A Finnish design company which has become a market leader in Nordic countries is launching its first international offices here in the UAE. Workspace has spent the past eight years in Finland carving itself a reputation for designing hotels, restaurants, shops and offices differently to its competitors. It is now bringing its innovative design techniques to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, where it has just opened new offices. Workspace now employs more than 30 staff and has an estimated turnover for 2014 of US$5 million, up from $3.5m last year. Ippa Herztberg, the company’s managing director since 2008, reveals more about its ethos.
What makes Workspace different?
The unique thing about Workspace is we don’t only employ architects and interior designers – we have psychologists, engineers, HR specialists and economists working for us too. We need to understand how people choose a hotel or go to a certain restaurant or mall, to design the best space. So we really go into people’s minds. You not only get a great design, you get a scientific approach too. That’s why we’ve been so successful.
Is it true you threw one of your project managers in jail?
Workspace was asked to produce a whole new design concept for prisons in Finland, but none of the staff had any experience designing jails. So three weeks ago I sent one of my project managers, Pasi Kaitila, to spend the weekend in a Belgian jail. We wanted to understand what it’s like to be a prisoner. This has given us the insight we needed to design the world’s most modern prisons in Finland. That’s how far we’re prepared to go for our clients, to understand what is needed and to understand their customers’ behaviour.
Would you say you’re a “high end” company?
We have those kinds of projects, and our work here in the UAE will be more high-end. We certainly don’t want to emulate Ikea. But at the same time we don’t want to scare people away. We had this problem when we started out that we created an image of being too high-end, and people were almost scared to approach us. So we changed our website and everything to become more approachable. Our website www.workspace.fi now features photos of us pulling crazy expressions. We want to be fun to work with.
What’s your favourite design project you’ve worked on so far?
We designed a boardroom for the board of directors at Finnair, Finland’s national airline. The brief we got was that the directors wanted to have something completely new, to change their working culture. They wanted to have a more open-minded approach in the company, and to have a space that supported that kind of culture. So we brought in seats that are like the ones you would get in the first-class section of one of their aeroplanes, around a smaller table. They just loved it. People can accomplish more with spaces that offer more open communication – that’s something we’ve really been talking about a lot.
Which areas do you expect to focus on in the UAE?
I think most of our business in the UAE will be with hotels, then restaurants, retail and offices. We have designers who have a degree in ergonomics, and we’re always focused on comfortable seating that’s good for posture and tables and chairs that are adjustable. I think there’s a market for that here.
You’ve also designed a mobile office cubicle?
The mobile office space was ordered by a very modern company who wanted to see how this kind of futuristic vehicle could fit into the modern office. It means you have a workspace on wheels so you can be transported from one place to another, in your own office cubicle. I think they still use it.
What are the worldwide trends you see happening in design?
In offices, it’s bringing the feeling of the outdoors indoors. So we might incorporate birch logs for example. In Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands they’re bored with white, grey and black and want more colours, so we’re designing more playful interiors there. In hotels, lobbies are envisioned as dynamic, multi-use spaces – for coffee, meetings or leisure. Lots of hotels are taking their slightly old-fashioned lobbies to the next level. The design could be classy, oriental, or with lots of gold and crystal but it needs to be a place where people can do what they want. We’re also seeing spas inside hotel rooms. And sustainability is paramount. In retail, outlet malls are the fastest growing sector in the world. They tend to be ugly, so I hope they don’t become popular here. A worldwide trend in developed countries is sectioning malls in terms of gender – for instance with a motor park area for men, and a designer retail space for ladies.
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