World's Coolest Offices 2015 - Images

 World's Coolest Offices 2015

Welcome to the fifth annual Inc. World's Coolest Offices. These are some of the most beautiful, innovative, and just straight-up amazing company headquarters and startup offices in the world.

IMAGE: Courtesy Companies

Within these offices are inventive, Technicolor conference rooms, spacious rooftop gardens, cozy nap nooks, and an indoor fire pit. But we didn't select these offices as the best in the world simply for their sweet amenities or hip aesthetics. They also are cleverly designed to serve not just any company, but instead to fit the unique working habits of the particular employees who use the space. If there's an overarching trend in office design this year, it's customization--and that goes a long way toward explaining why there's a table that can seat 38 people, a floating conference room, and an elevated eagle's nest in this year's selections. Here is the full list of the coolest offices in the world in 2015.

1 / 30

Airbnb: The Journey and the Destination

 

Time for a visit to Mumbai? How about Shanghai? For employees based in Airbnb's newly expanded San Francisco office, such a trek requires going no further than a decked-out conference room or café corner. Each room is decorated to resemble a real Airbnb listing. It's a theme the company began when it moved into its current Brannan Street office, and expanded upon in the new build-out of the third floor, with help from WRNS Studio and Interior Design Fair. Here, a colorful industrial residence in Johannesburg is channeled in a breakout meeting space.

AIRBNB EXPANSION
Location: San Francisco
Designed by: Interior Design Fair & WRNS Studio
Size: 107,000 square feet
PHOTO: Jeremy Bitterman

2 / 30

Design-School Vibes

Minimalism may be having a moment, but the Airbnb office scoffs at it. Great attention has been paid to myriad details in every corner of the 96-year-old former warehouse in San Francisco's startup-saturated SoMa neighborhood. Seems apt, as two of the company's founders attended Rhode Island School of Design. They are also used to pulling super-long hours in the office. “We spend the majority of our lives at work,” Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia told Metropolis magazine. “Why wouldn’t it be as comfortable or as inspiring as your own home?”

AIRBNB EXPANSION
Location: San Francisco
Designed by: Interior Design Fair & WRNS Studio
Size: 107,000 square feet
PHOTO: Jeremy Bitterman

3 / 30

Talk About Growth

 

As Airbnb grows and grows and grows as a company--it's now in 34,000 cities around the globe--it needed more room to stretch out its head count in San Francisco. Expansion also has shifted the needs of teams. In interviews before the new build-out, employees called for greater opportunity for small meetings or private conversations, good acoustics within an open office, and flexibility for the future growth of the company.

AIRBNB EXPANSION
Location: San Francisco
Designed by: Interior Design Fair & WRNS Studio
Size: 107,000 square feet
PHOTO: Jeremy Bitterman

4 / 30

Bluecore: Playing With the Past

When Justin Huxol, founder of Huxhux Design, was tapped by interior-design startup Homepolish to work on the new office for Bluecore, he was ecstatic. The email-marketing startup was moving to a three-story building on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that had been used as a liquor storehouse during Prohibition. Pictured here is the high-ceilinged lobby and meeting area, complete with a wall of custom wallpaper referencing Bluecore's logo. Focus on the top center of the image and you'll see a little elevated eagle's nest, where an employee can curl up with a laptop--or just get a stellar view of what's happening below.

BLUECORE
Location: New York City
Designed by: Justin Huxol of Huxhux Design for Homepolish
PHOTO: Udomfoto

5 / 30

Bright Young Things

Huxhux Design didn't shy away from color in creating intimate spaces for this three-year-old company, and drew aesthetic inspiration from the neighborhood. The blue room is a nod to the nearby Hamilton Fish Park pool. Another conference room plays with the idea of a 1920s speakeasy. Huxol says he likes to consult with employees and design specific spaces that speak to them and their productivity. "It creates an overall environmental impact on your mood when you're in the space and interacting," he says. But, overall, spaces should be useful for the company--not strictly fun or too over-the-top. "It's a challenge to keep it away from theater set design."

BLUECORE
Location: New York City
Designed by: Justin Huxol of Huxhux Design for Homepolish
PHOTO: Udomfoto

6 / 30

Paper Planes

In addition to the custom wallpaper designed for the entranceway, the speakeasy-like conference room, pictured here, features Huxhux Design's Faux Faux Bois wallpaper. Aside from these breakout rooms for frequent meetings, Bluecore employees have another custom gathering place created just for them: a huge table. It's a company tradition to stop working around noon and sit down together for lunch, so the design team brought in a massive table that seats 38 people.

