[ about the project ]

The new headquarters of Microsoft Brazil, in Vila Olímpia in São Paulo, in the São Paulo Corporate Towers, reflects a strategy of intelligent work environment located by the company in offices around the world.

Since the hiring of Superlimão, the client assumed that the production would be done in a collaborative way. Before starting the project, the architects paid a visit to Microsoft’s headquarters in Seattle (USA), where it was possible to see the complex composed of several buildings that tell through the architecture of each era the company’s history and consequently the evolution of technologies and its impacts on corporate spaces.

The contact with the latest technological solutions broadened the horizons for the various possibilities to be applied in the new headquarters. The Guides were constantly and updated. In a parametric way, they guided the conduction of the project for the perfect result, in concepts of lighting, acoustics, aesthetics, more efficient accessibility, among other concepts.

From the first visit to the headquarters to the day of the move took 18 months. Throughout the process, a large team worked on the project. In addition to following the Guides, the focus on accessibility was mandatory and always reinforced the idea of going beyond norms and good practices.

We sought to distribute, over more than 7000m2, on 3 floors, the entire program necessary for the operation of the subsidiary in Brazil. In addition to the workstation areas, with height adjustment systems, it also includes program meeting rooms, meeting rooms, cafeterias, catering kitchens, collaborative areas and also in the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) structure.

The chosen distribution was chosen on the 16th floor, the floor for, and the 17th and 18th floors for a staff area, which is divided between meeting rooms, auditoriums and the social hub. At the other end of the same floor is the internal program of the MTC.

IDENTITY
As inspiration for the project’s solutions, intensive research was carried out on Microsoft’s values and how to employ locality concepts for a more important secondary story of Latin America. There were three pillars chosen that are important in the sense of conveying a message of meaning from Brazil. First, the fact that the country is home to the greatest biodiversity on the planet and, secondly, the cultural diversity of the country as a result of a long history of colonization and migrations that make Brazil a race of races and cultures and an enormous receptivity to the world. And thirdly, making the bridge with the company, all the technology developed to meet the demand of so much territory and creativity to develop new solutions with limitations.

They are cores, textures and design pieces that refer to the flora and fauna of the country, tourist attractions, ceilings that simulate the movement of water and panels of colored sands typical of Brazil.

CONCEPTION

Microsoft’s cultural transformation is reflected in the architecture of the new office, with a modern and cozy space, which will also collaborate with collaboration and innovation among employees and with customers and clients.

With Diversity and Inclusion as a priority and a pillar project of its Microsoft has had great accessibility since the project’s inception. The space was created to facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities, whether physical, vision or hearing. The goal is that everyone can access all dependencies alone and comfortably. This is the first Microsoft office in Latin America to include all accessibility features oriented by the company globally.

Like receptions in two levels of height, as well as automatic and wide doors, all workstations can be adjusted in height, appropriate mats and floors for easy locomotion, as well as Braille signage. Bathrooms were also designed with a focus on accessibility and gender inclusion.

As part of the smart work environment concept, the office does not have fixed workstations for each employee and has several alternative work environments, including open ones. All of these aspects are designed to encourage joint collaboration and productivity, starting with the idea that employees can work better and learn more, with impact for customers and partners.

Of the three apartments occupied in the building, one shelters the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC), a space used to demonstrate in design, receive clients and partners. Microsoft’s new office now has an Education Room and a larger space to promote the BR Startups Fund.
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In addition, there are special rooms dedicated to moments of decompression and creativity, as well as a beauty room for manicures and other services. The Mother’s Room is a space reserved for breastfeeding mothers, equipped with armchairs and equipment for collecting and storing milk, including refrigerators.

The building that houses Microsoft’s new headquarters is LEED Platinum certified, meaning it meets the highest sustainability requirements for buildings, according to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). The structure also has changing rooms and bike racks to encourage the use of bicycles as a means of transport to work.

FLOORS

16th Floor
The arrival at the elevators hall places the visitor between two walls with different treatments, one in a wainscoting of tauari wood, wood of Brazilian origin and with reforestation certification, referring to nature. And at the other extreme, a perforated metallic panel that, using digital parameterization tools, reproduces an image of a cerrado landscape. The duality of materials is broken by 6 digital monitors on the ceiling that show the company’s contents, between representations of the sky, and with the possibility of remotely personalizing the content.

The floor, raised in precast concrete with stone aggregates, represents the solid base. Emerging from the ground, the reception desk inspired by rock formations from different regions of the country welcomes the visitor from the door with its more accessible side facing the entrance.

In the background 6 large concrete blocks with vegetation emerging from the upper face representing the 5 regions of Brazil and the 6 the part that receives the company logo, representing the role of the subsidiary operating in these territories. The spatial volume of the lobby continues with a narrower entrance and opens up to the frame facing the building, making it wider with each step, thus opening and receptive.

On the ceiling, the three-dimensional metalwork element preserves the transparency of the high ceilings and, through its color and geometry, recalls the surfaces of water and the wind acting on it.

