The Maison
“ Multiple boxes accommodate (un)designated spaces ”
Location: Ha Noi, Vietnam
Program: Office
Area: 2,200m²
Completion: April, 2020
The Maison is a design proposal for a new office with a spirit of enterprise. The project name briefs the design intention to create “home-like office” or “home away from home”, reflecting today’s situation that technology connects various living scenes seamlessly. The idea is to create an inclusive office space for various working (or not working) modes, such as being social and private, creative and efficient. It is based on the same concept as “activity-based working”, yet there is a difference: “talkative” design is not really necessary for this project. “Home” is a place to accept diverse activities not by labeling each space, but by structuring loose and multiple relationships between spaces.
The 20th century was a huge laboratory for office planning. From the Taylorist open plan to alienating office cubicles, space uniformity is regarded as the common problem of those offices. Today’s offices, on the other hand, are too eager to visualize different working styles in one place, resulting in eclectic and noisy design. The project aims at not such visual confusion but diversified potential for office activities, which is built on the basis of multiple relationships of spaces. Required programs are organized into multiple boxes, and those boxes are placed loosely on the floors. The space between the boxes has various scales and characters where people find ways to spend then and there, freely, but with some care to read between the lines.