Officespotter

Gyár

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:28:00 +0000

Tenant: Gyár post-production studio
Tenant profile: media
Office building: Goldberger-factory
Number of employees: ~25
Size: ~1200 m2
Interior design: Norbert Bier, Dániel Gazsy and Gergő Gazsy

After having visited Gyár (which means, literally: factory), we decided we will be create a best-of-officespotting list, as there are a few offices that surpass anything we’ve seen, both in their mood and aesthetics. This unusual location is the one-time Goldberger Textile Factory in Óbuda (III. district). This is another building where nobody would expect there to be offices.

We cannot give an account of Gyár and be too superlative. Yes, yes, often have we defined the places we visit like this, and this is the first time we regret that we’ve used so much verbal ammunition in the past. The pictures simply cannot fully express the mood of the place.

The company was founded by six young people five years ago, after they judged they have the energy and wit to control their own company. Their thoughts turned out to be correct, and thanks to their reliable high quality work, by now over half their clients come from abroad. They work mainly on advertisements, with occasional work on movies as well.

Dániel Gazsy, one of the co-founders, was nice enough to show us around everywhere, and among some of the place we saw were areas clients never get to see. For instance, after climbing up a tight spiral staircase, where workers can relax in an inner sanctum, away from the sound of computers.

Interestingly, nobody does work in the large central space, this area is only for the reception as well as a place to relax or make a few calls. Everyone works in offices that open up from this central lobby. There are two sound studios, all sorts of video-cutting, -editing, -processing rooms, a 3d animation area as well as a multitude of other computers that are needed to ensure the end result video material is as near to perfection as possible.

We witnessed a multitude of transportation devices in the office. Although the motorcycles resting in one area of the office aren’t used indoors, we did see a cyclist whoosh by, as well as skateboards, snakeboards, wheels to be placed on shoes, and a lot of other things with which one can avoid walking.

As Dániel walks us around, he mentions that smoking is forbidden, and the only exception thus far was Mr. Vajna, as no one dared to make him put out his cigar whenever he arrived smoking. For everyone else, the rooftop balcony will suffice, which will receive a serious overhaul in the future.

The company hosts an annual Mikulás (Santa Claus) party, which by now has become legendary in media circles. Initially the party was for employees’ families and maybe one or two clients, but these days it has grown into a circa 350 person event. Dániel tells us that because during the party the place is swarming with children, they try their best to dazzle them. This year for instance, the children witnessed Santa’s sleigh arriving on the roof by projecting the silhouette on the windows, then – accompanied by the adequate sound effects – he arrived through a window on top.

The story of the Mikulás party gives an idea of the friendly atmosphere here. Everyone was very nice to us, they readily moved anything so that the photos would look better, they were interested and smiled a lot.

Because of my amunition statement at the beginning of the article, I think it’s better not to summarize Gyár more than this, as we may be needing the positive descriptions in the future.

Additional photos:

Aloha Informatika

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:51:00 +0000

Tenant: Aloha Informatika

Tenant profile: IT development

Office building: Office Garden I.

Interior design: Beáta Ladányi

Size: ~400 m2 office + ~ 500 m2 terrace

Number of employees: 50

Sometimes we think about just how priveleged a position we’re in. We visit all kinds of offices, where for a few hours we can become a part of the atmosphere, and we have a chat with the managers of the company. It seems everyone enjoys it when we visit, they are happy to show us the where their company lives, and share a bit of its background. Every company we visit has something to be proud of, and this is no different at Aloha Informatika.

At Aloha Informatika, there is an obvious family atmosphere. Even the fitout and arrangement of the

office is built as though by family coordination. A good example of this is that, Beáta Ladányi chief financial officer at the company, has a passion for interior design, thus there was no question as to who will be planning the design of the office.

Families and the company community are important at the company. As Zoltán Kaprinay chief operational officer tells us, after moving into the building during the summer, they invited all other tenants in the building to a party, where they all got to know each other. It is no surprise that till the party, the employees of different tenants just passed by each other with no greeting. Family members are also important within the company: everyone’s family is also invited to any organized events there are.

Whats interesting about this 11th district office is not that the office space is about 400 sqm, but that the surrounding terrace is 500 sqm. The party mentioned above was also held on this terrace, and this is where employees come when they wish to take a break from their monitors, and look at Gellérthegy instead.

We also hear some company history: in 1996, three Hungarian individuals formed Aloha Informatika Ltd, which assembled personal computers. The company soon became sales partner to Compaq and Xerox, after which they became responsible for the establishment of UPC Hungary’s full IT infrastructure. They began to deal with maintenance in 2005. Today Aloha is the largest domestic service center partner of HP – with Gold qualification – but they are also strategic partners with Hewlett-Packard in services, servers, storage and network hardware as well.

