A Visual Sense of Miro...
The National Tourist Office of Spain (Singapore) at Liat Towers, by Han
Yip & Lee Associates (HYLA), is in fact of a very simple office plan
design. In a lesser scheme where white MDF board partitions or plywood
paneling would have sufficed, the ever resourceful designers took this
budgeted job several steps further by introducing inventive/sensitive
details to make this office a potentially stunning one.
Glowing 'walls' of coloured glass - clear tempered glass panels applied
with coloured acrylic film - delineate the different areas, rooms and
passages. Says a HYLA partner: 'We wanted to try and exploit the idea
of illuminated sheets of translucent "walls" with various degrees
of transparency.' The bold and spirited primary colours of these translucent
screen walls are |
not by quirk of choice. They relate closely to the Spanish
tourism board's main logo 'espana', which is an adaptation of an original
Juan Miro artwork, and are thus signifiers of the tenants' identity at
the 194.5m? (approx 2050ft?) space. Creative lighting plays a major role
in pelmets at the ceiling where the top of the glass screens 'disappear'
into. An ideal choice of illumination would be fibre optics or warmer
halogen points, to 'glow' the glass even more dramatically! The translucent
walls radiate in pin-wheel fashion from the reception lobby which is the
nucleus of the layout plan. This plan originated as a 'simple layman's
sketch' by the director Miguel Nieto-Sandoval, indicating all the rooms
needed. These are rooms for the director, accountant, marketing and research
officer, conference, an open area for three executives, and a store-and-copy
area and pantry. Cabinetry and fittings throughout are finished in nyatoh
veneer stained to a dark mahogany tone. |
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