Peacock
The interior for Peacock advertising agency was the very first project executed by Elding Oscarson. The brief was challenging: “We want a special place, not just another flashy advertising agency. The budget is super tight and by the way, in three weeks we are moving in!”
Peacock was founded 2006 by a group of successful partners and associates in the field of advertising. Their image is young and unconventional.
The space, an old textile manufacturing hall, had earlier been altered to a photographer’s studio. However the original industrial characteristics were relatively well preserved, nowadays a rare experience in the city centre of Stockholm.
Due to the limited budget and time very little could be done to the actual architecture i.e. room organisation, general lighting, floor etc. Also the client was afraid of getting a perfectly new and sleek studio. So, the project had to be all about the interior and to create an identity in three dimensions.
First of all, in 20 days, we needed to solve their functional requirements: workstations, meeting rooms and galley. We had to work with off-the-shelf products, vintage or simple custom made furnishing easy and quick to produce.
The expected layout would perhaps be an open landscape with clusters of individual desks, but this case for a new and growing company called for a more flexible concept. The result, an enormous communal working table was not only a compact and versatile solution; it also corresponded to a non-hierarchical and open method of working. Even their big customer relation event, the annual championship in “Monster table tennis”, is held around this huge table!
The studio
The big open space is dominated by the big communal working table and furbished with seating groups of different character to encourage spontaneous meetings and different working settings. The meeting/working spots are occasionally divided by curtains and screens for privacy or for the discretion of their clients.
No one has a permanent place or personal chair at the table; personal belongings are kept in lockers. To cut cost and delivery time, the table was made in form work plywood without any extra finish.
The lobby
The agency doesn’t have a traditional reception desk, instead the guests are welcomed in the internal kitchen/galley combined entrance/lobby were they can help their self with a cup of coffee and have chat with the staff. Due to the complicity of being both the most private and most public room the space was really difficult to deal with. Also, the space it self was tremendously dull with no natural light, low ceiling, very narrow proportions and toilets facing one side. To turn this dull space into something very odd and special, we designed a one-off wall paper print, telling the story of Peacock. We wanted to create a strong and unique atmosphere with help of cheap but clever materials and techniques. The galley is made from a basic IKEA kitchen combined with a custom made steel hood and aluminium knobs designed by us. The table and chairs are painted in same light pale green. The old ceiling was demolished, painted white and replaced by a grid of simple light bulbs.
The meeting rooms
The meeting rooms were challenging with no natural light and difficult proportions. They also have additional functional problems, poor acoustics and lack of whiteboard or bulletin board. We solved the problems in the smaller room by dressing all walls completely in natural cork. To even more improve the acoustics we hung in the ceiling a thick block of cold foam upholstered in Japanese fabric.
The second meeting room was even a bigger challenge to make functional and comfortable. By dividing the long and narrow space into two it worked out. The first part became a library with cheap bookshelves pimped with brass detailing to make them integrated, the second part a lounge area with low cosy seating. The walls of the lounge are painted in magnetic paint and have a high skirting of sound absorbing round felt patches.
Project: Peacock
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Architect: Elding Oscarson
Carpenter: Erik Storskog
Furniture workshop: Grötlingbo
Floor Area: 250sqm
Completion: 2007
Photographer: Åke E:son Lindman