Students will be designing an office for the US Offices of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Students will design a single-story office space of approximately 9,650 square feet, sited in the iconic Pepsico Building located at 500 Park Avenue, New York, NY. Students will develop an understanding of the multi-faceted systems – from building construction to environmental systems and furniture - impacting the design of the office space in response to the needs for varying degrees of flexibility, privacy, and manifold interactions in the contemporary workplace. Students will critically evaluate and develop strategies for lighting, acoustics, and spatial organization responding to the program of a private office/workplace.
OFFICE
Gathering & Interactions | SPRING 2020
This space provides an interactive and healthy working place by using the circular public pantry as a central gathering space to encourage people's body movement and interaction with each other. Colorful Fabrics and circular shapes are used to improve people's experience. Space of inclusion is emphasized by blurring the hierarchy between nonemployees and employees, managers, and general workers.
Floor Plan
Section
Material Palette
Program Diagram
Isometric View
Rendered Plan
The selection of material focuses on nature, seamless, and colorfulness. Nature and colorfulness evoke people’s feeling of relaxation, while seamless emphasizes the concept of inclusion.
Glass is widely used as partition material in this office. The visual boundary is diminished by using transparent materials. Various colors of fabrics are used on the wall in separated rooms, and the colors of that fabric will be reflected in the glass, which creates a special mood of color in specific rooms. For instance, a room in blue will make people feel calm, a room in orange will make people feel vivid, etc. Plants are placed next to the window to get the maximum amount of sunlight and to amplify the sustainability goal of good health. Concrete is used as a signal of “untreated“, which means space is not overly decorated. It remains partially as the original form of the building. Wood is another element of nature other than plants.
The central pantry is a multi-functional space. The counter faces the bar, and the bench is double-side. Such design creates a moment for the officers to have random meetings during the break because it provides opportunities for people to face each other. In many other dining spaces, small groups of people would gather together and sit in a certain booth, which decreases the possibilities of knowing other people and expanding social networks. In this pantry, the hierarchy is diminished and everyone is included in this special moment of chilling and eating.
In this office, the sense of exclusion is completely eliminated. Everyone has the same type of desk and facilities, including the managers. All of the desks are placed next to the windows, sharing the same amount of natural sunlight and landscape. The open workspace suggests the maximum amount of inclusion and destroys the boundary between people by giving everyone an equal amount of accessibilities.
Entrance
Conference Room
Conference Room
Lounge
Pantry
Pantry
Classrooms
Auditorium
