Inspiring Creativity

Presented with a challenging floor plate, DWP has infused a light-filled workplace with a collaborative environment that is energising and fun to work in.

- Paul Taylor

When a commercial lease expires, it’s often an opportune time to reassess whether the existing premises really work for a business. And if not, to start afresh somewhere else.

That was the path McCann World group took occupying seven floors in a stand-alone building in a less than ideal part of Bangkok for six years.

While the move to one-and-a-half floors in Sathorn Square meant a more attractive building in a good location, it presented a different set of challenges for the design team at DWP. Regional Business Development Director Sarinrath Kamolratanapiboon, who provided creative direction, says the floor plate was narrow, and had a very large central-services core. The columns around the perimeter had also been designed for a traditional commercial interior, whereby managers had an office with a view, and the interior space around the core was allocated to staff.

“On level 25, we wanted an open plan with as much daylight as possible for staff,” says Kamolratanapiboon. “So we placed offices for the directors along the core, and managers got desks, but not enclosed offices, around the perimeter.”

This allowed managers to face and view their teams, who were accommodated at workstation configurations of six within the space available on each side of the core.

The result is that all the staff are seated in areas that are filled with natural light. That’s consistent with one of the goals McCann Bangkok CEO Monica White had for the new premises.