Populous

The Populos office was set up in the Edifício Módulo Bruxelas in São Paulo and had the challenge of connecting three basement floors in a highly diversified office program. The concept for the architectural project arose from the company's own concept of showcasing the use of technology. To achieve this, from the beginning, the freedom and premise of creating an office of the “future”, always thinking about innovation, creation and especially the virtual. Within the virtual, the highlight was the use of mirrors in different shapes and planes throughout the office, playing with spatial perception and creating a sense of distorted reality, which happens a lot in the virtual world. One of the client's greatest incentives in relation to the project was the use of the private outdoor space on the top floor (basement -3) and which should be designed for numerous functions, both for work and for decompression. The treetops and the microclimate that the garden creates inside the office environment were conducive to creating a spatial structure that would have the function of connecting the floors and creating a versatile environment. The team then sought to develop an internal layout in sectors for specific uses, creating spaces with greater and lesser concentration, providing well-being and flexibility in both. At the main entrance (which is on the 2nd basement floor), we created a playful arrangement with a cantilevered data analysis room and a diagonal mirror that reflects the illuminated glass box of the CPD, a very important item for the company. This diagonal alignment extends across the floor and creates an illusory division of the space with a single color field for the floor, ceiling, walls and even the furniture. The color neon green was chosen, very striking to contrast with the black and gray of the brand. The area with workstations, located on the 3rd basement floor and which gives access to the garden, is marked by the difference in flooring and the ceiling developed with modular pieces from Trilogiq forming quadrants with acoustic panels and a screen in the same style dividing the space from the touchdown area where informal meetings take place. And on the 1st basement floor, we placed more workstations with individual modular tables, administration and another meeting room. The outdoor area is the big differentiator of this project and it is possible to see a small part of what happens outside through the office entrance, but when you get to the outside area, you will find a very unusual environment. The tables and benches were made with mirrored tops to reflect the treetops and the sky, creating this relationship of reflected and distorted images, bringing the first virtual, the future. In this same space, we have the phone booth made in a guardhouse with internal acoustic treatment, reminiscent of a forest. The garden's aerial space is home to the long-awaited spatial structure among the existing trees, The Tree House, which can be used as a meeting room, work area or decompression area. Made of wood and metal structure, the House has space to seat up to 7 people and can be accessed both from basement -2 by a walkway that is reminiscent of a tree climbing game and from -1 by a spiral staircase embedded in the building. The project has always sought to develop spaces to correspond to new ways of working: spaces that promote new dynamics for knowledge exchange and offer greater flexibility of use.