Where does the name come from? – we ask, little knowing that probably most students of IT already know the answer: Aloha was the first potocoll connection between two computers without cabling. As for the message; what better way to begin communication in Hawaii than with their standard greeting. I ponder for a moment whether the term ’surfing the internet’ doesn’t come from the island as wellm, but I’ll quickly pass on this weak joke attempt.

The company colors of red and brown make the office the friendly place that it is. On the doors, the tag clouds corresponding to the divisions can be seen, and all around the office there are glass walls, thanks to which the office is very well lit.

All in all, despite the somewhat difficult public transportation, we think this office was a wise choice, as for such a family-based approach you need lots of space, and a terrace of this size readily services this need.

Additional photos:

kirowski

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:40:00 +0000

Tenant: Kirowski Zrt.

Office building: REsidence

Tenant’s profile: communication agency (digital approach)

Size: ~1600 m2 (kirowski + Aegis)

Number of employees: well over 100 (kirowski + Aegis)

The Hungarian success story, after 10 years, finally saw fit to move their offices from their previous location on Károly körút to look for something with a bit more space, where they could move under one roof with their mother company. Finally, they moved to the ~~SingSing~~ REsidence office building in Víziváros, with the move completed during this past summer.

The story of kirowski – as told by Balázs Tompa, one of the creative managers there who was also one of the founders – began in 96 with 4 architects getting together and undertaking various graphic design works. The switch to internet based works came in 98, and as Balázs told us growth was constant. Representative of their expansion rate, currently there are over 80 employees in the company, and since 2005 the company belongs to the global digital marketing agency network under Aegis Media, namely Isobar.

As the interior height of the building is relatively low – and as we know good creative work needs a large amount of space – thus the company told the owner before fitout began that they wouldn’t be needing the usual lowered ceilings. With this, they brought a bit of industrial character to the otherwise modern office building. Above the ceiling lights white rectangles were painted to reflect the light downwards, as computer dispersed light is more comfortable for working on computers. The lighting plays an important role, as there are many areas which are only dimly lit, which although is ideal for working in front of a computer, can be depressing in the long term.

The walls were created by the Pimp-my-wall team, and one of the founders of kirowski, Csaba Kelemen, was responsible for the designs. The drawings mostly bring a funky feeling to the office; we saw no real connection to the company or its history in them. We have to admit though, that wall decorations of this kind are probably the most efficient way to spruce up an otherwise average office.

Despite the colorful walls, the place is pervaded by rigid professionalism. As can be expected from an online agency, just about everyone we saw was under 40, and the average age was definitely under 30. Corresponding to this, great momentum surrounded us. As could be seen on the young team’s work pace, the online profession dictates quite the tempo, and we could feel the tension in the air.

Just about everyone in the office works in an open-space layout, although the different divisions are well separated from each other. The kitchen functions splendidly as a common area, where thanks to a large balcony smokers don’t have to leave the office area. Also here, you can find a fussball table and a semi-separated rest area. A great aspect of this entire area is that it is very well detached from the rest of the office. This is probably how employees are encouraged to visit common areas only for lunch and a good rest now and then, instead of constantly breaking away for a quick chat.

The company wisely thought of the future and possible expansion, as there is plenty of room in the building next to the for further office space, in case they hire a large influx of new employees. We can safely say that kirowski chose the ideal location for their computer-based workforce, in a quiet environment, with a well partitioned common area, where the sunlight won’t bother anyone too much.

Additional photos:

White Rabbit

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 22:24:00 +0000

Tenant: White Rabbit

Tenant’s profile: Advertising agency

Office Building: Madách Trade Center

Size: 300 m2

Number of employees: 17

During our visit to see White Rabbit, our first surprise came when we entered the elevator. At the reception area, we saw that the company occupies floors 11-12., but in the elevator the floors were only numbered till the 10th. Thus began our chase of the illusive white rabbit in the sky, in the office building by Madách tér. Two right turns, end of the long hall, a glass door opens onto nothing. We step out the door.

Just before stepping into White Rabbit’s office, one finds oneself on top of the city, with no roof or window to disturb the view. There is no shortage of adventure when going to visit the white rabbit in his lair, and each adventure only heightens our curiousity. An office, here?

I’m not sure if the storylike words above give any hint, but by entering the building are in an extension of the office building below, in a 15 meter diameter round shaped tower. Windows in every direction. The only tenant here is White Rabbit.

As we step in, the managing director immediately jumps up from a meeting with his colleagues to greet us, and readily invites us in. I believe we have arrived in Wonderland. All around are colorfully painted walls, an abundance of rabbits, storybooks, black-and-white sofas. Above us, another level and a dome. Everything fits together wonderfully.

