Airbnb is an American company which operates an online marketplace and hospitality service for people to lease or rent short-term lodging and receives percentage service fees in conjunction with every booking. It has over 4 million lodging listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries and has facilitated over 260 million check-ins. The expectation for their new office space was to have a quirky yet functional workspace in line with their international design standards and simultaneously creating a unique brand Identity.
The client wanted a unique space that would throw any traditional or conventional ideas of how an office should be designed out the window yet still be aligned with the company's global brand standards. The new site for their office was a large warehouse, which is also unconventional. The design team had to figure out a way to best utilise this space.
Our designers wanted to create a space that would provide flexibility to the user, fully utilise the volume of the warehouse and create an environment to foster a sense of community. Their new office design offers a wide array of different spaces to cater to the task at hand whether it be spaces that promote collaboration or areas that allow focused work.
The design of this office cleverly uses different finishing and materials to help define spaces. Using multiple elements, such as tile, timber, paint, graphics and infusing patterns with a local context help create unique, inviting spaces that will encourage employees to move around. An example would be the Chai Bar, which creates a destination and offers a meeting point for planned or ad hoc collaboration.
