CREATIVE ASSIGNMENT: Present a collage of images illustrating your ideas for the design of a small advertising agency office in an urban townhouse. Your collage should include details (descriptions, images, or both) of the kinds of furniture, the colors, and the materials you would use to execute your ideas.
"FROM PARIS TO NEW YORK": A well-known Paris advertising agency opens a small office with 12 employees in a Manhattan townhouse, trying to break through in the US market.
CORE VALUES: Sustainability is a core value of the Agency's culture and must be reflected in all aspects of the design. The Agency is socially responsible, global, open, diverse, collaborative, transparent, flexible, free and provocative.
The office should feel similar to the Agency's home office in France but embedded in locally attuned styles and materials. Agency deliberately chose a townhouse as its US office location in homage to the roots of the company in Paris (where it's based in a hotel particulier).
Inspiration for the Design:
CONCEPT: Organic and reclaimed materials dominate, in line with the Agency's focus on sustainability. The townhouse uses solar panels and wind power energy. Green is central in the design as a "power inspiration color", through the use of foliage (inside and outside) and accentuated by selected furniture and walls. While the interior design is modern and crisp, the traditional background setting of the townhouse invites a constant dialogue between history and future.
CONSIDERATIONS: The verticality of the townhouse environment must be considered in the layout - while there are different floors, the office should still feel as though it is one space. The design should promote the Agency's philosophy of teamwork and encourage a natural circulation throughout the building.
WORK AREAS: The focus is on creating light, open workspaces together with private areas to allow inspiration and creativity to flow without restriction.
"JUST LIKE HOME": Lounge for creatives and clients to hang out in a warm atmosphere that evokes a sense of home
OFFICE FURNITURE
For colors, we are using mostly creams and neutrals in the Mid Century line of Farrow & Ball, paints selected for their high quality and eco-friendly nature. In those areas (such as the lounge) where bright and colorful furniture is present, more neutral paint is preferred. Some walls are painted in vibrant greens, paired with more understated furniture in order to create a harmonious balance.
