COMMENT FROM THE JURY OF THE ESTONIAN ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTS
COMMENT FROM THE JURY OF THE ESTONIAN ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTS
The offices of Tank creative agency set in a Historicist villa from 1903 designed by Otto Schott take the existing historical layers and give them their proper due: they removed the excess and let the interior itself speak. By using simple techniques to direct light, open up the rooms and bring in furnishing elements in different contexts, a comfortable working environment has been created for staff, one that encourages being together.
For obvious reasons, I have witnessed the birth of all Tank offices – participated in selecting their location, fantasised with colleagues, briefed the interior architects and made design decisions. I must admit that the birth of the latest office has been an unrivalled experience.
Our new home is the most romantic work environment that I have ever visited. It was love at first sight. From the very moment of its discovery, the building captivated all of us. Its location, history, layout and aura – it all seemed perfect. The only problem was that the house wasn’t happy. Its entire interior had to be thoroughly reconsidered, however, without hurting it. From the outset, our mission was to bring air and light into the building and provide it with high-quality utilities.
Every day when I walk into the door, I sense that the building is smiling. The good, shared energy is also conveyed to the clients and cooperation partners and finds its way into our creative work. What more could a creative agency want? Joel Volkov, A founder, partner and creative director of Tank. Has worked in Tank for 26 years
In this project, the interior architects wanted to maximize and showcase the origins of the building – not to recreate the building like a museum piece but create energy between the personality of the building and the needs of the creative agency.
Unpeeling the building’s historical layers, they realized which elements could be preserved. Of pre-existing elements, they opted to expose the stone and parquet floors and ceilings and restore the masonry stoves. Since the customer wanted the designs to be as clear and simple as possible, all of the new elements added had to stand out clearly from the old by being minimalistic. The white colour of the walls and pine desktops make up a peaceful background to both the historical elements and the added modern details.
To reflect the company’s creativity in the interior of the offices as well, bold, compelling solutions were used for adding the new elements. An especially experimental approach was taken to the lighting design, which is contemporary and striking yet also practical. The asymmetrically arranged strip lights create a wow effect and highlight the oval room’s ceiling paintings. The interior also uses somewhat surprising elements: the ping-pong table as a meeting table, furniture in a veranda style for the conference room.
The interior architecture has to make the creative agency a relaxing place to work. Each room was thus approached from a functional perspective. But the architects also wanted to make use of the potential and existing starting material in every room. The layout of what was once a villa was reconfigured to create both places to work alone and other areas for meetings or videoconferencing.
During the pandemic, people realized that a creative enterprise needs a place to work together – it can’t be remote work in separate locations all the time. Now the agency has such a meeting place again.
In this project, the interior architects wanted to maximize and showcase the origins of the building – not to recreate the building like a museum piece but create energy between the personality of the building and the needs of the creative agency.
Unpeeling the building’s historical layers, they realized which elements could be preserved. Of pre-existing elements, they opted to expose the stone and parquet floors and ceilings and restore the masonry stoves. Since the customer wanted the designs to be as clear and simple as possible, all of the new elements added had to stand out clearly from the old by being minimalistic. The white colour of the walls and pine desktops make up a peaceful background to both the historical elements and the added modern details.
To reflect the company’s creativity in the interior of the offices as well, bold, compelling solutions were used for adding the new elements. An especially experimental approach was taken to the lighting design, which is contemporary and striking yet also practical. The asymmetrically arranged strip lights create a wow effect and highlight the oval room’s ceiling paintings. The interior also uses somewhat surprising elements: the ping-pong table as a meeting table, furniture in a veranda style for the conference room.
The interior architecture has to make the creative agency a relaxing place to work. Each room was thus approached from a functional perspective. But the architects also wanted to make use of the potential and existing starting material in every room. The layout of what was once a villa was reconfigured to create both places to work alone and other areas for meetings or videoconferencing.
During the pandemic, people realized that a creative enterprise needs a place to work together – it can’t be remote work in separate locations all the time. Now the agency has such a meeting place again.
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