Navigant Offices – Utrecht
ZENBER Architecten designed the offices for American management consultancy firm, Navigant, located in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Navigant is a business service provider in energy and sustainability consultancy. It is established on the 15th floor in the brand-new WELL and BREEAM Excellent certified World Trade Centre, right next to Utrecht Central Station. In this architectural eye-catcher, the Navigant office offers magnificent panoramic views across Utrecht and surroundings.
To guarantee the panoramic view, ZENBER Architects maximized efforts to achieve transparency and openness, at the same time ensuring everyone is visible to everyone else. The WTC footprint has a central core devoted to facility services, with an open working area around it and a dynamic, sloping façade line.
On arrival, visitors and staff receive a warm reception in an open and bustling work café, featuring a large bar serving quality coffee, a range of seating beneath hanging indoor gardens and work lounges.
The sloping wooden core with canopy leads you further into the working area. This area also features several small meeting rooms with adjacent Skype/concentration spaces featuring acoustic felt panelling for international calls.
The choice of materials features a friendly, timeless base of warm grey shades on the floors (C2C silver carpeting). The glass walls of the separate rooms match the architecture but are distinguished by horizontal lining, creating a graphic play on lines. The expanded central core has been emphasized by means of solid oak vertical beams (FSC-certified and finished with natural oil), leading to a sloping canopy.
The floor features a range of areas of carpeting (econyl yarn) in blue-green and ochre-yellow shades, the color of which merges into the tactile textured wallpaper in the meeting rooms and inlaid wool felting in the Skype rooms.
For the bespoke furnishings, a unique ecological material which consists of strong layers of recycled paper was used. The material has a vibrant matte look and feel and its color will intensify over the course of time. The steel used for the hanging gardens and plant frames has been finished with natural beeswax, emphasizing the raw blue character of the steel.
The separate furniture with a sustainable background has been chosen, such as desks from a circular range, C2C ergonomic desk chairs and meeting chairs made from PET felt.
All of this results in a carefully-coordinated timeless and invigorating interior featuring maximum use of sustainable materials (BREEAM Excellent and WELL), designed to boost the health and well-being of users.
Designer: ZENBER Architecten
Design Team: Eric Wezenberg, Carlien den Uijl, Helma Teernstra, Ingrid Heijne
Building Architect: MVSA Architecten
Photography: Ossip van Duivenbode
