www.fatboy.nlhttp://www.fatboy.com/news/?news=79351DFF-22D8-29D5-AA72-2D3573F8BC72&page=4Fatboy® Headquarters
A box is a box is a box is an office.....
Our brand new Fatboy® facility needed proper filling to function as our new headquarters. That’s why designers Muller & van Tol implied the ‘inside the box thinking’ technique. “The what technique?” Inside the box thinking means to be your own within a confined space. Why do we think that’s important? We believe that only when we truly fit inside our box, we can freely think outside the box.
A new space in a space Entering our headquarters feels like entering a new free space within the existing space. It is kept wide open and transparent while obviously a lot of things are going on everywhere. The original industrial character of the building is still visible and some of its esthetic rawness is even highlighted in a subtle way. Even with parts of the construction and structure left naked you somehow do enter a space oozing with the Fatboy® identity.
How did Muller & van Tol turn a huge rectangular box at some ‘desolated’ industrial area into a functional and inspiring Fatboy® office?
They started with creating a space, a free space within the building. By deconstructing two parts of de 1st floor, leaving the center part, a ‘floating’ work-island in the center of the space was formed. Simultaneously this created a huge two-story high space on both ends of the building too, since there is no floor dividing the ground floor from the roof. This center of our space is the heart of our organization, but also represents our mentality because of the way it was executed. And just like a real heart it pumps the creative blood anywhere within the premises, synchronizing everyone’s beat.
The ground floor and the ceiling are ‘made in one piece’ by giving the complete floor the same green color and finishing, and printing the ceiling with a repetitive pattern of beautiful tree-tops mirrored like a Rorschach stain. One ceiling, one floor, so every one of us is moving between the same floor and the same ceiling, like we are the vanilla cream of a tompouce cake. Elements of Fatboy®
The philosophy behind our office was letting the space be the space rather than designing and fixating the space with a thought out concept. Instead of putting on a dress, Muller & van Tol carefully created and added clever designed elements to choreograph the space and let it become Fatboy®.
Re-invent and use what we already haveWhen you enter the building you immediately walk through a huge tipi tent created out of fragments of Fatboy® billboards that we have used in the past. This way we don’t waste or throw away our previous artwork, which we continuously make to tell the Fatboy® saga. At the other end of the building we have the same executed idea, but then in the shape of a huge bungalow tent.
Our reception desk is a real eye-catcher. It was constructed by deconstructing two antique closets. Muller & van Tol just saw both of them in half so you have four half’s of authentic antique closets right there. They placed them in an ergonomic formation and placed a functional bright red desktop on top of these sawn in half closets. Et voilla! Another functional element created out of existing parts. This reception desk makes picking up a phone look really cool.
A wooden fence wall is another eye-catching element that stretches from the entrance all the way to the back. This friendly looking construction conveniently combines a number of functions. Our wardrobe, some storage place we can’t do without and a kitchen to help us fix a great wholesome lunch are all integrated.
Fluffy rugs with inspiring prints of a Maori-man or a tutorial for dance-steps on the floor are marking subspaces, and not quite accidentally right above these carpets are ceilings of felt floating in mid air. The rugs and floating ceilings combined are drawing ‘invisible walls’ around the furniture placed on the carpet and the even have a function that has to do with the acoustics.
Then we have a big octagon shaped table at bar-height with a marker board top to make notes. It is truly the ideal brainstorm table to hang on when ideas must be fabricated, just like in the pub. Instead of having to sit and stay on your seat in a boardroom we can let our creative minds go free while being mobile. The table is placed near some big windows, which allows the view of the not so inspiring industrial area that we are part of into our sensitive irises. Therefore Muller & van Tol blinded these windows using prints of close up pictures of the Nevada desert. The emptiness of a desolated desert with a cactus here and a cactus there is actually triggering inspiration a lot better.
On the huge wall at the end of our headquarters we see a just as huge enlarged print of a miniature mock-up of a fragment of a house. The original artwork made by mock-up artist Frank Kunert. It is just a fun idea to think about that. We’re sticking an extremely enlarged print of a miniature version of live sized reality like wallpaper on our biggest wall. Miniature has never been this big. You have to see it to believe it!
MoodswingsSomething is happening and changing wherever an element was placed. They create open spaces that arouse different emotions and mind-states fit for the type of activity going on in that area. It makes us experience the vibe needed at that spot, right on the spot. At the end all elements together make the whole space really work for work. Now our space is ready for us to do what we do, organize, create, inspire and present if not showing off our cool products.
Most of the material used to make all these elements have a Fatboy® history. By recycling previously used promotional artwork, our Fatboy® history and adventures are archived visually within our physical surroundings. These fragments from our past are telling the ongoing Fatboy® story to anyone that pays attention. Combined with some beautiful images that we have used for presentation and inspiration it seems easy to connect with ‘the secret rules’ that define what Fatboy® is all about. It’s like our headquarters is wearing pieces of our own collections, and we are all part of the runway for adventure. Our office is not only growing on us, it’s growing with us to be exactly like us. Showing us our own evolution.
We’re all Fatboy®You could say that Muller & van Tol succeeded to design us a headquarters that reflects an authentic Fatboy® identity. Now Fatboy® really has entered the building. Fatboy® has left the building…Fatboy® IS the building!
Our headquarters really characterizes our core activities and all Muller & van Tol did was obeying the secret and unwritten rules of Fatboy®. The funny thing about the secret rules of Fatboy® is that they are not a secret…you just have to know and feel what Fatboy® is about and they will unveil themselves to you. Knowing the secret rules of Fatboy® also makes everyone working at our headquarters feel like they are a part of one whole organization. And that’s just great, because we’re all one at Fatboy®. No one is a VIP and everyone is an EIP (equally important person). Just another secret rule of Fatboy® and lucky for you, this one is on the house.
WANTO wordchoreography ©
