Ualá Offices – Buenos Aires
Contract Workplaces designed the Ualá offices in Buenos Aires as a modern, flexible headquarters that embodies the company’s innovative spirit, seamlessly integrating natural light, biophilic elements, and dynamic collaborative spaces.
Ualá is a technology company offering a broad ecosystem of financial products across the region. For its new offices in Buenos Aires, the company selected a 2,000 m² floor in the Ola Palermo building—an innovative complex located in front of the traditional Palermo Hippodrome. Once an abandoned reinforced concrete parking structure, the building has been revitalized into a modern urban hub, combining contemporary architecture with green spaces, retail, and office areas.
With the location secured, Ualá launched a private design competition to create a flexible, distinctive, and innovative headquarters that could embody its corporate values. Contract Workplaces won the competition, taking on both design and full project execution.
From the outset, the Architecture & Design team carried out an in-depth analysis of Ualá’s culture and people to identify the core pillars of its identity. The new space was conceived to revolutionize work practices and reflect the company’s innovative, disruptive spirit.
The design aimed to be fluid, organic, and transparent, maximizing access to natural light. Workstations were positioned along the glazed perimeter to provide all employees with exterior views and evenly distributed daylight.
At the core of the space, a series of oval-shaped pods were introduced—housing meeting rooms, informal gathering areas, and phone booths. Arranged like a “forest” of curves, these pods invite exploration and lead to a large cafeteria that connects with a flexible work café, where teams can work in a relaxed atmosphere that opens to the building’s internal courtyards.
One of the project’s most iconic features is the vault—a reinterpretation of a traditional bank vault. Since people are the company’s true treasure, this open, flexible meeting space symbolizes its core values. Equipped with mobile and reconfigurable seating tiers, it serves as a multifunctional area for events, meetings, presentations, or collaborative work. Its flexibility reflects the adaptable nature of the business.
Material choices supported the design’s spatial fluidity. Natural and noble materials were used throughout: rough granite crusts at the reception desk symbolize strength and durability, while bamboo—a sustainable, elegant material—was used for the pod finishes, contrasting with the exposed concrete of the original structure.
The vault’s exterior is fully wrapped by a large circular library, highlighting the importance of education, culture, and learning in a leading digital company like Ualá.
Organic textiles and carpets in soft turquoise and pink tones bring serenity to the space. Indoor plants, carefully positioned between pods, contribute a key biophilic element, creating a natural and calming atmosphere.
Lighting design was also a priority. Indirect, uniform lighting was used throughout, paired with linear fixtures above workstations to ensure precision in task-focused areas.
The result is a modern, avant-garde office that blends digital innovation with the calm and integrity of timeless materials. It is, above all, a transparent and open “vault” that reflects the values of a company transforming not just the financial system, but the very way we work.
Design: Contract Workplaces
Photography: Andrés Negroni
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