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Vention
By : blanchette archi.design
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Interior Design
Categories : Office / Office 5,400 - 54,000 sq.ft. (500 - 5 000 sq. m.) : Gold Certification
Categories : Office / Office: Creative & New Tech Firms : Gold Certification
Categories : Special Awards / Interior Design + Aluminium : Platinum Winner
Categories : Special Awards / Interior Design + Collaboration : Silver Certification
Categories : Special Awards / Interior Design + Colour : Silver Certification
Categories : Special Awards / Low Cost Design : Gold Certification
The transformation of a factory to an office project did not come without its challenges. Since Vention had already settled in the building two years earlier in another suite and had been telling its own story developed by IVY Studio, The objective was to write the next chapter while composing with the existing story line. The wide space freed from its former functions had to be qualified and addressed on a human scale, a fundamental value for Vention. In addition, it had to respond to the client desires of having a functional program that would allow to locate, in two merged suites of 15,000 sq.ft.; 200 workstations and places for formal and informal meetings and exchanges.
As the conception started, it seemed appropriate to make the office spaces gravitate around a central volume that would allow an overly dense reading of the layout as well as becoming an acoustic mass in the wide-open space to improve the sound experience. Therefore, the opportunity to merge the employees according to their respective department came naturally. This building within a building forged this city-inspired design; a village surrounded by streets and alleys, where every spaces is up to discovery and inspires serendipity. In contrast, this volume immersed in blue, Vention’s signature color, energizes the experience of the space for users. This immersive universe carries all the meeting rooms located freely on the grid. Furthermore, spaces of interstices, wanderings and informal encounters are created. By inhabiting the center of the suite as described above, the perimeter arrangements provide a great flexibility that allows the growth and decline of the project teams, without hierarchy. The iconic profile designed by the company Vention for automation chains is staged here unique way. It contributes to the tectonic expression of the central pavilion, visually supporting it and revealing a rich expression of light and shadow. It also highlights the work of the company that sits there. The spatial constraint established by the two existing mechanical magnified shafts were transformed into an arch addressing the other scale of the space, which represent the community.
In order to merge the two suites, a step was built in the interstice providing a transition between the distinct levels of each of them. Like a forecourt or a belvedere, it allows for meetings, screenings, conferences, meals, exchanges between colleagues and different arrangements to work in a more playful way. In the lowered suite, common spaces such as lounges and a collective kitchen are located away from the offices to enhance the user experience. In addition, the industrial artifacts on the ceiling were left in place and repainted reducing the amount of landfill as well as being part of the history of the place and bring this rich and atypical texture. The dialogue between the old and the new has then established.
In terms of operations, Blanchette displayed great rigorousness in respecting the initial budget set at less than $80 per square foot. For its part, the contractor, Groupe Manovra, demonstrated impressive agility by adapting to uncontrollable factors such as procurement delays, and by ensuring the entire electromechanical design. This collaborative and inclusive work has certainly resulted in a rich and humanly project.
Collaboration
