Design: Waterfrom Design co. Ltd.
Designer: Nic Lee,Sam Chung, Richard Kuo
Client: cnYES Office
Category: Financial Publishing Office
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Floor Area: 820m2
Layout: Reception Area, Meeting Room ,Pantry, Open-plan Office, Independent Office
Material: Marble, Bamboo, Stainless, Carpet, Leather
Design Period: Sep. - Nov. 2015
Construction Period: Nov. 2015 - Mar. 2016
Photographer: Sam Tsen
Integrating finance and mass communication to provide financial website services, cnYES is an internet media company characterized by stability images of financial business and innovation features of the media. To highlight the sense of speed as in Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Waterfrom Design selects the element of “time” as the theme complemented by the dual fast pace of swift financial, monetary and cash flow as well as online real time information. Time is to be deconstructed in the space while in unison the space is to be reinvented and interpreted with different time definition through rapidly floating and changing rhythm.
The designer then reassembled deconstructed fragments of a timepiece to create a seemingly scattered yet complete abstract clock, implicating progressiveness and cumulativeness of time, followed by extraction of the stony texture dated back to the Renaissance in the Middle Ages as well as elements of the then precious blue pigments used in religious paintings to unfold the accumulation process of time clearing-up in an implicit and approximate manner. Gold and blue are picked as the visual keynote to represent the aspiration for wealth and prestige along with knowledge and trust. Wooden freestyle seatings are provided in corridor and lounge room for cozy reading, discussion and relaxation, setting an atmosphere of floating persistence of time in the office. In line with the wise use of space, places for rest and refreshment are created and offered to ease the hustle and bustle. With the addition of feeling and appreciation of space, the seemingly rational time is inspired to take on a new meaning unlike before.
The conference area is segmented with see-through steel parts and glass, creating space hierarchy and enriching visual translucency to remove the demarcation separating space and time. The change of conference area from a small room that seats several participants to a big auditorium that accommodates a hundred participants is made possible thanks to movable partition panels, allowing for a better and more intelligent use of space.