White Rabbit was established in 2006 by 4 advertising professionals, who have been running the company ever since. The company is a full service advertising company, which means they do most everything in-house. It was two years ago that they moved out of their original office, in a flat, and found this fantastic space. As Levente Bálint says, they are quite proud of their office, and endeavor to enchant as many clients with it as possible.

To give you an idea of what happens when we visit an office: usually we are first shown around, so we will know what to expect, then we are allowed to roam freely through the areas, to photograph whatever we feel you should see. Meanwhile, we have the opportunity to observe the employees working in the office around us. What made this advertising agency exceptional, is that all throughout the time we were there, the air was simply buzzing; with brainstorming sessions and the constant hum of creators in action. No one was buried deep in their computer, or was doing things in a mediocre tempo, as is often the case. The pace is rapid this version of Wonderland.

The distribution of the three floors is as follows: art directors, writers and creatives sit on the top, managers and owners on the middle level, and client relationship managers and graphic designers on the lower level. All told, l7 people work in the 300 square meter office. The bottom floor was a recent addition to the space, and is somewhat more secluded than the other two.

During our visit, the weather was overcast, but it’s not hard to imagine the office during sparkling sunshine, when working on your computer is near impossible. Perhaps the air conditioners are up to the task, but the shades probably are in a much tougher situation. Hence, even in such a beautiful 360 degree panorama office space a dilemma arises: you won’t be able to see much if you have to close the drapes to be able to work.

As can be seen in the introduction, the company’s name, it’s profile and the office all suite each other perfectly. Thankfully for them, they lease enough space for expansion, nonetheless I won’t envy White Rabbit if in the future, due to the number of employees, they have to leave this place.

További képek:

Digital Natives

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:54:00 +0000

Tenant: Digital Natives
Tenant profile: IT Development
Building: Daróci út 4. Storage-Office environment
Size: ~300 m2
Number of employees: ~20

The great advantage of writing a blog like this is that going from company to company we constantly get tips for which office to visit next. This is how we heard of Digital Natives. We didn’t wait around, after contacting them we went to visit the company at their Daróci út location right away.

The company, which deals with internet based and other IT development, found the office space in 2006, left behind by a design company. Thus the main design elements are thanks to the previous tenant, but it was good to see as these "digital natives" scattered their toys all around the office.

At the reception, we are greeted by Kristóf Bárdos, business development manager, as well as a broad tree. Kristóf immediately lets us wander around to photograph freely. As the emphasis is now on taking pictures, we suppress the urge to play a game of billiards, darts or any of the other games found in the office. The temptation is strong.

As we usually do, we sat down for a chat with Kristóf, and we asked him to tell us about everyday life in the office. He told us about the company’s past, their projects, but we found the most interesting to be their work ethic. Digital Natives has been working for 2 years now with a so-called agile development, or SCRUM methodology. In the traditional approach, a development project works in a way where the customer gives his needs, and a finished product is then developed and delivered to him. During agile development, 2-4 week intervals are agreed upon, when the customer is presented the status of the project, which can then be modified due to seeing it live as well as changing requirements.The result is a much more customer-based approach, and the end product will probably be much better suitable to market standards.

The company’s flagship project is Mindroom, which incorporates state-of-the-art digital sound recognition software. In the entire off – which is shared with a company called Mimoza Communications – about 20 people work in an area of approximately 300 m2. Interestingly, it’s not the work space which is spacious, but the common areas.

Another interesting thing about Digital Natives is that, taking example from Google, employees are ensured time within their regular work hours for self training. The project does differ from the 20% model, as employees here are given not one day a week, but one day a month, and they are expected more to train themselves than work on their own private projects, of which they report to the rest of the team.

Everyone was very laid back and friendly at the company. A good example was during our discussion with Kristóf, when a colleague sat down to join us, as he was curious about our story. We think that despite the industrial feel to the office space, perhaps friendly is the best word to describe what we saw. We liked it.

Thanks to Kristóf’s knowledge, we received yet another tip for spotting. For now, all we can say about the next office space is that it is quite high up, and that we are grateful for the tip. Learn more next week, here on the blog.

Additional photos:

Grey Group

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:22:00 +0000

Tenant: Grey Group

Tenant profile: Advertising agency

Office building: Andrássy Palace

Size: ~1000 m2

Number of employees: ~75

Interior designer: MádiLáncos Studio

The Grey advertising agency found the best located, most unique loft type office in Budapest. The space, located on the top two floors of Erick van Egeraat redesigned Andrássy Palace, is unparalelled in the city, and is definately much better suited for an advertising agency than its previous function as a restaurant.

We have visited the building previously for an earlier post when visiting Log Me In, and we promised then to make sure to take a look at the office with the whale meeting room. The glass roofed, high-interior office is truly a rare gem in Budapest.