BLUECORE
Location: New York City
Designed by: Justin Huxol of Huxhux Design for Homepolish
PHOTO: Udomfoto

7 / 30

Ekimetrics: The Classic and the Modern

 

The chandelier-adorned and gilded open office block on Paris's Champs-Élysées was almost perfect for Ekimetrics, a data-savvy marketing and consulting firm. The only problem was that the open 10,700 square feet lacked private meeting space. Architect Estelle Vincent hatched an extraordinarily creative solution: Construct inside it three thoroughly modern freestanding wooden structures of slated timber. They not only serve a variety of functions, but also provide stunning visual contrast between the classic and the startlingly of-the-moment design.

EKIMETRICS
Location: Paris
Designed by: Estelle Vincent Architecture

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Size: 10,700 square feet
PHOTO: Arnaud Schelstraete

8 / 30

Whimsical Utility

The three freestanding structures serve as a boardroom, a two-person office, and a gallery. One of them contains 24 wooden box-stools that can be arranged for a larger meeting. Above one of the nooks is another meeting space dubbed the "crow's nest." Coming down? Take the slide.

EKIMETRICS
Location: Paris
Designed by: Estelle Vincent Architecture
Size: 10,700 square feet
PHOTO: Arnaud Schelstraete

9 / 30

Study in Contrasts

Centuries stand between the office's shell--tall ceilings, arched windows, and chandeliers--and its brand-new wooden indoor structures. Despite the age difference, or maybe because of it, they fit perfectly. The unfinished timber nods to the structures' own lack of permanence, and they feel agile and lighter for it. Some pieces are actually mobile, while others just feel like they are, such as the food truck-inspired staff canteen, dubbed "Eki Truck."

EKIMETRICS
Location: Paris
Designed by: Estelle Vincent Architecture
Size: 10,700 square feet
PHOTO: Arnaud Schelstraete

10 / 30

Kickstarter: The Speakeasy of Offices

Just a couple years ago, Kickstarter was outgrowing its home in a former tenement building on Manhattan's Lower East Side, where workers did their dishes in a bathtub. The crowdfunding company's founders knew that they wanted an office that was grand and that would make their employees feel delighted to come to work. But they also wanted to avoid a flashy Silicon Valley feel. They bought a nondescript building--a former pencil factory--not far from the East River in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, and brought in architect Ole Sondresen to transform its interior. (The exterior remains nearly unchanged; its doorway is simple and nearly unmarked. Very incognito.) Pictured here is a sweeping library, where employees can find quiet nooks for solo work on their laptops.

KICKSTARTER
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Designed by: Ole Sondresen
Size: 29,000 square feet
PHOTO: Ole Sondresen

11 / 30

Sustainability, Inside and Out

Sondresen oriented the office around a central courtyard that stretches up to a second-floor garden and open roof deck, where employees like to eat lunch or hang out after hours. So despite the former factory's thick brick walls, light pours into the space from above and from its central green oasis, illuminating it from its core. Glass walls for internal offices and other rooms let the light seep in. Nearly all of the construction materials and furnishings are reused or recycled materials: former roof trusses form the courtyard frame and old porch posts are used as legs for tables in the library, which itself is constructed from reclaimed wood. And roughly half of the materials used in construction were sourced locally.

KICKSTARTER
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Designed by: Ole Sondresen
Size: 29,000 square feet
PHOTO: Ole Sondresen 

 

12 / 30

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Three floors of the Kickstarter office seem to spiral around the open-air courtyard, all glass and light. But some spaces are private, including a half-dozen small offices, cozily decorated with antique furniture. And this private theater, for film screenings, is pleasantly dark, with its western red cedar and sheetrock walls.

KICKSTARTER
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Designed by: Ole Sondresen
Size: 29,000 square feet
PHOTO: Ole Sondresen

13 / 30

iHeartMedia: Welcome to the Future

When Robert Pittman, CEO of iHeartMedia (formerly known as Clear Channel Communications) decided to move the company's headquarters from San Antonio to New York City, he decided the former satellite office needed an upgrade. The entrance corridor, pictured here, now looks like something straight out of Blade Runner.

IHEARTMEDIA
Location: New York City
Designed by: Architecture + Information and Beneville Studios
Size: 75,000 square feet
PHOTO: Magda Biernat

14 / 30

Raw Beauty

To build out the space, Pittman turned to Michael Beneville, an art and design consultant, and Pittman's Burning Man buddy, according to Interior Design magazine. Beneville brought on Architecture + Information, directing the renowned firm that the space should be stripped clean and left as raw as possible. "No dropped ceilings. No marble. No smoke and mirrors," Dag Folger, part of the Architecture + Information team, told Interior Design. Beneville called the look "battleship, not a cruise ship." This particular battleship has a sweeping hybrid-seating-area-and-staircase in its hull.

