OFFICE OF FORESTS
08 Mar 2018
Skanska’s new Budapest headquarters is no ordinary office space but one that brims with life and greenery, as the traditional monochrome cubicles and meeting rooms are discarded for plant partitions that form mini forests.
Lab5 Architects have designed an office for Swedish real estate developer, Skanska, that features an open space partitioned, not by walls, but plants.
Skanska’s office is located in a building developed and built by the company itself. Lab5 utilises this to show the original surfaces of the structure, with the rough concrete ceiling becoming an integral, elegant feature of the interior. 
The directive was to create a lively office with no walls to limit the sense of space, therefore the architects decided to plant a forest that spreads throughout the room and divides the working zones. 
The heart of the office is a glazed meeting room which can be used for discussions and presentations. When this room is not in use, employees are free to choose a different place to work each day, whether this room or any other areas within the space. 
This autonomy, coupled with the greenery, encourages creative freedom and a sense of independence, life and constant evolution, therefore increasing overall happiness and wellbeing in employees. 
Client: Skanska
Location: Hungary, Budapest, váci út nordic
Area: 480m2
Date: 2016-2017
Realized: July 2017
Designed by Lab5 architects: Linda Erdélyi, András Dobos, Balázs Korényi, Virág Anna Gáspár, Judit Nyerges, Rebeka Sipos and Zoltán Szegedi
Execution drawings: Value4real
Images: Zsolt Batár