Grey’s activities span all areas of communications solutions, including classic advertising, PR and digital media. These divisions are relatively secluded from one another, but since the spaces are composed in a highly intelligent way, when approaching a different division one doesn’t feel the seperation too strongly.

The space leaning over the 5 story atrium is where management sits, and from here they have a good view on just about all the workspaces in the roughly 1000 m2 office. Grey was lucky with this office, as the existing materials were already mostly grey colored, interior designer MádiLáncos Studio merely had to brighten up the place with some red coloring, to fit the company’s image.

We were shown around by Nóra Kósa, PR manager. Nóra was quite laid back, she allowed us to roam freely through the office and observe every detail, after which she told us about their move in 2008, and what it meant to move from a villa style building in a green area into the hear of downtown. When asked whether the employees like working in this location, the answer was that by now, everyone’s gotten used to it and likes it, but the location and lack of openable windows took some getting used to.

We certainly can’t leave out mentioning the whale meeting room. I believe the architect’s goal was to emulate a whale landing in the water following a leap. In the whale’s stomach, instead of Jonah, there are two meeting rooms above each other. The bottom one is more of a secluded area, while the top one is a very representative place, with views onto the entire city.

We saw little if any bad solutions in this office. It was apparent that the lack of drapery in most of the areas could make working on computers somewhat difficult. The absence of the adequate amount of fresh air is a good example of why office buildings are no longer created without windows that can open, like in the 90s. Despite this, Grey’s office is definately of the likeable kind – it has all the spaces, colors and lighting (as well as the practically mandatory fussball table) needed for an exceptionally pleasant office.

Additional photos:

Artvertising. The Agency

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:17:00 +0000

Tenant: Artvertising. The Agency

Building: Residential

Tenant’s profile: Advertising agency

Let’s check out our first office in a flat! An advertising agency, who when pondering the different possibilities, opted to pick a 6. district residential building as their headquarters. The building, situated on Rózsa utca, has been nicely refurbished inside and out, and thus first impressions are good.

Arriving in the building, we have plenty of time to ponder these first impressions, as the makers of the elevator paid attention to the senior citizens of the house. ’No sudden movement!’ – they must have been thinking when callibrating the elevator-speed. Clients with claustrophobia should definately use the stairs, as the roughly half square meter, four person elevator’s 3 minute ascent strongly reminds one of a vertical MRI scan.

The company was founded a year ago by two experienced advertising professionals, who see their main strengths in their ability to think in networks. This means they are in contact with, and constantly work with many freelance graphic designers, writers, photographers and other production subcontractors. The office is essentially the motor behind the entire company, and is home to joint brainstorming sessions and coordination of projects.

Talking with Gergely Nagy – one of the managers – it turns out that, deceptively, they put as much focus on strategy than actual artwork. Having said this, they acknowledge that influencing the senses also plays an important role in the company, which is supported by the fact that they offer scent-marketing services as well.

The company moved to this office seven months ago, and by now they are quite settled in. Although currently the white walls are a bit too much, they plan to get some of the artists working in their network to decorate with some elaborate, thought-provoking designs. There is no shortage of personal items, although it seems employees are fanatic bigyóshop costumers. The Barbie dolls are the remnants of an office party they hosted, where the entry fee was one doll each.

Essentially, we believe the company made the right decision when choosing a flat instead of an office building, as upon arrival one gets a more direct and informal undertone. Perhaps a bit a navigation from the front gate wouldn’t hurt, and we also await the new designs planned for the currently mostly white wall surfaces. The beginnings are certainly reassuring: spacious, bright office, communal areas, lots of gadgets, a good feel to the space. Creative work doesn’t really need much more than that.

Additional photos:

ReVISION

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:50:00 +0000

Tenant: ReVISION

Tenant’s profile: Advertising agency

Building: Szép utca 4.

We arrived at ReVISION’s office with great expectations, as we were expecting quite a bit from one of the top domestic guerilla marketing company’s office. We were not disappointed.

The enormous wooden door is festooned with hundreds of small metal plates, each of which depicts a lion figure. As we opened the door it became apparent that it is in fact the ReVISION logo that appears on the door, but as we were told the small metal logos were left there by the previous tenant. As they put it, they didn’t find their office, their office found them.

For starters, we are taken down to the cellar, where they proudly show us their future meeting room door. In the past, the building housed a bank, and it seems logical to use it’s old vault as a meeting room. I trust this was well thought out, as I certainly wouldn’t want to be in the client’s shoes who is asked to be patient for 5 minutes while the some last minutes items are discussed, perhaps coupled with the door being closed for the duration.

The company was established in 2005, and it was in 2007 that the workload became intense. As is the case with many other creative companies, they also started out by going to coffeehouses to brainstorm, outside of their regular jobs. Later on, due to the volume of new clients, they each left their jobs to build the brand with full force. By now they offer multiple services under the VISIONED brand name.

