Office for Stark Games in Minsk, Belarus by Studio11

Studio 11 have recently completed their new interior project for Stark Games in Minsk, Belarus. Minsk is a modern city with a strong Stalinist Architectural history and Studio 11 have been creating exciting office spaces for sometime in this city.

Whilst they have always taken a paired back, restrained approach to their work, using colour and minimalism to express their vision, this space feels like an extension on their previously more self-possessed and subtle approach. They have broken out of their own box if you will.

“The interior project for the new office space of Stark Games company emerged as an experiment in terms of colour and composition solutions. At the stage of design we took the course for greater latitude of solutions, the courage of fusions and discovering new colour chords,” said the architects.

It is a bold and expansive expression of colour for Studio 11. The design incorporates eight different colours, the application of seven different materials and the use of circular geometry and ellipses applied to joinery, flooring and the curve of walls and curtains.

They began by dividing the 910 square meter office into separate volumes by applying different colours to each of the sectors. The central block, starting with the reception space, which leads onto meeting rooms and offices are all finished in a soft mint. And when we mean mint, we don’t mean a hint of mint. This is the full Monty of mint. The flooring, wall finishes, plywood surfaces, fabric wall panels, marker boards and glass mullions are all in mint.

The blue general workspace is yes you guessed it, blue. Zoned by a plywood shelving unit, a series of ceiling-height open boxes and square boxes with doors, that run along the perimeter of the building. The window light illuminates the open box frames and allows for the placement of lush green plants to spill out of the vertical structure.

The carpet in the fitout is coloured to express zones. The multi-coloured carpeting with its geometric composition, circles here, squares there and the use of changing colours to mark the boundaries of interior areas and emphasize specific zones offers an interesting design technique.

But it’s not just the carpet finishes that are geometric in this space. The lighting system installed in the office is equally mathematical. An orthogonal composition of light tubes made out of different lengths plays with geometric patterns on the walls and ceilings. It was specifically designed to sit in sharp contrast with the Armstrong ceiling that was an original, and as it transpires, permanent part of the space.

They retained the kitchen’s original flooring, metal square sheeting. A bar height island bench of light-blue artificial stone with a central corridor of lush plants is the main focus of the red and blue and mint coloured kitchen. The kitchen work surface joinery is made from red artificial stone, with cabinet doors of light-blue painted glass.

The bathrooms are a contrast of materials.

“Rough tile glue texture is combined with a variety of purest reflecting and smooth metal surfaces and tiles. The techniques used to bring together functionality, efficiency and of course aesthetics,” explains the team.

And who could overlook the rich, red, meeting rooms? Not quite the colour one might pick to grab five minutes of alone time. But no question it would fire up the neurons while Stark Games plan for their next gaming quest.

See more projects by Studio11 on Yellowtrace.