more important to make corporate identity part of a company’s physical architecture. Thus company logos – enlarged, projected or distorted – are applied to walls and furniture, CI colours dominate the colour design, and many a company suggests the form of products in the details of its office interior. In this way a company is positioning itself not only outwardly. It is using a characteristic, indicative image to raise the identification which staff feel between themselves and their employer.”

Pp. 7

“Employers – or so it seems when we look at modern planning for the workplace – want not just to maximise profit; they also want to be respected and well regarded. Now, unlike a hundred years ago, the staff are supposed to look beyond the edge of their desks; indeed, even if they do not participate in the overarching decision-making process, they are supposed to have an overview of the whole and feel they are in a democratically organised apparatus. 'Transparency' is therefore the thing which clients are constantly asking their planners to provide when it comes to designing their head offices.”

Pp. 7

“The office of the future may be expected to look less and less like an office, for the equipment which, at first sight, shows that somewhere is an office, is getting smaller all the time or being abandoned entirely. It is not just that work tools such as computers and copiers are taking up ever less space; over the long term, in an age of wireless networks, we shall no longer be tripping over cables in our offices. Robbed thus of the compulsory features of its infrastructure, the office will become increasingly more adept as a foil for the visions and self realisation of employers and architects.”

Following the introduction, the book goes on to describe several different types of office layout. They are:

- Open-plan office
- Group office
- Cellular office
- Combi-office
- Non-territorial office
- Reversible office.

[KUHFUß, Silke & PAWLITSCHKO, Roland, 2008. ‘Office Areas’. In Daniela Pogade, Inspiration Office: How To Design Workspaces. Germany: DOM Publishers, pp. 8-19]

The book then presents approximately thirty office interiors, complete with colour photographs, designed by German (and German speaking) architects and designers. Here are just a couple of examples which caught my particular attention:

Pp. 22-29
Client: Zum Goldenen Hirschen Advertising Agency, Hamburg.
Interior Designer: Büro für Gestaltungsfragen
Completed: 2006

The name of this ad agency translates as ‘Golden Deer’, and the atmosphere of the office is intended to fit the name. The client wanted to be happy with its clients here, which led the designers to aim for a higher degree of abstraction to achieve this.

The project was instigated over two floors of the building to celebrate the occasion of the agency’s tenth anniversary. Common, concentrated working places have been organised according to different spatial experiences around the central supply core, on a hexagonal floor-plan; walls are non-rectangular in their arrangement.

The lower floor is covered with a golden-fleece carpet and the upper floor entirely in silver.

The interesting combination of angular structures, natural oak, coloured panels and metallics makes for a quirky, rustic, welcoming but nonetheless glamorous overall effect.


Pp. 52-59
Client: Advertising Agency TBWA, Hamburg
Interior Designer: König & Vearncombe Architekten
Completed: 2002

This teamwork-orientated agency strives to encourage cooperation and exchange between employees but the length of the otherwise stylish, transparent, newly-built office – which stretches sixty metres – impeded this somewhat.

To make better use of this feature, the architects created a varied corridor zone on each storey which would accommodate the entire office periphery – technical equipment, archive, shelves, cupboards etc – thereby structuring the large area. Informal meeting areas, small ‘thinking cells’, libraries, storage, copier and printing rooms which double as passageways, have all been incorporated. Corridors are no longer merely passageways but also working, relaxation and communication areas. A moat filled with glass splinters separates conference rooms from corridor zone, adding a touch of glamour. Walls have been adorned with the agency’s corporate red, which is visible from far away and to the outside world, especially under artificial light in the evening.



Pp. 100-107 Client: Product Visionaries Ltd., Berlin
Interior Designer: MARTINI, MEYER
Completed: 2004

Finally, I have chosen to include a sketch (one of very few included in the book). This is relevant to my work at present, as I investigate (and indeed try to improve my own) drawing skills needed to communicate early ideas as a spatial designer.



I particularly like the roughness of the sketch, which has been overlaid on top of a computer-rendered line drawing (which I assume is of the building as it was before the project was implemented). Note the use of different weights of pencil line.

I've also included the final photograph of the interior for comparison, to see how close this sketch came to the final result, and how much of the look and feel the designer managed to portray in the original sketch.