Ogilvy & Mather’s Guangzhou office has been selected as one of the recipients of the third annual China's Most Successful Design Award 2008, sponsored by FORTUNE China magazine and China Bridge International .Designed by M Moser Associates, Ogilvy & Mather’s office is the first interior design project to receive this award. Aiming to offer its current and future staff an environment that inspires creativity Ogilvy & Mather allowed M Moser to go all out with the theme “Carnival of Ideas.”
Project: Ogilvy & Mather
address: Xia Shi Zhi STreet, Fangcun Avenue, Guangzhou / CHINA
Size: 886sq m
Key idea/concept: A carnival of ideas
additional text by M Moser Associates
The client decided that it was time to change, to stretch its own creative ground. It was a daring decision to move out from a prestigious and convenient location to this newly developed arts and culture base in the city-fringe Fang Cun district. In moving here, Ogilvy & Mather’s vision was to build a uniquely fun and interactive space, to ease its people into their most creative modes.
Understanding the intense pressure under which its people need to work round the clock to produce creative ideas, Ogilvy & Mather wants the space to help people break free from established ways of thinking, so that they can spontaneously explore new ideas and deliver great results.
The building chosen has a generous 5m ceiling height on the ground level, plus great access to natural light and view throughout. The lower two levels are leased, totaling 880sm.
To create a strong vertical link between the two floors, a Red Corridor is built, consisting of an internal staircase, and a tilted corporate signage board at its core.
While on the ground floor the signage board “lifts” to allow open access between the back office and the breakout, the same board becomes a full-scale partition one floor above.
Running Ogilvy’s vivid corporate Red diagonally across the space, the Corridor not only symbolically links people spread over two floors with one bold statement of Ogilvy & Mather’s corporate personality, but also encourages people to interact and have fun using the explorative staircase.
Expanding and relocating its Guangzhou office from a prime CBD building to a newly developed arts and culture base in the city-fringe, Ogilvy & Mather is looking to revitalize its brand image in the southern China market. The new workspace needs to help retain key staff and attract new talents who are of a kindred creative spirit, inspiring the production of innovative ideas against demanding deadlines.
Themed as a carnival of ideas, the space inspires Ogilvy's 360 degree thinking. A branded and tilted red staircase is created at the heart of the space: vertically it connects marketing on the ground floor and creative staff above; horizontally it playfully defines the boundary between client meeting / break out spaces in the front and office space at the back.
The staircase sends people on a journey of exploration - through 4-dimensional spacetime people are enticed to discover the myriad of viewpoints along the way through glass viewing panes, openings and a bridge connecting a balcony to a mezzanine loft. Fresh perspectives from the journey thus become a source of inspiration for all who work there.
