FAMO – Lousada Headquarters

Firm
  • Client Famo,
  • size 27,663 sqft
  • Year 2014
  • Location Lausada, Portugal,
  • Industry Furniture,
  • Moura Martins Architects have designed a new office in Lousada, Portugal for office furniture manufacturer Famo.

    It was held a full refurbishment of Famo office building in Lousada, north of Portugal. The three floors building needed an interior reorganization in order to define areas, improve interaction between departments and clarify the paths and access.

    It was created a main hall that reappears on every floor. On the middle floor, this hall communicates visually with manufacturing facilities. This corridor has a stairway at each end facilitating communication between floors. At the center, it comes another vertical access within the tower that marks the building’s facade. These stairs, from the building’s original design, were also remodeling, reborn an access that was lost.

    The top floor is intended for the management offices, financial accounting department, training room and bar. These last two spaces are divided by a removable wall allowing to extend the space for either function. The administration offices are deployed along the main corridor, divided by glass partitions and cabinets that bring the desired privacy.

    In the middle floor arises the reception and operative area. In addition to the tower, the facade of the building is marked by a staircase that leads us to the place where the reception is. This area is an ante-camera to the main hall that surprises us with peculiar views of the adjacent factory.

    Furthermore, on this floor, occupying the entire shell roof building, appears the working areas of consulting, sales and design teams. This open space has at the center three closed modules that accommodate common spaces like conference room, printer room and technical facilities. At the center was created a void with a self-supporting stair sculpture, allowing this space to communicate with the showroom located at ground floor.

    As a company that produces office furniture, Famo workspaces are also an extension of the exhibition space. The void allowed the creation of a direct link between the open space and the ground floor showroom, improving and streamlining the two areas.

    Design: Moura Martins Architects
    Design Team: Sara Moura Martins, Ariana Faustino
    Photography: Fernando Guerra FG+SG