Avito Offices – Saint Petersburg
ABD architects were engaged by Avito, a classified advertisement website, to design their offices located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The key wishes of the Avito team for the interior were ergonomics of space, a unique design corresponding to the youth spirit and working rhythm of the company, a bright interior, which was based on theme of nature.
As a result, a modern, comfortable and stylish space has appeared on three floors of the business center, which reflects the general atmosphere of the company – creative and informal. For its employees, Avito has formulated 7 values, and the architects offered unique illustrations in a chosen theme of nature, based on an element – a leaf. Each illustration, corresponding to a certain slogan, is placed in the form of wall graphics in the part of the office where it would be as relevant as possible. For example, the phrase “Keep it simple” is located on the wall in the open space, “Use data to decide”, with a binary code – in the meeting rooms, “Put users’ needs first ”- in the kitchen area. The phrase “In team we trust” quite simply and originally describes the difference between teamwork, trusting, and individual work.
There are a lot of collaboration zones near the work places, as well as individual work spaces, which are located both inside the open space and semi-isolated in bright niches. Each floor also has several meeting rooms with all the necessary equipment and kitchen areas. Scattered throughout the office are “green” islands, soft sofa groups and coffee points for informal communication and relaxation. The theme of relaxation is supported by the presence in the office of special rooms for board and computer games, a library, a shelf, which is made in the form of a tree. There are also classrooms in the office, which, if necessary, are combined with the help of transformable partitions.
The theme of nature can be traced in all office spaces. In some office areas, walls are decorated with unusual plaster imitating the bark of a tree. The color and texture of the carpet resembles a green forest cover with trodden paths. Wooden ceiling decoration in the corridor, artificial grass on the walls, a large number of cobblestones scattered around the office, wooden slats zoning the space, living plants in the interior – all this also refers to the countryside landscape and perfectly complements the natural theme. An interesting decorative solution was the use of foliage made of fireproof paper when decorating the ceiling of the entrance areas of the office.
Special attention should be paid to the kitchen, decorated in the form of a retro carriage of the train of the Matterhorn-Gotthard railway, laid in the Swiss Alps. The design of the kitchen completely recreates the ambience of the dining car of an early 20th century train with wooden passenger seats resembling benches and luggage racks in the form of nets. Large windows at each table with offset photographs of the Alpine nature create the illusion of movement when walking along the carriage. The area of the kitchen where the cooking process takes place is as if carved into the rock.
Design: ABD architects
Photography: Dmitrii Tsyrenshchikov
