collcoll expanded the Price f(x) offices that reflect an important part of the company’s identity – the changes in working habits brought about by digitalisation. A building that is both aesthetically pleasing and technologically inspired by the development in the video game Minecraft tectonically connects two business floors. The building, which is made up of tens of thousands of wooden pixels, modifies the area around it and serves as an interior landmark. The design makes use of the space spectrum, allowing the entire floor to be physically (sensually) divided, the comfort spectrum produced by carefully chosen and specially made furniture, and the spectrum of regulation through a comprehensive control system that measures and evaluates environmental data in real time.
The primary objective was to increase the size of the main offices and add a floor with the greatest amount of adaptability. If the natural flow of the space has to be preserved, vertical connections between two floors frequently pose difficulties. A structure made of thousands of wooden pixels that alters the area around it and serves as its internal landmark connects the two floors tectonically. A new inside staircase and, for the more daring, a slide are located at the center of the building. Personal lockers, dressing rooms, and function rooms are concealed inside the wooden cells, and the various pieces naturally form nooks intended for casual seating and public presentations.
The universal light grid, which covers the full area and serves as a screen with pixel-level control, is likewise written using the regular structure (LEDs). This is also shown on the bar display counter, which also serves as a reception desk. Not only are interior areas dominated by the lighting interface. It is impossible to ignore the glowing ceiling in the nighttime environment because it is also projected outward into the Karln space.
From the perspectives of both visitors and staff, the rooms perform differently and offer varied first impressions upon entry. Breakfast can be consumed in the shared professional kitchen, which also serves as an open bar, to start the day. A conference room, a gathering area, and a relaxing area are all located on the bottom floor. The latter may serve as both a filmmaking studio and a flexible conference space with a table that seats 50 people. It also has a mobile acoustic divider. Hot desk sections or smaller meeting rooms can be used to split the space into smaller compartments.Finding a venue that fits the meeting format is never a problem because presentation rooms are distributed around the floor and have a variety of purposes, including video conference rooms and informal open tiered amphitheatres with a retractable screen.
Spectrum of regulation
The inputs and outputs of the media (ventilation, air conditioning and heating capacity, sanitation capacity, …) of the individual spaces are the limit of the space capacity. But at one moment the whole company can meet in a café or a stacked conference room and plan visions for the future – or disperse and work in small teams on day-to-day business matters. Therefore, capacities are not distributed by space (classic open space with square meters per head). We distribute room capacities over time by controlling the environment.
A comprehensive control system measures and evaluates environmental data in real time. This allows it to know how many people are in which room, what the air quality and ventilation intensity are, and it can also dynamically adjust the lighting colour scheme. The system can control every single chip and the ceiling becomes a screen. It provides optimal lighting during working hours, but can also interact with people’s movements to create a corporate party atmosphere.
Spectrum of space
The entire floor can operate in conference room mode with café and dispersal areas. At the same time, the entire floor can be physically (sensually) divided. Transparent walls that can be made opaque, sliding panels that divide the space, as well as the controllable atmosphere of the rooms are used for this purpose.
The largest space is a café with a shared kitchen and an interactive bar. It serves as an informal setting with tables, couches, armchairs, bar stools and chairs.
The conference room is equipped with a long table that can be divided into segments. The room itself can be separated by an acoustic sliding partition.
The intermediate spaces function as a dispersal area with no prescribed use, with scattered seating and amphitheatres. Corridors are eliminated and replaced with, for example, a pass-through lounge area with a punching bag, pool table and hayracks.
The only specific (enclosed) rooms are the focus rooms with capacities ranging from two to sixteen people.
Spectrum of comfort
Furniture has been carefully selected or custom designed. The aim was to create a spectrum of comfort to suit different ways of working. From upholstered armchairs and swing chairs, to tilting plastic chairs in the conference room, office chairs for long sessions, heavy and solid chairs at the café, tables and square cubes within the wooden structure.
Wooden structure
The wooden structure occupies part of the floor plan away from the windows and hides the technical facilities.
Externally, it offers semi-enclosed alcoves and amphitheatres extending informal spaces for work and presentations. The structure includes stairs to the upper floor and a tube slide.
The structure is aesthetically and technologically inspired by the creation in the game Minecraft. The visible surfaces of the structure in a 40 x 40 cm grid are veneered and the composition of the veneering is completely random, it was necessary to create a system that allows the random placement of individual cubes in a pre-designed final shape.
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Materiality and colour
Neutral tones of the building structures (concrete, grey floor, grey and white paintwork), light grey whiteboards, black painted technological wiring blending into the black ceiling, natural wood, coloured paintwork in the smallest rooms, complemented by interior greenery and a unified palette of upholstered furniture.
In the design, we looked for the theme of industrialism and tried to bring it to a contemporary feel. The heavy black metal tubular furniture corresponds with the concept of technological wiring. In contrast, the ephemeral changing grid of light chips and sensor systems embodies the direction of industrialism towards the world of software and information.
Project information
Studio: collcoll – www.collcoll.cc
Author Krištof Hanzlík, Šimon Kos, Adam Kössler, Libor Mládek, Mark Kelly
Project location: Meteor Centre C, Thámova 681/32, 186 00 Prague
Project country: Czech Republic
Project year: 2020
Completion year: 2022
Gross Floor Area: 850 m²
Usable Floor Area: 800 m²
Cost: 1,6 mil. €
Client: Price f(x)
Photographer BoysPlayNice www.boysplaynice.com
Collaborator: Project managment: Veronika Horá?kova, Kate?ina Nováková
General contractor: Capexus [construction manager Tomáš Dvorský]
General engineer: Bauhanz
Metering and regulation, lighting solution: sysloop engineering
HVAC: AREA TZB
Electric engineering: COM project
Audio-video: AV24
Construction solutions: STASAPO
Joinery products / custom-made furniture: Olbert Tomáš
Slide: Alfeko
Locksmith construction: Tomáš Koudelka
Graphic design, illustrations: Klára Tesárová
Stickers: Michal Orlovský
