DESIGUAL

Desigual headquarters, located in a building next to the beach at the new entrance to the port of Barcelona, provide a perfect juncture between the city and the sea.

The floor space of almost 25,000 sqm, covering 6 floors, has been designed in the true spirit of thecollaboration between the architecture studio and Desigual over 15 years.

The layout of the interior spaces seeks to promote teamwork from a multidisciplinary perspective, organizing workspaces by project and not by function. In this way, creative connections between people are nurtured and coexistence improved.

The entrance hall acts as a welcoming space. Exhibiting the brand’s slogan, «La Vida es Chula«, it consists of a central atrium which allows you to immerse yourself in the unique Desigual atmosphere.

A “bar” as well as a variety of social and working areas, where employees and visitors can meet, aresituated in the entrance hall. The sea on one side and the panoramic view of the city on the other, are the true protagonists. When moving through “La Vida es Chula” you cannot help but becometransfixed looking through the glass facade, watching the powerful waves on a stormy day, or enjoying the sunset on a spring evening.

With fabric as a hallmark of Desigual, one of the most important integrations of the architecture studio was to use carpet as flooring, imitating a patchwork, in tune with the modus vivendi of the company. Using pieces of carpets to cover the entire floor, taking as a reference the style adopted in many mosques, not only offers a pleasant sensation when walking on them but also regulates the reverberation of acoustic waves. This allows 200 people to work in a single space while maintaining a low noise level.

This concept of material fusion is repeated in the hallway, where eight types of wood are mixed in a radial floor which features “the bar” as its centerpiece.

The selected pieces have a story to tell. Copper tables, enea stools and chairs, ancient wooden tables, etc., were found in markets and street stalls in Marrakesh and Barcelona. The result is a very visual environment.

In these offices, some department employees do not have a fixed or segmented workplace. Everyemployee – from design, product, marketing, human resources, retail and tailors – lives in a “neighborhood”, located in open spaces, without walls to separate them. There are some personal lockers, but otherwise all tables and screens are for common and shared use. And every day, everything is reset and renewed according to a “clean table” policy.

To concentrate on a task alone, work with several colleagues on a common project, or hold an informal meeting, there are multiple specially designed spaces for each instance.

In short, the concepts employed by the designers seek to create the ideal environment to work in a pleasant and efficient manner, in an ideal space to develop new ideas while watching nature outside.