Catena Media Office in Belgrade, Serbia by Studio AUTORI

Located in the Airport City business centre in Belgrade, Catena Media office is the latest project by Serbian architects Studio AUTORI. The curved glass office walls, complete with waist high, black steel sashes really do look a lot like test tubes. One might be mistaken for thinking you’ve entered a pithy looking lab. And if you did, you’d be wrong. Catena Media is in fact one of Serbia’s top igaming companies. Which is obviously not a lab at all. But one can’t seem to get past the fact that if it’s not a test tube you’re standing in – perhaps it’s an examination room? One with sateen pink, pull back curtains, complete with a hospital grade, angled lamp…

It’s all part of the fun though. The designers at Autori wanted to mirror the type of adventure a gamer experiences.

“The space is designed so that every employee has their own working and relaxing zone. The result is an office which is just like a game, full of tricks, obstacles, fun features, secret parts and surprises. This is how the spirit of the igaming industry is transposed to the elements and the way the space is used,” said the architects.

See more projects by Studio AUTORI on Yellowtrace here.

So what do tricks and fun look like in contemporary office these days? Well, there’s the swings that hang from the ceiling. And then there’s a wheel of fortune pinned to the lunchroom wall (one can only imagine whose fortune or misfortune it is to be strapped to the spinning wheel while sharp knives are keenly thrown at you). There’s the hanging gardens slash lighting systems that are suspended above meeting tables and workstations (just make sure you’re not madly making notes on your iPad whilst they top up the water in them). There’s the Monkey bars to pull yourself up onto and wrap your ankles through to hang upside down from. And last, but most certainly not least, there’s the multifunctional stretching wall with soft padded rollers that you can use to stretch out your limbs after long hours tapping away on your keyboard. Frankly, any more fun and the crew might never go home.

Work spaces have been deliberately designed to be fluid and malleable. You can stand up and work or sit down or find a little nook and work there. You can even sequester yourself away inside a test tube and draw the pink curtains all the way around you. Or you can take your laptop with you on the wheel of fortune and see how you go typing as you spin.

“The main recreational zone contains a special multifunctional stretching wall. Although coated with elements of fun and relaxation, each of the zones can be used as a working zone which allows the employees to change the position of their bodies multiple times during working hours, thus making the workday dynamics more pleasant,” noted the designers.

It’s tempting when you’re designing for all out fun to go a bit bonkers on the colour palette, but these guys have kept it tight and left the palette neutral. Aside from the blackened ceiling, the rest of the space is filled with pale timber walls, soft pastels and white.

“Neutral palette and raw materials are predominant in the office. The ceiling is painted black so the details and the installations on it are neutralized. The bleached beech wall coverings give this working space a warm feel,” they said.

There’s a fair sprinkling of greenery in this fitout too. But the plant life here does tend to feel as though it has been randomly added. The way one might randomly stick an artwork on a wall, ostensibly to fill a blank space rather than because it’s been thought through as a genuine inclusion. But maybe in igaming world random acts are expected and celebrated. In which case, throw another pot plant on the ceiling and stick another one next to the desk. The more C02 guzzlers in the office, the better!

See more projects by Studio AUTORI on Yellowtrace here.