Interior design
The Colours of Collaboration
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Posted by Niki Fulton at 10:10 AM in Interior design
Colour can do so much, change your mood, brand a product, and affiliate you to other people around the globe. Well if one colour can do that how about a whole spectrum!
Last year we, Michael Laird Architects completed a fit out for Microsoft’s new Scotland Customer Centre in Edinburgh. It didn’t start out as a colour filled project but to create different workplace environments we used colour as an essential tool.
The colours used in the fit out really started to divide the use of public and private spaces; the lime and dark greens of the customer facing fifth floor meeting rooms develop into citrus green at the fourth floor entrance, an area designated as semi private. From this citrus green the spectrum then flowed through yellow to red down the collaboration spine (which runs the length of the private office space) ending in a rich red, pink and purple social area.
These coloured walls were either closed with glazing or left open to create functional admin spaces and flexible meeting rooms for anyone to pop in and use. The vibrant bolts of colour are not over powering and as part of a spectrum they bring focus to an open plan office, breaking up what would usually be a sea of desks. Colour is often used to brighten a space but here the intention is to inspire and motivate staff, we have associated this spectrum with collaboration, fresh thinking and conversation.
It was a great project to work on as the client was so open to our concept proposals and when faced with a spectrum of eight A2 coloured sample boards painted from green through to red they said ‘Yes, great!’ The Edinburgh team tell us that they are really enjoying the office space as are a large amount of mobile staff, customers, partners and clients visiting from all over the world.
Many thanks to Mary Ellis, Interior Designer at Michael Laird Architects for this fascinating insite into one of their interior projects.
Photograph kindly supplied by © Keith Hunter
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