The specified slider does not exist.
The interior design for the Montreal office of the American video game publisher, 2K, takes a creative approach by making the office resemble an elegant boutique hotel, rather than tech headquarters.
Montreal is a hub for gaming companies, and 2K desired an office which stood out from the crowd for its Cloud Chamber studio. As a starting premise, ACDF took inspiration from mid-century residential architecture and played with proportions, sightlines, and a monochrome colour scheme.
Across 2,787-m2 (30,000-sf) space, which can accommodate more than 150 people, ACDF has installed dimly lit areas—creating a very specific work environment for developers—and filled other nooks flooded with light, resembling garden cafes and outdoor terraces. The collection of different atmospheres, from more private to more public, are fused together under one cohesive design.
Located in the city’s Westmount area, the office is on the fifth floor of a significantly renovated, former data centre for a bank credit card company. The adaptive reuse of the office is modelled on the theme of contrasting soothing darkness and stimulating light. ACDF created contrasting areas for focused, independent work with a darker, intimate esthetic and brighter areas with white ceilings to convey openness and collaboration.
This principle organizes the open floor plan into clusters, with an identifiable zone for each of 2K’s teams. Each team has its own, dedicated open area for individual work. The furniture in the open areas shares the same muted colour palettes as the carpeting in the team’s small offices and meeting spaces.
To create bright collaborative “gardens” for each team, ACDF worked with the building’s windows that pop out from the facade. “We took advantage of the building’s three-dimensional [3D] envelope and used its natural nooks to differentiate between zones,” says ACDF partner Joan Renaud. The “gardens” are therefore equipped with a wood decking, black metal structures, supports for writing boards and hanging plants, and white curtains.
Rather than adding traditional walls to divide the floor plate, ACDF utilized the spaces between existing structures and closed central volumes to create non-linear circulation.
From utility areas to elevator shafts, a series of internal units are unified visually and wrapped in a warm palette of copper panels, wood panels, and tinted glass. These volumes, which also include an entry, front desk, private offices, and coat storage for Montreal’s frigid winters, add a sense of order and rhythm—subtly subdividing the sea of open desks. Varying lighting strategies, from backlit tensile to exposed ductwork, give the feeling of expansive ceilings throughout. Other details are pale oak cabinetry, polished concrete floors, and furniture pieces inspiring a retro-futuristic atmosphere.
ACDF Architecture led the project’s architecture, interior design, graphic design, furniture selection, interior signage, integrated furniture design, and lighting design. Other collaborators on the project were the contractor, Anjinnov; the engineer, exp; and the project manager, Cushman & Wakefield.
