FOCUS & CREATE OFFICE SPACES

This Silicon Valley office embodies the best in workplace design

• Danielle Leon Nov 20, 2020
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Open Text, like many offices, has recently announced a shift to remote work due to COVID-19. However, the project team still completed the work for this space, and it's worthwhile to share their approach.

The client for this project, Open Text believes that its values are key to its past and future success. As a Canadian company that was expanding to Silicon Valley, it did not want an office that mimicked their competitors' 'adult playground' spaces. Instead, OpenText wanted this new office to embody values of variety, wellness and connection.

Interior Designer: Danielle Leon, ARIDO
Design Team: Jenna Walsh, ARIDO
Design Firm: HOK
Photographer: Tom Arban, Emily Hagopian

The design team created a space where ninety-nine percent of open workstations have a view of the outdoors and seventy-nine percent situated within natural light. Additionally, the planning and architectural execution provides employees with easy access to refuel stops, hydration stations, and integrates biophilic design elements to boost employee wellness.

Variety required that the OpenText team could work throughout the office in several distinct spaces. The design blends a communication stair, work cafe, lounge areas, traditional meeting rooms, scrum room, games room, focused workspaces with sit/stand desks, walk stations and tech-free recharge rooms. Open collaboration zones occur away from desk areas, to create privacy for focused work and comfort for collaboration.

The project team made a conscious decision to create a wide range of spaces that feel more like a hotel lobby or local cafe than a traditional corporate office. These fusion spaces have all the tools required for users to be productive, along with the added benefit of being emotionally comforting.

Lastly, OpenText's history and its Canadian heritage are built into the office design. A perforated metal screen pattern displays the foundational software code on which Open Text was built. Meeting room names are a marriage of Canadian locations and code. The design team commissioned a world map made from keyboard keys to speak to Open Text development teams coding around the world. The office design keeps sight of Open Text’s Canadian roots, while they continue to grow worldwide.