Seacom Offices – Johannesburg
Design Partnership in Johannesburg developed a human-centric placemaking strategy for Seacom, drawing inspiration from Smart City concepts to create a comfortable, flexible workplace that reflects the company’s connectivity-focused culture.
The Brief: The design team developed and executed a comprehensive placemaking strategy to help navigate Seacom through the post-COVID workplace challenges their business faced. Both quantitative and qualitative data informed the brief, providing essential insights into the company’s culture and unique ways of working. The primary objective was to design a human-centric, comfortable and flexible place that could foster both planned and spontaneous interactions throughout the workday. The design also needed to authentically convey Seacom’s digital brand identity and purpose without creating spaces that felt overly technological or futuristic.
The Concept: Seacom’s infrastructure, including fibres and cables, has become synonymous with the Smart City, serving as the backbone of our interconnected society and built environment. The concept of a SMART CITY became the inspiration for the creative direction as it reflects Seacom’s core purpose – connecting Africa to the world – and it aligns with their culture which pivots around the idea of connectivity. When considering the attributes of the Smart City, it is the spaces between buildings and infrastructure that offer the most appealing opportunities for people to connect. A marketplace on a disused highway, a garden beneath a bridge, or a chandelier suspended from a streetlight – these are the kinds of places that pique interest and offer us truly distinctive and captivating environments. The qualities that are found in and around these places helped direct the design look and feel.
Design: Design Partnership
Photography: Graham Wylie
