“Not being the ‘official’ Toormix office, this space makes it much easier to generate a fun and informal atmosphere. It helps visitors to be more open, more creative, and less focused on the usual business.”—Ferran Mitjans + Oriol Armengou
Ferran Mitjans + Oriol Armengou: Co-Founders, Toormix Atelier / Barcelona, Spain
toormix.com
“not being the ‘official’ toormix office, this space makes it much easier to generate a fun and informal atmosphere. it helps visitors to be more open, more creative, and less focused on the usual business.”—ferran mitjans + oriol armengou
How does the new Toormix atelier space encourage collaboration?
The important thing about the space is the format. It must be relaxing and comfortable, but different from the everyday format of the office. In other words: chairs out, meeting table out, computers out. It must be open, informal, customizable, and a bit like a living room. It also helps that it is located at street level, so we can always see cars and people walking by.
Toormix Atelier
shapeshifting annex space
courtesy of toormix
We mainly wanted to create two distinct workspaces. One to establish dialogue in an informal way (sofa area and swings), and one more suited for work and craft (the large central table with stools). This area is complemented with tables folded as slates. It can also be useful as a workshop space. We also try to facilitate interactions between the spaces to make it as comfortable as possible.
What are the major features of the space?
It includes a folding table in various sizes, stools instead of chairs, giant cushions shaped as a sofa, a small stage, two swings, and a street-level window. Indirect lighting, an entire cork wall, and movable furnishings complete the space.
courtesy of toormix
How is the space specific to Toormix?
We are a small team, so the architects, vora, designed for our scale: a 20 square meter space equipped for multi-shape formats of working—it’s roomy enough to not feel closed off, and open to make it easy to talk, think, and work. The space is built with lightweight, inexpensive, and mobile materials. The white color feels more open, and the wood feels warm. Objects like cups, plates, and pencils are all yellow to match the corporate color of our studio. The atelier is more focused on harboring sketches, ideas, and prototypes rather than finished solutions. We develop the ideas and details later in the studio with the right equipment.
Can you describe the activities ascribed to the atelier?
One takes place with our clients to facilitate new creative dynamics and improve our projects in the studio, similar to a Toormix design thinking exercise. Also, this space gives us a perfect excuse to invite other professionals to work together or just to meet us personally, which is a good way to generate possible future collaborations. This last activity is an “aperitifs” format to promote easy and casual connection.
courtesy of toormix
Not being the “official” Toormix office, this space makes it much easier to generate a fun and informal atmosphere. It helps visitors to be more open, more creative, and less focused on the usual business. This opens opportunities for collaboration beyond standard interaction, opening the range of possibilities of working with clients and visiting professionals.
This space was built to facilitate inspiration and motivate thinking outside of our office, which is only ten minutes away. We work in the office in an organized way, four days a week, and we spend Fridays in the creative dynamics of the atelier, often exploring self-initiated projects.