BRIZ studio has designed the new office for popular Russian social network Odnoklassniki (Mail.Ru Group). The task was to create a layout with efficient and welcoming work and communication spaces. Existing complex layout of the building with accesses to spacious terraces became another challenge for the architects.

Odnoklassniki office is located on the 8th floor. The aim was to create a space encouraging informal communication between the employees of one of the biggest social networks in Russia, and at the same time to find the best acoustics solution for an open workspace. Office space consists of two functional parts, work and communication. The work zone for 130 employees includes clusters for workgroups of 4-8 persons each and 6 meeting rooms dividing open space into several large blocs. Communication zone includes kitchen and canteen, recreation space, conference hall and meeting rooms. Two functional parts are separated one from the other with two ‘tunnels’, equipped with cloakrooms, restrooms and showers.

Office planning is a metaphor of a nowadays megapolis: open workspace is a business quarter, meeting rooms are public gardens, corridors and passages are streets, canteen is an amusement park. Acoustic panels on the ceiling and screens separating work desks, in addition to a complex planning of the open workspace, help to reduce noise and create a comfortable atmosphere for best concentration on the tasks. Office logistics provokes coming across different colleagues and thus facilitates informal communication within the team. Reception zone, canteen and recreation zone become interaction hubs. Mobile screen, which separates canteen from the conference hall, can be easily removed to create one multifunctional space. This gives an opportunity for bigger meetings, when colleagues from the neighboring STUDIO NORD / Mail.Ru Games office also join. The screen and other walls in the office serve as whiteboards for sketches and notes.

Developing the idea of megapolis, walls and partitions made of concrete, wood and bricks imitate facades of the buildings. Landscape-inspired graphics decorates glass partitions of the meeting rooms. The floor is finished with a covering imitating grass and produced from recycled materials. Various types of real plants are also widely used in the interior, in freestanding flowerpots as well as to create green walls.

Design: BRIZ studio / Principal: Grigory Neverov / Associates: Lesha Galkin / Alexander Boev
Photography: Ivan Sorokin