Save

Share

Share

Tweet

Denys & Von Arend created a seamless space with muted colors and functional areas for dynamic work at the Coatresa offices in Barcelona, Spain.

Denys & von Arend designs Coatresa’s new passive offices
A succession of layers with varying degrees of transparency and heights has allowed the interior design studio Denys & von Arend to create an efficient and relaxing atmosphere in these offices designed under the PassiveHaus standard in Barcelona.

The Denys & von Arend studio has recently completed the interior design project for Coatresa’s headquarters, healthy offices inspired by the concept of ‘the third skin’.

Factory and Offices, In a Passivehaus Warehouse
Coatresa, a family company founded in 1983, located in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda and led by the second generation, specialises in providing solutions in the industrial sector, through non-stick and anti-corrosion coatings, specialising in the food bakery sector in terms of moulds and coatings.

The generational change has been the definitive impulse to buy a new industrial building with the aim of uniting factory and headquarters in the same space, creating a corporate environment that encompasses the different departments and promotes the connection between the manufacturing process and the office.

In addition, the management team was looking for a PassiveHaus office, a system based on optimising resources through passive techniques that make the building efficient: quality thermal insulation of the envelope, installation of high performance windows and doors, absence of thermal bridges, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and air tightness. All this to achieve a totally healthy environment.

The Concept: The Third Skin
To approach the design concept, the Denys & von Arend studio team started from the meaning of the anti-adhesion and anti-corrosion coatings manufactured by Coatresa to form the concept of “The third skin”. Thus, the basis was the idea of coating: “to cover one thing completely with another, usually forming a layer, a skin”.

According to Hundertwasser’s 5-skin theory, there are 5 skins: the first is the epidermis, the second is clothing, the third is the home, the fourth is the social environment and the fifth is the global environment.

A skin that articulates the floor plan, through which a space is generated that allows isolation from the rest, but without turning its back on everything that is going on around it, so that communication flows in the working environment.

The Mould: Texture and Repetition
The project started from a completely undressed and industrial space, on which a refined industrial style has been generated.

An office with movement has been created by means of a metallic mesh that acts as a visual filter between zones, separating them, but without actually dividing them, thanks to its semi-transparency. It generates a sensation of seeing without being seen.

The design of different volumes within the space, working the different heights, generates boxes within the building and dividers that generate new routes within the office. By adding more or less skins, more private spaces and other more permeable spaces are created to respond to the different needs within the office: meeting rooms, informal meeting space, phone booths, etc.

The floor of the new offices becomes a single space where a wide variety of activities take place. Being located in the centre, the office articulates the entire floor and, thanks to its circular shape, creates a space for connection and meeting within the space. It becomes a very pleasant place to take a break.

The sum of the different elements: skins, patterns, dividers, light, variety of textures, makes the office an elegant, timeless space with a relaxed atmosphere that invites productivity, teamwork or individual work indistinctly offering a place where employees interact socially and professionally in a healthy environment.

Design: Denys & Von Arend
Photography: Vicugo Studio