KINEMATIX / LIKE ARCHITECTS

Kinematix is a spatial proposal developed for the headquarters of IT company Kinematix, specialized in developing technology for healthcare and fitness products. 

 

Integrated in a symbolical building from the sixties in the city of Porto, known to be a former house for the cinema Lumiére, the existing space, on the upper galleries, is defined by a rhythmical facade of windows, which covers all the length of the building and that the new project leaves totally free, increasing the scale of the space. 

The architectural intervention is based on a continuous flexible system of sliding garage doors that create multiple spatial partitions, able to (re) organize the space in many possible layouts. 

Three lines of running garage doors allowing to range from a big open-space to a fully divided room creates three layers of total-height spatial dividers. Some of the doors can simultaneously slide or rotate to open, allowing a bigger flexibility of the space. Windows were also integrated in the garage doors, so that natural light could reach the deep interior parts of the space. 

 

Taking advantage from the double-sided folded metal sheet surface, it creates a kinetic chromatic experience that changes when the viewer moves on space. Different orange-to-red tape stripes on the side-oriented sections of the metallic surface generate different space perspectives and colourful reflections.

 

Architecture: LIKEarchitects

Design team: Diogo Aguiar, Teresa Otto, João Jesus and Tània Costa Coll, Álvaro Vila Iturbe

Location: Porto, Portugal

Date: May 2014

Client: Kinematix

Type: Commission

Program: Office space

Area: 180 m2

Photography: Dinis Sottomayor Photography ©

Awards: International Space Design Award – Idea Tops 2014 – Best Design of Office Space (winner)