With outstanding design features representing their brand identity, Garena and Airpay’s office epitomizes a perfect balance of workspaces and collaborative areas under one roof.
Conjuring an effective design concept for Garena and Airpay’s new office meant bringing in the company’s corporate identity into their two-level workspace. For these two companies (both Sea’s core brands alongside Shopee), PAND International Design elegantly infused their brand identity by translating it into a practical solution that strategically configures different workspaces within an open plan layout.
For instant identification of these two companies, PAND selected materials, colours and furniture that reflect who Garena and Airpay are. For starters, their corporate colour, blue is used. This is prevalent in the reception area where seas of the blue span across the ceiling adorned with white suspended planes that provide the acoustic function.
“Garena and Airpay’s office takes up two of the six floors that their parent company, Sea occupies. The other floors are occupied by Sea’s online shopping platform, Shopee. All of these floors are linked by a central stairway,” explains Simon Pan, PAND’s Managing Director. “While these three brands are housed together, they are easily recognisable through brand-inspired elements that we incorporated into space. To represent Garena and Airpay, we used a series of curved shapes and rounded features as well as the colour blue, which differs from Shopee’s bold orange theme and playful elements. For these two companies, we went for a sophisticated and clean-cut approach.”
With its sleek appearance, the reception area features a curved counter that aligns with the rounded column bearing Garena’s logo. Lighting features that swirl around the column creates an illuminated effect in this space. The waiting lounge is placed right next to the floor-to-ceiling windows which open out to the city skyline views.
As a way to foster better interaction among staff members, a dedicated dining hall which doubles up as Garena and Airpay’s town hall space provides employees with a welcoming venue to have their meals and socialize with their colleagues. The dining hall also features a pool table and an air hockey table in the dining hall, adding on a recreational element to space.
“The dining hall is a large open space which comfortably fits up to 680 pax during their town hall sessions. To create an inviting environment, we enhanced the hall with timber strips on the ceiling and warm flooring materials,” Simon elaborates. “Loose furniture like lightweight chairs and tables are used so that they can be easily moved around. We wanted this space to be as flexible as possible to serve different purposes.”
Apart from functioning as a place for lunches and town hall meets, the dining hall offers staff an additional space to hold informal group discussions, brainstorming sessions or casual interaction. This is in line with Garena and Airpay’s work culture which emphasizes a close-knit office community.
The office has several large boardrooms and a number of smaller meeting rooms flanking the main workspaces. These rooms are done up in a toned-down manner with a neutral palette and a minimalist look. However, walls are decorated with the companies’ corporate colours – blue, black and grey to create stylistic continuity with the rest of the office space.
“The boardrooms are for formal meetings with a larger group – they can seat up to 10 people,” PAND design team says. “We also incorporated many 4-pax meeting rooms for employees and business associates to use. These are placed right next to the workstations for easier access. There’s also an exclusive VVIP room on Level 29.”
The VVIP room is set right across the waiting lounge adjacent to the reception area. Spacious and bright, space accommodates a workdesk as well as a living room space that comes complete with a sofa set. To complement the window views, the designer kept the space to a white-washed theme accompanied by wood flooring, creating a laid-back atmosphere for entertaining special guests in the office.
Over at the main workspaces, desks are organized in a streamlined manner to optimize the space. However, to ensure that these spaces provide opportunities for communication, PAND maintained a completely open work space by utilizing long tables where employees can work together in groups. Bright lighting engenders a more spacious feel while textured carpeting with bold colours enlivens the corporate space.
For those who need privacy for conference calls or quiet time to focus on their work, private discussion rooms and cubicles are available. Glass walls used in these rooms prevent a closed-in feeling and allow occupants to see what’s going on outside. Next to these workstations
are cosy collaboration areas furnished with colourful seating options and low tables.
“Garena and Airpay’s office is one of the best examples of how interior design can accommodate today’s workplace culture,” comments Simon. “In this space, we balanced the workspaces with a variety of collaboration areas so that employees have the option of selecting the right place to work in depending on what their work requires.”
Project: Garena and Airpay
Design Studio: PAND Design
Photo Credit: PAND Design
Website: panddesign.com