The choice of furniture by Brazilian designers reinforces the national creative potential and through colors and shapes they are in harmony with the surroundings. Dense vegetation and abundant lighting in the natural reception reinforce the exuberance of our nature.

On the counter, three lamps in bent brass plate represent birds and Brazilian fauna. The opening in the wooden wall shows the first room adjacent to the space, the Education Room, representing one of the most significant works carried out by the company in the Brazilian community. The development of solutions and technologies that improve the current education system.

On this floor, mostly made up of meeting rooms with state-of-the-art technologies for conferences, the volumes of the rooms were positioned close to the central corridor of the building, leaving the circulation of the floor on the perimeter of the building, with natural lighting and views of the city that enchant. in 360 degrees.

To the right of the Lobby, the Social Hub, a living room, in addition to a foyeur for the auditoriums, welcomes visitors for informal meetings with a cafeteria and catering infrastructure. As a background panel for this space, a wall was created with overlapping sands of various shades, alluding to the cliffs of the northeastern coast and a reference to the craftsmanship made in bottles typical of this region.

The lining element repeats the geometric shape of the reception, but this time it brings the texture and pattern of rattan-style straw, a material used in furniture in typical Brazilian homes, but with an Asian influence intrinsic to our culture. In this space we have access to the genderless toilet block and furniture storage for the 3 auditoriums. The 3 auditoriums, with a capacity of almost 200 people, with high-efficiency acoustic ceiling, are joined as a large shed through retractable panels and also incorporating part of the corridors for even larger events.

Each meeting room has all connectivity technology and acoustic absorption and insulation treatment that meet the company’s global guidelines, and even incorporate different color palettes inspired by tones found in nature from earthy reds to very night blues.
Each room takes on a different characteristic. In a curved corridor, an installation was created with convex mirrors in different sizes representing the reproduction of the image in an analogical way.

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Also on this floor, the MTC, a space that demonstrates the main technologies, presents the products in a fully flexible living room that can be transformed for any event. A small mobile bar, part of the global guide’s program, welcomes the visitor and a panel of perforated plates with RGB lighting can customize the space with colors and configuration for each type of client and event. The envisioning center provides state-of-the-art technology presentations and other meeting rooms complete the space program.

17th Floor
The 17th and 18th floors are intended for internal use by employees and are connected by an internal staircase that interconnects the floors, reducing the use of elevators.

The 17th floor had as a distribution concept undefined workstations and sectors with pre-established noise levels. In the elevator hall, a large-scale cross-stitch work representing a design of tropical vegetation was handcrafted by artist Anne Galante from Estúdio Ms. Gallant and represents the manual work behind the result.

Right in front of the entrance, a metallic library shelf separates the circulation from the lounge. This lounge, conceived as an alternative work area, in addition to the shelf that encourages the exchange of knowledge between the company’s employees through the exchange of books, has several seating options, from the high bench that contemplates the view through the window like a sofa. and coffee table for more informal work or a small station with traditional work table height.

The lounge, inspired by the city of São Paulo, has an acoustic lining that follows the same geometry as the others, but now with acoustic material to meet a level of comfort for users. The acoustic cloud, in reference to the rains of “Terra da Garoa”, accompany three blown glass lamps by designers Sergio Cabral and Cristiana Bertolucci, in the form of a water drop representing rain. On the coffee table, the top is a high resolution photo of the spigot of Avenida Paulista, an iconic business center in the heart of the city.

Separated by blocks of meeting rooms and phonebooths, each noise sector evolves clockwise on the floor plan, from the loudest and most collaborative to the quietest and most concentrated. In the most collaborative area, we positioned the stairs that give access to the cafeteria on the 18th floor.

18th Floor
The 18th floor houses the company’s fixed sectors such as HR, Legal, Facilities, IT, etc. It is on this floor that, next to this cafeteria, an alley of services for users was created, such as the IT equipment maintenance area known internally as techlink, HR Facilities support and benefit plans for users, in addition to an area of printing, massage and manicure room.

The elevator hall on the 18th floor has 150 origami fish folded by hand, with different color tones and all swimming in the same direction, representing the company’s employees working for the same result.

WORKS OF ART 16TH FLOOR:
Digital Ceiling elevator hall
Conception – Superlimão
Samsung Execution
wall of mirrors
Conception – Maya Studio
Execution in the Tin
Innovation Factory sign
Conception – Maya Studio
Execution in the Tin
Frames with Microsoft logos
Design – Superlimão
Execution Nalata
Sand Panel
Conception – Superlimão
Execution Nalata

WORKS OF ART 17TH FLOOR
Hall elevators – Green wall Cross stitch
Design and execution – Ms. gallant
Photography Rio Negro – Maira Acayaba
Tangram Lounge Panel
Conception – Superlimão
Execution Insight Joinery
Graffiti in front of the stairs
Design and execution – Nine
minecraft fire hydrant
Conception – Maya Studio
Execution in the Tin

WORKS OF ART 18TH FLOOR
hall elevators
Conception and execution – Superlimão
Illustrations Brazilian Fauna – Design and execution Vapor Arquitetura

PROVIDERS