The Szép utca office is not nearly completed yet. Quite a few pictures are awaiting their final locations on the walls, but you can tell the guys concentrate their creativity mainly on their clients as opposed to interior decoration. Regardless, the pictures patiently await their turn on the wall and – let’s be honest – it is quite fitting for a creative agency to have their pictures lines up on the ground against the wall.

The basic concept was for the employees not to have to stare at white walls at work, and so they asked a graffiti artist from Pécs called Zina to bring some yellow and black paint, and create a more lively atmosphere. He then took a projector, projected some of his art onto the walls, and commenced to paint over them.

The remainder of the office is a collection of works done for clients. They are especially proud of the Vámház krt. 9 sign in the hall, which was apparently the original one held by Klapka in the commercial.

We will probably revisit the office in a few months, as we are curious to see how the final state is going to look like.

Additional photos:

Tópark

noreply@blogger.com (David Huszlicska) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:09:00 +0000

Tenant: Tópark Sales

Tenant profile: Real estate leasing

Office building: Roosevelt 7/8

Interior design: Tópark Designer team

Yet again, we visited the Roosevelt 7/8 office building, and yet again we found ourselves in a somewhat unusual office space. Not many are unfamiliar with the Tópark name – or at least in the capital, thanks to the extensive marketing seen over the past years. Now we introduce you to the Tópark Information Center.

The office was created in a part of the building originally intended for retail use, facing Roosevelt Square, which comes as no surprise as the purpose of the office is sales. Comfortable sofas, elegant installations, soothing dim lights and sales brochures everywhere – one feels as though being in a high-end travel agency – except here the trips last for years, and the destination is adjacent the Törökbálint lake.

The entire space is dominated by a scale-model exhibit, displaying all phases of the Tópark complex. Buttons operate the lighting of each individual phase, thus putting into perspective the true dimensions and final state of the project. Beside the model is another one as well, which reaches across almost the entire length of the office, and presents the viewer with the facade of the project and the daily life of Tópark residents.

Workstations are located along the back wall of the area; this is where the leasing team makes their phone calls and writes their proposals. There are not many personal items on the tables, suggesting that here work is the primary concern (although there is a golf kit hidden between the filing cabinets, ready to go in the event of good weather).

The main peculiarity of the office is the above mentioned scale-model and purple coloring, but those working here did mention a tendency of tourists and passersby coming inside for lunch or a cup of coffee. The surroundings do give one a lounge type feeling, as the table- and groundlamps, sofas and tables imported from Italy give the place a modern and clean tone. All in all, by visiting the Tópark Information Center we had the chance to discover a high quality and extremely well positioned sales office.

Additional photos:

Telenor

noreply@blogger.com (Gorondy Máté) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:55:00 +0000

Company: Telenor

Company profile: Telecommunications

Office Building: Telenor headquarters

Architect: Zoboki – Demeter & Associates Architects

The Telenor headquarters was the first office building we had to drive to. Obviously, we’ve heard much about the building previously: that various environmental principles were considered during construction and that everything is very smooth and modern; but we had to see this with out own eyes (and lenses).

Eszter Badics (Social Media Expert) showed us around, along Rédei Zsófia Finance-Facility Management Representative and Richárd Halmay Environmental Manager. As we walked through the building, our trio of hosts constantly spoke of the design and details of the building, leading us to guess this isn’t their first time. In fact, this is the first office we visited where we weren’t in the entirely exclusive position of mere civilians being showed the workspace. Telenor strives to inform the public of the building and it’s many features, thereby passing along its company values. A few times a year they hold open days, when the public can enter the building, and are given guided access to most areas.

We inquired what it’s like to travel to work daily to Törökbálint, but were told that this is not a concern. On the one hand, prior to the move one year ago the headquarters was situated in Budaörs, thus anyone who drove a car wouldn’t have to make any significant changes to their route; on the other hand, the company bus leaving from Kosztolányi Square now runs about 3 minutes longer to reach the new location. Having said this, the company is aware that they occupy somewhat of a secluded area, but this is another field where they show their flexibility, inasmuch as they allow for certain periods of absence during work hours. Although the building’s cafeteria surely enjoys its monopoly.

Fresh air supply in the building is exceedingly good. While in most office buildings, access to fresh air often leaves much room for improvement, here the amount and quality of air is well above sufficient. Except for the temperature, we felt as though taking a stroll outdoors.

The beautifully design staircase was attributed a central role, and surrounding this are bridges and columns spanning multiple floors. From this central arrangement extend the different branches of the building, each of which contain a so-called unit. An interesting LED array can be seen on the walls and ceilings, which change color according to the time of day, and also project shadow patterns in realtime which are inputted from webcams nearby – thus the LED projects the shadow of a person strolling in a different section of the building, creating a vibrant, lively atmosphere.

