Our newly redesigned office was recently featured in the November/December issue of Canadian Interiors. We caught up with our Toronto-based designer extraordinaire Andrea Kantelberg to chat about her vision and how she tackled our challenging new space.

52: Okay we’re on! Let’s start at the beginning—when Nick and Susan [the principals at 52] first approached you.

AK: Every time Nick and Susan came to my office they commented that they loved the design. “Just like this,” they said. “Can’t we just have a white table like this or storage like that?” My office was the baby and you guys have the grown up version.

52: I could see Nick and Susan loving your office because it’s modern and clean—very much like our agency’s own design aesthetic.

AK: Once we had that direction it was a seamless method of execution because we were on the same page. Well, other than the occasional pop of orange request from Susan! [Laughs]

52: Kind of like our old office!

AK: I like your old office because it had an approachable and friendly quality to it. It wasn’t intimidating. Although this is a more serious office, I wanted to make sure it still had the same level of comfort so there wasn’t anything standoffish.

52: Does the new office change the way people work?

AK: I went down to the old office and observed people working. I noticed they needed a flex area to work so they didn’t have to sit at their desk all the time—which is very important for a creative industry. We were all inspired by the coffee shop culture where people can step out and work at a coffee shop for a few hours to get a new perspective and feel like they’re working in a new environment. That’s where the long communal table came in.

52: We love that table.

AK: And that was inspired by Susan who said “I’m always having conversations at my desk and I want to be able to go somewhere else to do that.”

52: People are constantly moving around in the office—whether they’re working at their desk, the lunch table or in the conferences rooms.

AK: The whole rigid workspace doesn’t work but the whole “pod hangout lounge” doesn’t necessarily work either—you still need some kind of rigidity with flex spaces.

52: Even the private conference rooms have glass walls so it still feels like it’s open, yet no one can hear what you’re saying. It’s very private in that way.

AK: And that was in order to create a physical barrier without it being a visual barrier to maintain the open space.

52: You talk about moods and feelings being a jump off point in your process. How do you turn these feelings into a tangible design?

AK: When I start with the feeling, a whole bunch of sketches happen. I take the whole area and start to define it by shape. When they took the space over I was actually a little bit nervous.

52: It’s a challenging space! Especially with the pole in the centre and it’s very L-shaped.

AK: But the thing about challenging spaces is when you have the “aha moment,” you know it’s right. We went through about 10 or 12 reiterations before we had that, but when we did — we all knew it. Nick and Susan were open minded about the long work spaces. It was a real risk for them but it worked. It was the only way we could get all the employees into the space and still have so much openness.

52: And those long tables are perfect for our industry because they’re so collaborative. You’re able to talk to the designer next to you — much easier than in cubicles.

AK: It provides the ability to interact but it also makes you mindful of idle chitchatting being something that’s not going to happen. You have to be more conscientious so it allows for interaction that’s about working.

52: What about the wall? That’s a big showstopper for us. There’s a gym next door and when people are walking by they often stop and look into the space through the glass doors.

AK: Originally I thought it might be a brighter shade of the staggered wood. I was really inspired by a Sol Hewitt exhibit where he had all these stripes. The space itself is dealt with as geometry—a lot of it is graphic.

52: Everything is about shape.

AK: The rectangular boardroom has a linear quality next to the round meeting tables. It was meant to feel very graphic and to ensure all the elements had a ton of breathing room and space.

52: I see that in the lights too because they’re such unique shapes that they’re hypnotizing. Were there any materials you were focused on using?

AK: In order to create a dynamic space it also has to have a sense of calm by using a minimal amount of materials—and texture over cover. So we started at a point of creativity and what we want it to feel like, then we find those materials. And as for the holistic way of designing or being environmentally thoughtful, that’s a no brainer for us.

52: Do you have a favourite piece?

AK: I love the way the wall turned out because the texture is unbelievable. The way the wood hits you when you come in and the graphic quality and squareness of the reception, flanked by the column and the fixture about the reception—

52: —it’s very striking. And we love the imperfection of the wood juxtaposed with the imperfection of the floors.

AK: When you’re in a space that has all new everything from a factory it feels vacuous and empty. I think the idea of intentional imperfection is one of the hardest things to create. It’s very easy to create a perfect space with matching objects but to take elements that don’t necessarily match and put them together to create a more soulful and human space. There’s a certain “je ne sais quoi” that you can’t quite put your finger on.

52: I like being inspired by natural surroundings because it adds a certain something to spaces—you can’t manufacture it. It’s definitely 52’s space.

AK: You guys are creative so it had to have an artistic quality to it. It needed to feel that way. It’s powerful to create a space on how you want people to feel—we want people to feel 52’s essence—it needs to appeal to everything, not only through visuals but also an emotional response.

Browse the photos with commentary from Andrea Kantelberg above! Don’t forget to pick up the latest issue of Canadian Interiors and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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