This destination workplace in the King Abdullah Financial District reimagines corporate design through a hospitality lens. Designed by Gensler in collaboration with INC Group, the office space features an elegant reception, open-plan work zones, high-tech meeting rooms and homely communal areas, all designed to foster comfort, focus and community.
Our challenge was to achieve a warm, welcoming ambience throughout the workplace while navigating a richly textured material palette of mirrored ceilings and contrasting finishes. By concealing fittings within the vertical surfaces, we created a soft, cohesive backbone of light, layered with subtle moments of contrast and drama to elevate both the experience and visual aesthetic.
In the pantry café, the lighting is delicately layered to soften a monochromatic design story. Diffuse lines of light highlight the curved fluted glass walls, accentuating the tactility of the material to make it shimmer. Overhead, leaf-shaped fabric pendants animate the space, creating a moment of lightness and movement within the bold interior.
The library incorporates a relaxed meeting room, demarcated by a textured dividing screen. Here, we carefully concealed fixtures in the ceiling to wash light across the screen and emphasise the intricacy of the latticework.
A mix of front-facing and cylindrical lighting creates a balanced backdrop of illumination in the meeting rooms, ensuring good facial recognition for conference calls and presentations. The addition of a cylindrical glass pendant in the boardroom allows occupants to tailor the lighting to their needs, with the option to choose between direct or indirect illumination
