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Firms getting creative with the workplace
By Xu Wenwen |
July 13, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WORKING in a cool office can be inspiring, but not everybody is lucky enough to be an employee of Google or Microsoft, so creating an original office environment is down to the individual company. Shanghai Daily visits a creative park in Hangzhou to see some companies' efforts to personalize their workspace.
Phoenix Creative Park embraces hundreds of enterprises in the creative and cultural industry. Song Mingdong's office in the park used to be a tall cement tube, but the highlights of the office are more than that. Every morning he crosses a tunnel comprised of PVC pipes, opens straw-like lights made of water pipes, passes his company's logo made of PVC pipes and reaches his desk made of obsolete materials that were used to support goods in warehouses.
"All the pipes and tubes were surplus goods, but we adapted them into furniture, which the company excels at," says Song, a designer for Hangzhou SSWupin Design Company.
"We love pipes because pipes symbolize channels, and design is a channel that connects people," he adds.
Song and his coworkers, who are mostly designers, furnished their offices in which the company's principle "to utilize existent goods" can be seen everywhere.
For example, four broken chairs covered with a round sheet of glass is its boardroom table; used iron ash trays hung on the ceiling serve as lampshades, and large PVC pipes, which are cut in half and hung on the wall, function as the company's display shelves.
And the company's desks are fixed on walls or wooden stands, with a glass covering, which the designers made themselves.
"This sort of recycling is cheap, low-carbon and is the designers' responsibility to study and recommend," says Song.
This is echoed by Guo Jinyong, Song's neighbor in the creative park, who runs Dacheng Landscape Design Company. Eight months ago, Guo and his employees transformed a workshop in the cement factory into a two-floor loft space.
The two floors are connected by an iron stairway, which is made of scrap material from the cement factory. The upper floor is the office, while the lower one is the lounge containing a book bar and a guestroom where the designers keep a lizard as a pet.
And the outside part of the stairs looks stylish - wooden strips in different mild colors crisscross each other, on which small cracks and peeling give away its age. Part of the ceiling is made of similar material to echo the decor.
"It consists of pieces of old broken doors, which were collected from a scrap station," says Guo.
Guo has also purchased some scrap materials at very low prices to decorate the office. Though even today he doesn't know what they were originally used for, he uses them artistically.
Like the component of an anonymous machine which now stands in the guestroom as a tea table. Similarly, other gears and components seemingly from the same machines, are used as racks.
Guo also purchased a batch of surplus wood, and with iron scrap from the cement factory, the company's staff made their stairs, book shelves and tables in the guestroom.
"Pressure on designers is huge, but staying in a creative space helps release the stress," says Lin Youyin, a designer in the company.
Creation highlights life. But what if a company has no designer, or does not allow employees to fiddle with furniture?
TimeAxis Film and TV Series Company in the park shows its scope - the company's rooms have no numbers or names, but are instead indicated by appropriate movie posters.
For instance, on the emergency exit door is a poster from "Run, Lola, Run," and on the door of the special effects department is a "Transformers" poster. While a poster from "The Sound of Music" indicates the dubbing room and "A Brilliant Plan" is for the film editing suite.
The company also features many weird decorative items, such as statues of rosefinch guarding the gate, a warrior suit standing in the corner, an ancient-style table, ground lights and quaint incense holders.
But they are relevant as they are all props from costume TV operas produced by the company.
"Every company has their own advantages, and a company is supposed to show its advantages directly to customers and visitors, which work better than simply convincing others to buy," says Chen Yi, the general manager of the company.
Phoenix Creative Park embraces hundreds of enterprises in the creative and cultural industry. Song Mingdong's office in the park used to be a tall cement tube, but the highlights of the office are more than that. Every morning he crosses a tunnel comprised of PVC pipes, opens straw-like lights made of water pipes, passes his company's logo made of PVC pipes and reaches his desk made of obsolete materials that were used to support goods in warehouses.
"All the pipes and tubes were surplus goods, but we adapted them into furniture, which the company excels at," says Song, a designer for Hangzhou SSWupin Design Company.
"We love pipes because pipes symbolize channels, and design is a channel that connects people," he adds.
Song and his coworkers, who are mostly designers, furnished their offices in which the company's principle "to utilize existent goods" can be seen everywhere.
For example, four broken chairs covered with a round sheet of glass is its boardroom table; used iron ash trays hung on the ceiling serve as lampshades, and large PVC pipes, which are cut in half and hung on the wall, function as the company's display shelves.
And the company's desks are fixed on walls or wooden stands, with a glass covering, which the designers made themselves.
"This sort of recycling is cheap, low-carbon and is the designers' responsibility to study and recommend," says Song.
This is echoed by Guo Jinyong, Song's neighbor in the creative park, who runs Dacheng Landscape Design Company. Eight months ago, Guo and his employees transformed a workshop in the cement factory into a two-floor loft space.
The two floors are connected by an iron stairway, which is made of scrap material from the cement factory. The upper floor is the office, while the lower one is the lounge containing a book bar and a guestroom where the designers keep a lizard as a pet.
And the outside part of the stairs looks stylish - wooden strips in different mild colors crisscross each other, on which small cracks and peeling give away its age. Part of the ceiling is made of similar material to echo the decor.
"It consists of pieces of old broken doors, which were collected from a scrap station," says Guo.
Guo has also purchased some scrap materials at very low prices to decorate the office. Though even today he doesn't know what they were originally used for, he uses them artistically.
Like the component of an anonymous machine which now stands in the guestroom as a tea table. Similarly, other gears and components seemingly from the same machines, are used as racks.
Guo also purchased a batch of surplus wood, and with iron scrap from the cement factory, the company's staff made their stairs, book shelves and tables in the guestroom.
"Pressure on designers is huge, but staying in a creative space helps release the stress," says Lin Youyin, a designer in the company.
Creation highlights life. But what if a company has no designer, or does not allow employees to fiddle with furniture?
TimeAxis Film and TV Series Company in the park shows its scope - the company's rooms have no numbers or names, but are instead indicated by appropriate movie posters.
For instance, on the emergency exit door is a poster from "Run, Lola, Run," and on the door of the special effects department is a "Transformers" poster. While a poster from "The Sound of Music" indicates the dubbing room and "A Brilliant Plan" is for the film editing suite.
The company also features many weird decorative items, such as statues of rosefinch guarding the gate, a warrior suit standing in the corner, an ancient-style table, ground lights and quaint incense holders.
But they are relevant as they are all props from costume TV operas produced by the company.
"Every company has their own advantages, and a company is supposed to show its advantages directly to customers and visitors, which work better than simply convincing others to buy," says Chen Yi, the general manager of the company.
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