Dutch Communications office Sterk Werk (translated Strong Work) has the skyline of Rotterdam translated in the interior of their new office at the Veerhaven in Rotterdam. The design and supervision of the new interior is done by SchilderScholte architects – also from the port city.

“The space should be industrial and well organized with a no-nonsense, stylish hip dynamic yet a homey feel” Designed to accommodate the communications office of Sterk Werk, the architect’s couple combined these fundamental elements of the client brief to develop the interior concept for their new offices.
Besides the spacious central area the new office consists off a variety of significant spaces, including a boardroom with secretarial services, a kitchen-annex-lunch room, a meeting room and a relaxation area (the ‘sitting room’). The workstations are located on the street side of the central space, while the sitting room is located on a platform at the courtyard side.

Dividing piece composed with IKEA hack
Characteristic for the location is the large central space where the staff have their workstations. To separate this area from the rest of the office, SchilderScholte created a 32 meters long, 3.2 meters high, freestanding element. This dividing piece is composed of several hundreds of white and orange Ikea Lack-tables, incorporated herein are five work niches and several passages. As a result it organizes two work areas that are functional, but not visually separated. The element thus forms more or less the backbone of the physical office.

Skyline
Little is left of the splendour interior of this former headquarters build in 1907 for the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd shipping company. Only few fragments are still detectable. The relationship between port and city has always been a popular theme portrayed in many of the historic buildings in the Shipping-magnates district of Rotterdam. Against this background SchilderScholte introduced a contemporary version of it. The imposing divider shows an abstract view of the Rotterdam skyline along the river Meuse, of which the scaled silhouette reflects in the floor pattern. The dividing piece stands for the identity of the organization and gives the ground floor of the stately office building revamp.

Right mix
Harry Scholte, CEO and founder of Sterk Werk Communications is very pleased with the interior of the new office: “This is exactly the experience that we had in mind. The interior evokes the industrial feeling that belongs to Rotterdam, but also exudes warmth and yet a homey feel. The stylish, no-nonsense design makes the mix completely. SchilderScholte has done excellent work. ”

Architect: SchilderScholte architects / Hill Scholte / Gerrit Schilder
Photography: Matthijs Borghgraef

About SchilderScholte architects
SchilderScholte architects, founded on the International Day of Happiness, is a collaboration between Gerrit Schilder jr. and Hill Scholte. With extensive experience and a wide range of completed works, the office focuses mainly on (re)building and designing projects within the utility, healthcare and educational sectors. A large part of the projects realized by them have a strong public function. The work shows the logical coherence between the disciplines of architecture, interior architecture and furniture design. They have wide experience with the reallocation of existing buildings, including historic buildings (National Monuments). An important characteristic of the work of SchilderScholte architects is colour. They view colour as one of the main components of space. Space expresses itself in form, proportions, scale, light, colour and texture, and in their projects, colour is used to emphasize functions and textures. They use these six elements with extreme precision.

About Sterk Werk Communication Group
Sterk Werk Communication Group consists of three companies: Sterk Werk PR & Corporate Communication, Sterk Werk Media Monitoring and Sterk Werk HR Solutions. Sterk Werk PR & Corporate Communication builds and protects the reputation of clients. Sterk Werk Media Monitoring provides insight and overview of all the media attention for brands. Sterk Werk HR Solutions reassigns, selects and places professionals and executives in communication, PR and spokesperson. Clients include ADP, Allianz, Aon, Coca-Cola, CFP, Lidl, PLUS Retail, RET, Siemens. Sterk Werk Communication Group, was founded over twenty years ago, has nearly 30 employees and is active in the Netherlands and Belgium.