Hotdesking: everyone’s heard of it, and most are suspicious of it. For those of you who don’t know what hotdesking is, it’s a concept new to Hungary, wherein your seating changes dynamically according to team projects or simply where you want to sit. Everything is mobile – what you bring with you, you take with you at day’s end. This technique is perfect for both handling strings of projects within a team, as well as always having a different and new view on your work environment and colleagues.

To show you an example of this Scandinavian company’s frame of mind:the CEO’s desk is no different than any other employee’s desk. Although he did choose to occupy that desk full time, it’s in the same open-space layout as any division, and is the same distance from the next one, just like any other colleague’s. Of course, to a certain extent any employee can choose permanent desk locations, but not many feel the need to. There are no seperate rooms for any one person or department, but there are many meeting rooms available to accomodate business meetings, discussions or private matters.

The building consists of 6 floors, although due to differences in terrain at the two main sides, the reception area is actually located on the third floor. As mentioned previously, the upper part contains branched out open-space areas for the departments, and the lower areas contain most meeting rooms, as well as a recreational area with – this is a Scandinavian company after all – a sauna in both the men’s and women’s changing rooms. All areas mentioned have exquisite access to natural light.

The desks and lighting were chosen to be both the most flexible and healthy solutions possible. On each table, two small buttons control its elevation – and not just for comfortable elbow height – these tables can be brought to standing height, allowing you to work standing right up.

The green aspects of the building cannot be ignored, as these accurately mirror the Northern mother company’s value system. The building employs the country’s largest geothermal heatpumps, extracting energy from 100 meters below the ground. Due to the amount of energy saved, the rate of return on the investment into these pumps is about 7-8 years. The 168 m2 solar panel array accounts for hot water supply to the building..

Green solutions abound at the employee end as well. Selective waste disposal and the fact that there are no work stations in the building that don’t receive plentiful natural light show that Telenor cares about its employees.

So what’s missing from the building? A bit of cheeriness and warmth. Some pictures on the wall, perhaps a few more plants, the occasional jovial slogen imprited here and there, which makes you smile. Of course, this is a very comfortable and liveable building; the architect did everything – from technical to design elements – to make sure it is a pleasant work

environment. All that remains is for Telenor employees to feel at home, and for them to be the ones to fill the house with smiles and warmth.

Additional photos:

Dr. Rose

noreply@blogger.com (Gorondy Máté) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:01:00 +0000

Tenant: Dr. Rose

Tenant’s profile: Private Hospital

Office building: Roosevelt 7/8

Interior designer: Mauricio Flores

I’m sure many of you will wonder what we are doing showing you a private hospital on an office blog. Perhaps the best reason is that this hospital is located in an office building, and the pictures you will see illustrate what solutions can be achieved even a run-of-the-mill office area, inasmuch as one spends the appropriate amount of time and – as you will see from the photos – money.

The furnishings at Dr. Rose’s hospital are all about showing the arriving clients that here they are in a safe environment. The brown color theme, the dimly lit surroundings, the paintings on the wall all strive to make sure the patient can relax.

On the spot where back in the day 5 year plans were approved, then calculations were made for achieving 120% efficiency, patients now scurry to a fro. We were inside the Roosevelt 7/8 office building, which was built on the site of one-time National Planning Office – better known as the ’Spinach-House’, due to its color. During the planning stages, there was no shortage of city planning and zoning arguments, but I think everyone can agree that this new building is better than what was there before.

The hospital is situated on the fifth and sixth floors of the building, and to say it has good views would the understatement of the decade. There is a private elevator for use between the two floors, which was also designed to match the designer’s taste.

The paintings are amazing! The correct style was used in each location, and every painting radiates a unique style which we can imagine gazing at for minutes on end.

The interior designer chosen to decorate was Mauricio Flores, who among other prominent projects also took part in redesigning the interiors of Budapest’s Leroy restaurants. One thing is for sure: he likes golden surfaces, and endeavors to leave the least amount of wall area white as possible. Within his own genre, his decorations are very tasteful. One can imagine it must not have been easy to constantly collaborate between medical practicality and aesthetics, but they managed to attain the middle ground quite well.

Not one word of criticism can be said about the quality of the fitout. Beautifully implemented coverings on the walls, tastefully created magnetic card readers (sunk into the walls and covered with glass plates) as well as decorative hand crafted objects intersperse the hospital.

All in all, Dr. Rose achieved just the style needed to arouse a feeling of intimacy and exclusiveness. We have only the interior fitout to guess this, but it seems obvious that people arriving here for tests or treatments – be that manager screenings or as mothers-to-be – receive all-inclusive and exclusive medical attention.

