Floorspace

Fun offices provide an energetic environment for staff to work in. Traditionally aimed towards the creative sector, more and more companies are undertaking this style and embracing a unique identity for themselves; to set them apart from the crowd and to provide their valuable staff members with an engaging and interesting workplace. We've found a few of the best to provide some great inspiration for your next office design...

Rentalcars.com spent an impressive £2.7m kitting out their Manchester office with open-air cinema, indoor park area, rooftop 'beach', games room, free staff breakfasts, all-day salad bar and in-house Starbucks. They've even incorporated 'road' walk-ways and one of favourite AV products, the Evoko Room Manager! (Images: Manchester Evening News Syndication) 

Bikhir.ma's Moroccan offices by Identity Design features grass flooring, swings in meeting rooms, pool tables and bean bags. We love their bright and inspired design - and wouldn't mind working here ourselves. (Images: Office Snapshots)

iSelect's Australian offices by V Arc has us green with envy because of their ballpit and slide! With an industrial theme, the office has a "track-style" pathway and colourful door designs on their meeting rooms and even their lifts! (Images: V Arc)

Designed by Stiff + Trevillion, Innocent's new London office space is as inspired, colourful and energetic as their delicious smoothies. The project involved removing part of the second floor to create a free open-plan communal area which was spacious and bright. 

Looking over the beautiful Thames, the office replicated a natural atmosphere inside the building with grass carpeting throughout, wooden picnic benches in the communal seating area and iconic London phone boxes; further adding to the bright and energetic atmosphere within their space.

Comfortable meeting spaces and lounge areas were added throughout the building to further promote their fantastic community spirit amongst colleagues. Bespoke for Innocent themselves, their desks were designed by the prestigious Tom Dixon studio. 

Images: StiffandTrevillion.com

Designed by Unispace, Slate Magazine's New York offices is inspired by their desire to work in a community-based environment to boost collaboration and help build a sense of community among colleagues. 

Initially sharing a space with their sister companies, Slate Magazine was demoted to the basement where staff lacked the inspiration to fuel creative work. Unispace stepped in; and created a stunning office design for Slate in Brooklyn, who were on a tight budget. 

Designing a central hub, Unispace culminated a communal area in which staff can use to hold meetings, social events, meet with clients and come together for lunch. Fostering a positive and collaborative atmosphere, the hub is also available to one of Slate's sister companies Panopoly, with it's very own studios and work areas within close proximity to the communal space; promoting a further sense of community for both companies. 

Previously working from individual offices, Slate opted for a completely open-plan office; completely changing their office's environment, and again promoting collaboration across all levels; helping to remove hierarchical segregation. 

Fun Framery O booths (see our post on the Framery Q here) have been added to add a little privacy for all-important calls and individual work, whilst an array of meeting rooms and spaces have been designed to allow for productive and effortless meetings. 

The tight budget meant that Unispace had to be creative with their approach to the design, and by using boldly painted accents and intricately-cut plywood designs, the office has a personality reflective of the brand itself; with a modest price tag.

The talented designers at Horn Design created ÄKTA's Chicago offices with a fun and friendly atmosphere. Designed to "empower employees", it's variety of space offerings allows ÄKTA's staff to collaborate in a range of settings. 

With state-of-the-art technology hubs, conference rooms and oversized lounge platforms, the office has been brought to life. Including swings at their snack bar and a ping pong table, employees are encouraged to work on more sociable terms with their colleagues, rather than sit at a boardroom table. 

We personally love swings in offices. Very little could produce more fun and a relaxed environment. The red accents throughout the flooring, furnishings and decor give the office a further spark; creating a vibrant and playful atmosphere.

Rapt Studio have come into their own with their design of Ancestry's offices in Utah. Turning their space into a home for their staff, Rapt Studio cultivated a design that brought together the true values of the company. 

Combining their modern equipment with the traditional components of the company has brought their office to life; with a character that is completely unique to Ancestry. Portraits of senior employees have been paired with archival photographs of their relatives found through Ancestry and line the office walls; showing how personal the company is. 

The multi-dimensional graphic installation welcomes guests into the office lobby, and is resemblant of the change in ancestries of various populations; represented through the colour variations in the display. 

At the heart of Ancestry is the concept that every individual person was once part of just a few big families; and Ancestry's offices have been designed to re-create a unified family under one roof.

A fan of individuality, we love design studios that take a company's core values and build from there on up; truly capturing what the brand is about in it's very best form. The Ancestry offices must be one of our favourite to date; and the personal touches with the portraits of employees and their relatives is by far the best representation of the company expressed through design. 

Images: RaptStudio.com

One of the World's finest cycling clothing and accessories brand, Rapha wanted to create a workspace that represented the culture of cycling. Commissioned by Jump Studios, Rapha's 1,600 sq m showroom and HQ was designed to boost productivity, efficiency and employee satisfaction to further grow the brand.

With a restricted budget, Jump Studios were able to create an energetic and inspired fit-out for Rapha, including the design of their multi-functional system of cages, which was incorporated to be flexible for the rapidly-expanding company; being useful for storage, display and re-positionable into open plan and semi-enclosed zones to support the ongoing needs of their changing and growing business.

Built from a basis of black-sprayed steel mesh and plywood, the design is resemblant of the highly engineered and hand-made quality of their products, providing an inspirational atmosphere for their office staff. Wall and floor graphics were designed by Jump Studio's own in-house team to give the space a further sense of identity. Highly inspired by the brand's heritage and values, the space is truly unique to them and provides an eclectic and inspired working atmosphere.

At Floorspace, we absolutely love the eclectic energy and individuality of the Rapha offices. In particular, the "org chart" of each employee pictured with their bike is our favourite bit of the unique style throughout. 

London-based interior fit-out company Morgan Lovell were asked to design Rackspace's London offices to encourage collaboration and employee satisfaction within the company. Giving each floor a theme, Morgan Lovell's inspired idea came from Rackspace's motto; the 'home of fanatical support'. 

The office's ground floor was resemblant of a home garage; complete with it's very own personalised mini cooper car. It's first floor was styled as a 70's inspired lounge including chairs situated around an artificial fireplace and it's second floor was redesigned as the library; featuring stylish leather chairs and timeless mahogany tables and bookcases for the ideal meeting space. The office's 'garden' was created in the third floor; incorporating fake grass, wooden decking. The main boardroom was also situated on this floor, which was designed as a replica of Number 10 Downing Street.

Certainly not lacking inspiration, Rackspace's newly designed office is inspiring and bright; achieving the company's ambitions to create a more energetic work environment. We absolutely love how the team at Morgan Lovell have put together the office space. Individual and inspired, it gives the company a breath of fresh air and is an inviting and energetic place for people to work.