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Architects: Roy David Studio
- Area: 4000 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Itay Benit
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Manufacturers: BAUX, Ceramica Vogue, MAARS, Moduleo, Parthos, Pedrali, Sancal, Teknion Global
Text description provided by the architects. The 3,500 square meter office occupies the entire floor of the new ToHa Tower in the heart of Tel Aviv’s business centre. Roy David Architecture was commissioned to design the offices for the global high-tech company that develops technology dedicated to improving digital and internet performance and security. With offices world-wide, Akamai’s Tel Aviv offices focuses primarily on Research and Development and Security.
Akamai, founded in 1998 by Tom Leighton and Daniel Lewin, developed mathematical algorithms necessary to intelligently route and replicate content over a large network of distributed servers, technology that would ultimately solve what was becoming a frustrating problem for Internet users. This technology, often referred to as mirroring, has significantly impacted the experience of internet users and large corporations world-wide.
The concept of duality and duplicity – the appearance of being in two places at once – inspired by the company’s technology, can be seen throughout the space. This theory was translated into a design language via materiality, lighting, graphics, custom carpentry and reflection to create a streamlined design for the space. For example, forms that are present in the space in a particular material can be found reflected or repeated as a different interpretation of the same shape to give the feeling of experiencing the same element in two different ways, simultaneously.
The primary design challenge was to create a space that not only represented the global identity of Akamai, but also provided the privacy that the employees required due to the sensitive nature of their work, while still creating a space that promoted a sense of community and encouraged collaboration. The vast majority of the Akamai offices world-wide are configured in an open space layout, so creating a layout that spoke to both the global culture of the company as well as one that was tailored to the needs of the Tel Aviv office employees proved to be particularly challenging.
After a collaboration with a committee of Akamai employees, it was arrived upon that the best solution was to create larger team rooms that met the specific needs of the various departments and sub-departments and intermittently disperse open meet-up spaces and alternative hangouts for morning meetings and brainstorming. Additionally, the studio implemented a local interpretation of the company’s traditional branding, integrating locally sourced materials, greenery and artwork to show the influence of the local culture and energy on the space.
The public spaces intended for collaboration and morning meetups, feature flexible furniture (seating and bar-height tables) that can be reconfigured easily to accommodate a particular team at any time. Additionally, large white boards surrounded by acoustic wall treatments were installed to facilitate collaboration. Each hangout and collaborative space features unique custom graphics and artwork that speak to the local interpretation of the Akamai brand.
The main kitchen, intended to function as both the main eating area for the office and an all-hands meetup space and a space for training and company-wide conferences, is a completely flexible space. A dynamic acoustic partition can be opened to divide the space when needed and the furniture can be easily reconfigured for a variety of different meeting and conference styles.
