A plywood bar that transitions into a staircase forms the centre of this workplace and networking hub housed in the Dutch city of Delft’s former technology museum. (+slideshow)

Connekt interior by Ateliers

The facility was developed by local company Ateliers for Connekt, a non-profit organisation that supports a network of enterprises and institutions focused on strengthening mobility in the Netherlands.

Ateliers was asked to oversee the creation of Connekt’s offices and a drop-in area in the same constructing that its members can use for causal networking, formal meetings or large conferences.

Connekt interior by Ateliers

The facility is located in a building constructed in 1905 to residence mechanical engineering laboratories for TU Delft – the same university in which MVRDV and Richard Hutten designed a brilliant orange analysis facility back in 2009. Its main hall once contained boilers and combustion engines utilized to demonstrate the workings of these machines to students.

The building’s ownership and use has altered many occasions over the years and it was most just lately occupied by the city’s Technology Museum. It is now owned by Cepezed, the local architecture firm that carried out the initial renovation, ahead of Ateliers’ fit out.

Connekt interior by Ateliers

The ground floor of the constructing is now designated as a versatile communal region developed to meet the varying needs of going to members, while Connekt’s personnel are situated in the upstairs workplace.


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“The ground floor requirements to facilitate various varieties of meetings in various types of room,” Ateliers director Ifke Brunings told Dezeen, “so there are far more formal meeting spaces but there is also this cafe-like space exactly where you can sit at the bar and have a coffee.”

Connekt interior by Ateliers

Behind the plywood bar location is a single of two meeting rooms, lined with glass panels that can be slid and folded back to fully open up the space.

The rest of the open-prepare floor location consists of asymmetrical tables that can be linked in rows or arranged to form greater conference tables. Wheels at the base of two of the legs make manoeuvring the tables much more straightforward.

Connekt interior by Ateliers

Fitted plywood cabinetry creates cloakroom amenities at the entrance. From here, occupants are led directly into the vivid major space, where the central bar and staircase provide a contrast to the unique iron roof trusses.

“We desired to generate a welcoming feeling,” mentioned Brunings. “There should be no barriers for individuals who haven’t been there ahead of, so the way you are led via into the principal bar region is extremely clear.”

Connekt interior by Ateliers

“The really higher-tech staircase and supplies did not offer the welcoming environment we desired,” she additional, “so we applied a more rough finish to generate a pleasant contrast with the really smooth, transparent finishes that are previously there.”

Originally, the building’s upper storey was configured as a gallery so men and women could stroll all around the huge machinery beneath. The architects needed to retain the open truly feel of this layout, so they inserted translucent glass panels in the floor.

Connekt interior by Ateliers

A tiny platform at a single finish of the upstairs workplace supplies the base for a boardroom housed in a greenhouse-like framework. Its open framework contains transparent plastic panels as an alternative of glass to further lessen the excess weight.

The roof is left open and a pulley technique fixed to 1 of the roof beams enables drinks to be raised from the bar beneath immediately into the boardroom.

Connekt interior by Ateliers

Second-hand components and furniture were added throughout the interior to lessen the budget, but also to produce a much more homely atmosphere.

A pair of bookcases in the principal workplace and glass incorporated into the sides of the bar were taken from a conference space at the organisation’s prior workplace, even though streetlights from the outdated creating illuminate the staircase.

Connekt interior by Ateliers

The facility has been operational for a year and Brunings claims the occupants uncover the room far more practical than the common workplace they occupied previously.

“It is a distinct set-up to the normal workplace interior,”she pointed out. “Now the workers are extremely totally free to reconfigure their room to suit the kind of work they are carrying out. It can make it a lot more usable.”

A total virtual tour of the workplace area is available on Google Organization View, which the architects organised to showcase the transformation.

Plan Lower level floor program Plan Upper level floor strategy Plan Area Section Thorough area Dezeen

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