IHEARTMEDIA
Location: New York City
Designed by: Architecture + Information and Beneville Studios
Size: 75,000 square feet
PHOTO: Magda Biernat

15 / 30

The Meek and the Bold

Shades of grey float around the whole office, surrounding bright pods of color in freestanding conference rooms, and, as pictured here, a kitchen. Private meeting pods allow for quiet time, while most of the desking is quite open.

IHEARTMEDIA
Location: New York City
Designed by: Architecture + Information and Beneville Studios

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Size: 75,000 square feet
PHOTO: Magda Biernat

16 / 30

SoundCloud: Simplicity and Serenity

SoundCloud's Berlin headquarters, finished in 2015, manages to feel both cozy and spacious thanks to use of minimalist, accessible materials in building out the office, which overlooks the Berlin Wall Memorial. Concrete floors and exposed ceilings are used to give it an industrial feel. Meticulous planning went into the 16 mini conference rooms, where employees can meet, snack, or make a phone call. They're named after neighborhoods in San Francisco, London, and Berlin.

SOUNDCLOUD
Location: Berlin
Designed by: Kinzo Berlin
Size: 170,000 square feet
PHOTO: Werner Huthmacher 

 

17 / 30

Ecological Ambiance

The office's designers--the German firm Kinzo--took care to be environmentally conscious. Many of the acoustic boundaries were made from Heraklith, an eco-friendly wood fiber. There's also an indoor garden. Even the couch cushions are doing their part: They're made of sustainable fibers from hemp and coconut. Here, a flexible seating area allows for lounging or meeting.

SOUNDCLOUD
Location: Berlin
Designed by: Kinzo Berlin
Size: 170,000 square feet
PHOTO: Werner Huthmacher

18 / 30

Free Your Mind

In creating this new home for approximately 200 SoundCloud employees, who work in the areas of product, engineering, design, community, and corporate, Kinzo said it wanted to build a "tangible reflection of a virtual community." The café is a place for workers to unwind, as is the office's fireplace setting. And small, cushioned nap pods--as shown here--abound.

SOUNDCLOUD
Location: Berlin
Designed by: Kinzo Berlin
Size: 170,000 square feet
PHOTO: Werner Huthmacher

19 / 30

Harry's: Approachable and Flexible

Harry's, a startup men's razor retailer in New York City, got help from architects at Tractor Studio and iconic furniture designer Herman Miller to create a floor plan with autonomous desks, open collaboration areas, and closed conference space. The design aims to be flexible enough to accommodate a team that's likely to nearly double from its current 100-person size.

HARRY'S
Location: New York City
Designed by: Tractor Studio
Size: 26,000 square feet
PHOTO: Geordie Wood

20 / 30

Sit Down in Style

The partnership with Herman Miller was obviously fruitful for Harry's--its office is just brimming with gorgeous chairs, from the classic Eames molded fiberglass model to the newer ergonomic Sayl chair. "The furniture was chosen to be both functional and welcoming," says Harry's product design director Scott Newlin. "We encourage teams to talk and collaborate. We pushed really hard to make these rooms feel approachable and aid these behaviors." And there's a little branding infused in these simple rooms: They're named after the colors of the company's razor handles. So if "orange" is booked, an employee can reserve "chrome" or "olive".

HARRY'S
Location: New York City
Designed by: Tractor Studio
Size: 26,000 square feet
PHOTO: Geordie Wood

21 / 30

Living Office

Part of the vision for the new office was to allow workers to customize their own working method. So Herman Miller helped build what it dubs a "Living Office," with desks that raise and lower and walls that move and serve multiple purposes. So, the graphic design team likes to work standing, and shares screens often. "We found standing desks (they also lower so they can sit) would help facilitate these conversations and impromptu meetings that they often host at their desks," Newlin says. Oh, and those gorgeous herringbone wood floors? Harry's found them hiding under layers of "unattractive materials" in the old warehouse space the company acquired for its office, according to Newlin.

HARRY'S
Location: New York City
Designed by: Tractor Studio
Size: 26,000 square feet
PHOTO: Geordie Wood

22 / 30

Salt Co-Working: Rethinking Downtime

This co-working space in Yekaterinburg, Russia, was having growing pains. It was useful for individuals, but small teams were dominating all the common spaces. So Salt built out the loft-like building with mini-offices, which were created by installing sliding doors off of this main corridor. Now, common spaces like this one, which features beanbag chairs on the floor and exposed beams on the ceiling, are meeting-free for anyone who wants to hang out.

