Red Bull may not really ‘give you wings’, but the company does give employees a slick carbon slide so they can fly right into a meeting. Jump Studios has created this interactive space in this three floor escapade for employees of Red Bull filled with stimulating features and activities that would impress even a hardened adrenaline junkie! This incredible office space contains everything from table tennis meeting tables to floating staircases – it’s a wonder anyone gets any work done!
Year: 2011
Location of the month: Vanuatu Post office
Definitely one of the world’s most exciting and unusual locations to work in, especially if you are a keen diver! Vanuatu’s underwater post office off Hideaway Island near Port Vila is situated 50 metres offshore and three metres below the surface. You may think that working underwater would be lonely, but this post office has been flooded (excuse the pun) with visitors donning their snorkels, looking to grab a glimpse of the ‘deep blue’ location. With the chance to post one of the special waterproof postcards available in Vanuatu, this incredible office has received an estimated 100,000 visitors since opening in 2003. “I love working at the underwater branch,” says VPL’s Samuel Robert. “It’s great fun and really pleasing to see so many visitors each day who cannot believe their eyes!”
Vanuatu post office
Office/ Factory of the month: Volkswagen Phaeton Assembly Plant
Regular visitors to the Serviced Office Company blog will be aware that we love sharing some of the coolest looking offices from around the world with everyone here on our blog. This week we thought we’d make a change to the norm and rather than feature an office we decided to take a look at a stunning modern factory.
The Volkswagen Phaeton Assembly Plant in Germany is one of the most modern and forward thinking factories in the world. The factory produces Volkswagen’s luxury car the Phaeton.
What makes the factory so unique is its bright open plan design and sleek outer shell. Our serviced offices in Manchester and London share these design principles but they’re not really suitable for mass luxury car production! However if your business is the assembly of services or consultancy rather than mechanical bits and pieces they almost certainly meet your needs.
Volkswagen Phaeton Assembly Plant – Dresden, Germany
Office gadgets
We’re constantly on the look out for new offices designs and accessories so we can help our clients get the most from their serviced offices. We thought it would be nice to share some of the better gadgets we’ve come across here on our blog:
Mobile Phone Bean Bags:
These miniature bean bags will make sure your phone stays safe and protected on your desk when you’re not using it. Some of the office are actually a bit jealous about comfortable they look!
Heart shaped hole punch:
We’re sure that most of you wouldn’t consider the hole punch to be the most inspiring piece of office equipment. But the heart shaped hole punch effortlessly adds a touch of romance to your paper work!
Golf green sticky notes:
Golf and business have gone hand in hand for as long as most of us would care to remember. So the chances are it’s pretty likely that someone in your office will enjoy the game. If this is the case, then they’ll love these original golf inspired sticky notes.
Office of the week: Albert France-Lanord Architects White Mountain Offices
If you’ve ever been a fan of the James Bond films then it’s fairly safe to say that you’ll be pretty jealous of the employees at Swedish ISP Bahnhof AB. Their cave offices, 100 feet below the streets of Stockholm, resemble a Bond villain’s hideout and were originally built as nuclear fallout shelter during the Cold War. In 2008 Architects Albert France-Lanord redesigned the space so it could be used as offices.
Although our serviced offices with their great locations, modern furniture and fast internet connections are perfectly capable of meeting your office needs we’re not sure they would survive a nuclear blast!
Office of the Month: Lego, Moscow
Each month we find a slightly odd yet inspiring office to share with everyone here on the Serviced Office Company blog.
This month we’re shining the spotlight on Lego’s offices in Moscow. Growing up everyone we knew loved playing with Lego, so you can imagine our delight to discover that a chosen few have actually managed to grow up and make a career out of playing with the tiny plastic bricks!
The Moscow offices are fairly normal, at least by our office of the month standards, but amazing Lego sculptures and characters such as a doorman, a Russian doll and even a window cleaner are scattered across the building!
Our serviced offices are left plain so the inhabitants can customise them in the own way. So if you’re a Lego enthusiast you could bring in your own Lego to personalise your space, in the same way these folks in Moscow have!
Portable offices
Many of us dream of being able to set up our office where ever we please. However a new invention from Dutch designer Tim Vinke means setting up an office in virtually any location could soon be a reality!
Vinke’s design packs all of your office furniture into one handy cart for you to push around on your travels. The kit includes a desk, two chairs and an extension lead.
Although the idea is pretty neat, as you can see from the photos, we’re not sure how practical it would be for day-to-day working! Making assumptions can be dangerous, but we think it’s fairly safe to say that the majority of freelancers we work with won’t be ditching their cosy serviced offices in London or Manchester for this portable design any time soon!
Office gadgets facing extinction
As we spend a lot of time researching office equipment over the years we’ve seen a lot of changes take place in front of us at our desks. So we were interested to see that office retailer, Pixmania-Pro, has released a list of office gadgets they believe are facing extinction. The list includes items like desk phones and mobile water coolers, but more surprisingly compact discs and USB memory sticks that are commonly used today.
It’s thought items like CDs and memory sticks are in decline because more organisations are storing information externally through cloud computing systems. Smart phones are helping to kill off rolodexes, personal diaries and calculators as more people now use their phones for these kinds of functionality.
The list in full:
1. Compact Discs
2. Memory sticks
3. Rolodex
4. Personal diaries
5. Calculator
6. Desk phone
7. The Waste Paper Bin
8. Shredders
9. Mobile water coolers
10. Desktop hard drives
Although it’s easy to see why desk phones and mobile water coolers are in decline, we were a little surprised to see that the humble waste paper bin had made the list. However technologically advanced our offices become, here at the Serviced Office Company, we will always have space for the waste paper bin! (Although our waste bins aren’t actually waste bins because we recycle all of our unused paper!)
Unique office desks
Here at the Serviced Office Company our serviced offices are fitted with modern stylish furniture that allows all our clients to get their work done in an efficient and timely manner. As we’re keen on providing the people that work in our offices with the best possible service we can, we’re always on the look out for new equipment and accessories. While we were recently looking at new desks we came across these stylish numbers. Although they might not be that practical for daily use they all look very cool and are certainly unique!