Architects: Cesar F. Flores C.; Mikel Merodio G.
Collaborators: Gabriela Castillo, Omar Cejudo, Diana Torres, Paloma Guerra
Completion year: 2016
Location: Polanco, CDMX México
Area: 1900 m2
Lightning: G TECH
Furniture: Haworth by Papsa y MDC (Muebles de Concreto)
Carpet: Shaw
Graphics: Colectivo Versátil
Photography: Jimena Carranza
— Description by Taller Paralelo —
Neology use to be located in an old house downtown Mexico City, in the Colonia Condesa, where the original spaces were adapted with workspaces; but the growth of the company and the distribution of the house caused the development to be compromised.
In addition to the growth, the environment within the company in small private spaces generated independent worlds within the areas of the company; reaching extremes where people were only known through huge mail chains.
From this arises the need to look for a new space, where square meters are not the starting point, but the search and identification of a work culture for the company. This situation brought our attention to develop a workshop in collaboration with Haworth Inc. with the aim of discovering the areas of opportunity to improve and understand the work experience of our client and his employees, applied to a new office project. For this workshop, the CEO of the company decided to involve all of the employees in the company as an exercise of collaborations for a new fresh start and defining the new work culture of the company.
As a result, Neology employees found out that they needed a changed from a control culture to a creative and collaborative one. Know we have a solid base to design the new space that encourages people to do things together, interact and create as a team; with very open spaces where the square meters are maximized and optimized (since each meter implies money). It was thought of a very horizontal organizational culture where the barriers of the hierarchies are broken and where all the spaces can be occupied or used by all; encouraging communication between employees, where you can perform various collaborative activities in open spaces without the need for closed doors and making the flow of information de center key.
To avoid the leak of time of the employees to leave the office for snacks, coffee and food, a work coffee was designed to encourage work and informal coexistence within the space. Within the office, there are only two private spaces for important telephone calls, interviews and meetings and two management offices; flexible enough to be used as semi-private meeting rooms when directors are out. These spaces are designed as basic volumes that surround the columns to avoid the structural elements and give a sense of lightness in an open work space.