SALT CO-WORKING
Location: Yekaterinburg, Russia
Designed by: Esthet Design Lab
PHOTO: Nikita Polosov

23 / 30

A Slice of Home

Salt has many amenities to make its companies feel comfortable. There's a recreation zone, a fully equipped kitchen (shown here--it feels like home, only with more lamps), a coatroom, and even showers.

SALT CO-WORKING
Location: Yekaterinburg, Russia

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Designed by: Esthet Design Lab
PHOTO: Nikita Polosov

24 / 30

Together and Apart

 

This office for a single team is one of many hidden behind massive, rustic sliding doors off the main hallway. The aging wooden floors were restored when the office was redone, and other materials, including wood planking and bricks, were upcycled to create walls. It's a hacker paradise, with an aesthetic one might call "upscale dungeon."

SALT CO-WORKING
Location: Yekaterinburg, Russia
Designed by: Esthet Design Lab
PHOTO: Nikita Polosov

25 / 30

Warner Music: The Subtle Art of Branding

You'd recognize that blue, bubble-shaped W anywhere. But instead of plastering it all over, Warner Music UK made more subtle nods to its iconic brand in consolidating its six offices under one roof. Dusty blues are in play throughout the Wright Lane office, which has been dubbed HQ Music House. Here, an exposed brick wall provides a backdrop for a sweeping central staircase--and also a canvas for a giant mural of a zeppelin (of the Led Zeppelin variety). This view is a mere corner of the headquarters' impressive central atrium, which allows every floor--each with a different layout--a view of a grand café area below. There, one logo is very visible: a periwinkle and navy W woven into the center of the carpeting.

WARNER MUSIC UK
Location: London
Designed by: Woods Bagot
Size: 67,005 square feet
PHOTO: Gareth Gardner

26 / 30

Rock 'n' Roll Ambiance

The new headquarters, completed in 2015, is an office on a grand scale, but efforts were made to keep it feeling comfortable and cozy. Lighting levels are kept subdued, for instance. And there's a subtle rocker vibe throughout: Floors, made of timber, are stained black. Black window frames are paired with a deep green finish running along the perimeter of each floor. Leather accents, such as these benches and chairs, abound. Here, Edison light bulbs get a different look by mingling with old-school microphones.

WARNER MUSIC UK
Location: London
Designed by: Woods Bagot
Size: 67,005 square feet
PHOTO: Gareth Gardner

27 / 30

All That Glitters

The atrium area at the heart of the building serves many purposes, making it a hub for employees. All the furniture--apart from a fixed bar counter, tucked into a partitioned-off pub area--rests on casters and can be easily moved to make space for events such as concerts and cocktail parties.

WARNER MUSIC UK
Location: London
Designed by: Woods Bagot
Size: 67,005 square feet
PHOTO: Gareth Gardner

28 / 30

Atlas Holdings: Up in the Air

There's a distinct "ski chalet" vibe in this Greenwich, Connecticut, hedge-fund office. Well, if ski lodges had floating conference rooms. When Atlas Holdings sought to transform this former home into its headquarters, it selected HLW--the firm that designed Google New York--to carve up the space and build something that would wow its clients. The designers didn't disappoint, creating the office's centerpiece war room, which gives the appearance of hovering over a communal kitchen and café area below.

ATLAS HOLDINGS
Location: Greenwich, Connecticut
Designed by: HLW & Workwell Partners
PHOTO: Chris Cooper

29 / 30

Furnishings With a Purpose

Once HLW finished construction, Atlas brought in Workwell Partners to furnish the space. In the center of the open ground floor, known as the "Great Hall" area, Workwell Partners installed a custom, 18-foot-long reclaimed wood pantry table. It seats up to 20 people, and is equipped with power outlets to encourage collaboration anytime. "You're trying to get people together spontaneously, so they can come up with cool ideas by working together," says Scott Lesizza, a founding principal at Workwell Partners.

ATLAS HOLDINGS
Location: Greenwich, Connecticut
Designed by: HLW & Workwell Partners
PHOTO: Chris Cooper

30 / 30

Striking a Balance

"There's a certain 'wow' factor to something like the floating conference room," Lesizza says. "And it works: There's a long line of people waiting to use it." But smaller private spaces were also important to Atlas Holdings, as they would be to any financial firm. So they built in several private nooks and individual offices to complement the conference room and the sweeping communal area.

ATLAS HOLDINGS
Location: Greenwich, Connecticut
Designed by: HLW & Workwell Partners
PHOTO: Chris Cooper 

By Christine Lagorio-Chafkin

Senior writer, Inc

http://www.inc.com