SsD

Neoscape

Boston, MA | 2008

The new offices for Neoscape, a leading visualization firm, occupy a unique loft building in Boston. At once an abstract industrial space where ‘anything can happen,’ the existing heavy timber structure also has a visceral materiality that already implies scale, directionality, and use-patterns. In the digital creative industry, flexibility is central as project team sizes, collaborative structures, and outreach events require constant spatial reconfiguration. A series of minimal and kinetic interventions substantively transform the space without overpowering it: A series of translucent sliding panels define a large multipurpose room that can transform from a enclosed formal screening room to an open spillover work area. The panels themselves become over-size dry erase boards for impromptu brainstorming. A system of modular desks can be slid into large or small project bays while the pattern of the recycled carpet tiles underneath them define different ‘territories’ as if the workstations are on a playing field. A new stair enhances communication between floors, brings light into the center of a large floor plate, and becomes additional seating for screening events.

Through the minimal intervention of sliding glass panels and moving desks, a multitude of functions and programs can be acommodated.

Transparent and translucent glass create degrees of visual privacy while allowing natural light to penetrate into areas of the floor which previously had no access to daylight.