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Ringier

noreply@blogger.com (Gorondy Máté) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 23:41:00 +0000

Tenant: Ringier

Tenant profile: Publication, Printing press services

Office Building: Corvin Irodák

Interior Design: MádiLáncos Studio

„Where can I send my resumé?” – I was planning to address this as my goodbye to Judit Parádi, Communications Manager at Ringier, after having been shown around their office. Although I’m not currently looking for a job, I think I would endure the most annoying boss just to work in this office.

There are offices out there, where just walking through the spaces you can’t help but smile. That are constructed in a way so you can see even the most minute details are well thought out. Whoever planned this wanted you to feel good from the moment you set foot in your workplace right up until you leave. Where they realized the office fitout – especially if they could settle for a longer period of time – is much more important for employees than the incidental pay raise.

When I first set foot in the door, my initial thought was all we have to do is take photos, post them here, and let them speak for themselves. Then, as Judit took us around and enthusiatically explained the way they chose and decorated the space, I decided to include explanations to the pictures. It would be a shame to omit the way even the tiniest of details possesses a deliberate concept.

Let’s start at the beginning, from the outside inwards. As is well known, there is a project called Corvin Sétány, which has set as their goal nothing less than the full rehabilitation of this portion of the 8th district. Everyone can decide for themselves the level of success this has had so far, nonetheless it is undeniable that some companies have gotten on board and have signed long term lease agreements in the office buildings. Ringier, after years of searching for the right space, finally decided to choose this location.

From this point on, Ringier looked at leasing office space in a totally different way than other companies. They put together a project team, whose task was to create the new office space. Interestingly, the team consisted of high-ranking people: Supply manager, head of IT, director of HR, director of communications, director of finance and management’s assistant were among those put in charge. They were charged with the task of working closely together with Mádi Studio in figuring out the concept and going into intricate detail where needed.

One of the most obvious things during our visit was that, as opposed to many other offices, you could tell they plan on staying for the long term. As we walked along the hallways, Judit kept telling us more and more about how much attention they paid in choosing the details.

Bearing in mind the relative lack of space here, from here on I will try using labels to pass along what I saw and heard:

Trees: prominent throughout the entire office there is an eloquent tree and forest theme. The characteristically angular trees appear on walls as embossments or just simply paintings, but in some places they function as partitioning devices as well.

Colors: On each floor the typical Ringier colors of pink-blue-yellow – the base colors of any printing press – can be traced appearing in everything from carpeting to walls to glass surfaces. Naturally, there are neutral colors as well, such as grey, black and white.

Quotes: We saw them just about everywhere we went. The sentences were gathered from a myriad of different sources, and were chosen by the employees occupying that certain space. Each and every quotation and dominant color was chosen by the division working in that area.

Furniture: Since the furniture requirements of a company this size are enormous, the company asked the competing interior designers to exhibit their various products in a large space designated specially for this purpose, following which they called in each and every employee to try them out. After having sampled the various chairs and other pieces of furniture, the employees gave them all points based on their taste and comfort. The scores were uploaded onto the company’s in-house communications website, myringier.com, and naturally the designer awarded the highest points provided the furniture.

Elevator areas: As each floor has its own department(s) working there, stepping out of the elevator on different levels gives sight to unique wall decorations and pictures. We encourage you to pair up the pictures with the following department titles: Blikk, Nemzeti Sport (National Sports), Magazines, Back-Office. By now, it goes without saying that the pictures and looks were chosen wholly by the employees of the related department.

Meeting room names: Inasmuch as the office building is located behind the Corvin Movie Theater, what could be more ideal than naming your meeting rooms with film titles? This is why the meeting room names at Ringier are the following: Sose halunk meg, Presszó, Puskás, 6:3, Falfúró, Nyócker, Portugál, A tanú, Szerencsés Dániel, Szindbád, Mephistó and Üvegtigris. The last one, meaning literally ’glass tiger’, is the name of management’s fully glass-walled meeting room on the top floor.

Just to prove what I meant when saying meticulous planning was involved: next to the reception area on the ground floor there are three small cabinets – in the Ringier color scheme – for food deliveries via couriers. Small-scale attentiveness aesthetically carried out.

One can see that mainly males work in the Nemzeti Sport section. This is where style is mostly a background element, and practicality and simplicity are dominant. Of course they have their own unique design elements: soccer ball shapes bean-bag chairs and a table-hockey game.

Despite all of the above, let there be no mistake: this too is a workplace. Obviously the publishing business comes with no shortage of stress, but it is definitely important where one is when under stress. It really does make a difference whether stepping out of an elevator you are greeted by a grey wall or a multitude of photographers on a red carpet.

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(B)Log Me In

noreply@blogger.com (Gorondy Máté) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:44:00 +0000

Tenant: LogMeIn Kft.

