Saatchi & Saatchi office, Moscow

7 March 2011

Saatchi & Saatchi office, Moscow

Some original features from this 19th-century building have been retained and act as a counterpoint to the contemporary elements that bring these offices bang up to date

Details

Client: Saatchi and Saatchi
Design: NEFA RESEARCH
Size: 960 sq m
Completion Time: Five months

Project Details

Inspiration can strike anywhere, and at any time. Great ideas are born on buses and in the isles of supermarkets, but if creativity is your business, it helps to have an inspirational office.

And there can be few workplaces more inspiring than the Moscow office of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, a modern studio in a building bristling with history.

In the Soviet days it housed the Moscow Red Cross, and before that the building, built in the 1830s, was home to Vissarion Belinsky, one of Russia’s foremost literary critics. An advocate of realist literature, Belinsky scorned aestheticism and escapism, so would be less than thrilled to see ad execs cooking up campaign slogans in the rooms where he read and wrote about Turgenev and Dostoyevsky.

And yet there is something natural about the unification of old and new in this scheme by local architecture practice Nefa Research. Instead of filling in and smoothing out, the architects chose to keep it raw, balancing original brickwork and cracked wooden beams with glinting planes of polished glass, bespoke lighting and bright custom-made furniture.

Nefa Research has worked with advertising agencies before, notably Leo Burnett and BBDO, but despite having also worked on Saatchi & Saatchi’s last Moscow office, it has never taken on a project quite like this. ‘The main difficulty lay in introducing a contemporary creative spirit to the unrestored interior of a historic building,’ says Boris Voskoboynikov of Nefa Research.

Voskoboynikov continues: ‘Unlike many advertising agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi does not have a “brand book” setting out clear principles governing the design and decoration of its offices. So it was up to us to get a sense the atmosphere of the company and convey it in our design.’

Most of the building’s ground floor is given over to the office, which includes meeting rooms, a bar and a ‘brainstorming’ area accessible by a ladder. There’s also a very stylish toilet whose cubical walls are papered with the words of Belinsky’s literary criticism, rendered white on black.

Everywhere you look, the contrast of old and new is striking: stone stairs leading from the vestibule into the office, for example, were left almost untouched leaving all the scratches and dimples to give an indication of their age. However, along the stairs Fall geometric lights by Modular Lighting contrast with the classical vestibule and its original ceiling mouldings and panel doors.

In the reception, a vintage chandelier from Italian company Emme Pi Light hangs above a large red plastic ampersand – a reference to 43 that in the Saatchi & Saatchi logo – which sits snugly against the reception desk.

Perhaps the most striking juxtaposition of old and new is that of a blue arch, which frames the desk in the assistants’ office, and the rough brick wall behind it. The arch is made of two curving pieces of sprayed plywood which cross over each other to make an arch and with imbedded spotlights.

Elsewhere, brick walls have been cleaned and painted and partially rendered with stucco to show what they would have looked like if the building had been fully restored. As well as plate glass, polycarbonate panels have been used to screen off various areas. The translucent material has been covered with coloured film and backlit to emphasise the use of modern materials. The main work area has minimal office furniture by Steelcase and Cybe barrel-shaped lights by Darlight, which Voskoboynikov likens to engine turbines, ‘not only lighting, but symbolising the creative process and intellectual current’.

In the business of advertising, creativity is all, and as Voskoboynikov says, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Moscow office has ‘the perfect atmosphere for creativity: progressive, brave and ironic.’’