KLAB ARCHITECTURE DESIGNS THE NEW OFFICES OF ERNST&YOUNG

The new offices of EY (former Ernst&Young) in Athens were designed in an existing office building on Chimarras St. in Maroussi. The building, a total of 6500m2 constructed on 6 levels in 2007, had to be adapted to the needs of the company through a more sustainable design.

 

The design approach was that of open spaces. Those are  interupted by restricted closed spaces to avoid vast spaces disconnected from the human scale. This new logic in the design of the offices was based on the philosophy of hoteling, were each employee can use any office. This idea was chosen to facilitate the mobility of a lot of EY employees that either work out of the office, work from home, or are on leave. This way, the company saves space since it is never necessary to accomodate all its personnel at its offices.

 

All meetings are made in specially designated meeting rooms made to accomodate smaller of bigger size meetings. Smaller spaces (just in time) provide a more private environment for phone communications with clients. More informal areas for rest and socialising  (collaboration areas) were dealt with separately and have a distinctive identity inside the office spaces.

 

Some of the areas were dealt with separately from the general design approach. In such a big company, the reception, which here is located in a very impressive 3 story height space, is an important focal point. We used travertine combined with nero marquina marble. The walls were clad with walnut and hidden light is used as a way to amplify the design. Important design element is the corian reception desk that was approached as a sculture in the space.