Tenant profile: IT development, programming

Office Building: Andrássy Palace

Interior Design: Europa Design

For some reason, the Hungarian public know very little about LogMeIn, despite the fact that it is one of the most dynamically developing Hungarian-American companies, which – among other things – ensures easy remote access to computers and other gadgets. They decided to relocate in 2008, and it was almost a year and a half between their first visit to the new location and the actual moving. Of course, they left nothing to chance.

In the end, from all the possibilities Andrássy Palace won out, as it is shamelessly close to Deák Square and is also located on Budapest’s most elegant street. Being an IT company, it is somewhat suspicious as to what the company is doing in a 19. Century building, which has quite a conservative feel to it. Looking into the neighboring street, we can immediately see the answer – the office building is in fact comprised of two buildings, with the Paulay Ede Street wing having been constructed during the 90s in a modern (perhaps too much so) style. It can also be seen that the interior of the building has undergone major changes as well: if we look up in the interior atrium and see Grey’s office space, which also echoes of creativity, we no longer doubt the decision to move here for a bit. (It is in Grey’s office space that the whale-meeting room can be found, which in itself is reason enough for us to go knocking on their door sometime in the future to spot their office for a post).

Europa Design was asked to carry out the interior design of the two floor, 2500 square meter space, as per specifications to the company’s image and special requests.

Due to the nature of the building, LogMeIn’s space is also well divided into two seperate parts. The reception, management, kitchen and lunchroom are located in the old building, while the majority of development as well as the meeting rooms (divided with large rotating doors) are located in the modern part of the building.

I assume guests and clients are received only in the old building. It’s not as if any part of the building is not presentable, but the areas located in the new building are markedly dark, which is likely an advantage for programmers rather than a drawback. In the old building interior, elegance permeats the spaces: white walls, beautiful paintings, bright spaces, modern furniture.

As we walked down the hallway, I noticed the multitide of contemporary paintings on the walls all over the office. In my experience, usually only monetary institutions and legal offices spend on decorating with paintings, especially in such large quantity. That’s when Tamás Kovács, managing director of the company, revealed the trick: the paintings are leased from an art gallery. I don’t think I need to elaborate that this is the best possible solution for all parties involved.

When searching for their new office space, one of the requests was a place for cyclists to be able to store their bikes. Well, the cyclists are surely happy with their new work environment, as they have a seperate room beautifully painted blue to store their rides, as well as a shower and changing room adjacent.

To finish off, one can see that LogMeIn has made the right decisions in choosing their office space, and has created an environment worthy of any professional company. The location was an excellent decision, as was the allocation of resources shifted to create a high quality office interior. The end result is a well usable and enjoyable office, which can be expected to serve as LogMeIn’s home for quite some time.

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Provice

noreply@blogger.com (Gorondy Máté) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 09:32:00 +0000

Tenant: Provice Professional Services

Tenant’s profile: Business and IT Consultancy

Office Building: Szépvölgyi 41. Office Building

We were in luck with Provice, as they were the first company we approached, and immediately agreed to show their office to us. This comes as no surprise, as the company has every reason to be proud of the very cool industrial-loft style interior of it’s Szépvölgyi Office Park office space.

We were greeted by Lilla Cser, head of marketing. At once we saw that we came at the right time for taking photos, as during normal work hours the company’s consultants were not in the office, but rather meeting their clients.

The pictures unequivocally reveal the tone of the office: you can see the large spaces, the industrial modality harmonized with a loft design, embedded into the blue-white color scheme. The fit-out is rather simple: an open-space plan for employee work areas, management has it’s workspace in a seperate room and at the other end of the office are two glass-walled meeting rooms on top of each other. Besides this, the only other rooms opening up from the open hallway are a tea kitchen and a server room.

We were of course intrigued by the torture device found in one of the meeting rooms not in use. In actual fact it turned out to be some sort of stretching bench, which can be a perfect way to refresh those employees who enjoy lifestyles similar to those of bats.

The office is very bright. It turned out to be a fantastic idea to keep the 4 meter interior height, and not detract from the feel of open space with lowered ceilings. This way the metallic lighting elements, which slightly remind one of a concert lighting rig and go very well with the blue-white coloring, could easily be implemented.

The space was handled properly as well: the glass walls not only allow natural light to reach every part of the office, but also help in maintaining the loft-style of the meeting rooms and management room.

My opinion of the office is that I would gladly work in an office like Provice’s. I believe the only mistake in planning is that they did not take into consideration the possibility of loud telephone conversations creating a disturbance in the open-space planning. It is near impossible to hide in the office due to the dominance of the open areas. In addition, I also noticed that clients visiting the office must walk through the employee work areas to reach either the meeting rooms or management room – although having seen the high quality of the fit-out, it is entirely possible that this was a very conscious decision indeed.

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