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With connection at heart & mind, thought-leading advertising agency Ace recently opened its doors to their team, their clients, their colleagues and their new neighborhood.
The newly built building in Amsterdam’s harbor area (the Houthavens) hosts 11 different advertising-related agencies that are combined into one super-agency; Ace.
The foundation of Ace is bringing different people together on creative challenges for brands; people from different backgrounds and with different areas of expertise. Because when people get together, the true magic happens; cross-pollination of great ideas and visions. Ace’s new office perfectly translates their Club-philosophy where work and social gathering seamlessly blend by inviting employees and clients to meet each other in areas of interest beyond work. An enticing, inspiring and flexible place to be that complements working from home.

About the space
The ground floor is fully designed to make things happen - ‘create waves’ - and make a positive impact on society. Anything should be possible. You may attend a lecture, have drinks at the bar, hang out, present your work, meet new people, put products on show, feel energized and inspired, throw a party from time to time, attend workshops, withdraw with only you and your laptop or have any kind of meetings. A hyper-versatile floor that meets your needs, whatever your mood.

About the design
Key-words to help designing and defining Ace’s space are ‘authentic’, ‘bold’, ‘cultured’ and ‘energizing’.
Except for adding a huge void to allow for the central staircase, the architecture was left untouched and the interior was added to the building as a separate layer.
TANK chose a toned down color palette, combined with authentic materials like timber and hemp. The bright red staircase at the core of the space is the bold statement that emphasizes connection and opinion.
The use of biophilic design resulted in abstracted islands with surrounding paths that could be interpreted as water and walls with hemp finishing that refer to layers of sludge.
Upon entrance, a clear path guides you through two XL-timber seating islands, following its way under the eye-catching staircase, straight to the round, concrete bar. To easily make your way and feel at ease, all shapes are either rounded or have rounded corners.
But it’s not all nature and zen that spin the space, funky and cheeky interventions are all around:
The reading table is adjustable like a scissor lift so it can either be a table for weekly meetings, a product display-area or even become a catwalk.
The round conversation pit allows for closed off meetings and can be transformed into a central stage
The giganormeous chandelier over the bar is the obvious gathering point
The chef’s table serves to have lunch but works as a meeting table or workshop-bar too.
Other than that, of course functional single-use spaces are available as well. A sound studio, a prayer room, a pump room, meeting rooms, a wardrobe and gender neutral toilets support Ace’s unique event space at ground level.

KEEPING IT REAL

Adyen has opened its headquarters’ doors in the former Hudson’s Bay department store in Amsterdam, designed by Amsterdam-based interior design studio TANK. TANK designs offices that encourage encounter, involvement and cooperation. The interior design for Adyen reflects the company’s ambition of achieving every kind of connectivity: with each other, with the market, with the city and with the wider world.

Core values and design
TANK has taken Adyen’s core values as the inspiration for its design: transparent, open, fast-moving, straightforward, connected to the rapidly changing world, focused on meaningful interaction and unafraid to follow its own path. These values translate into a design that offers a versatile, personal and professional interior with expertly planned, flexible and sustainable workplaces. To retain the existing ‘department-store feel’, all floors remain open to let in plenty of daylight and provide space for abundant natural greenery. Furniture with low contours maximizes the views and offers a sense of space, connecting inside with outside on every level.

Connectivity is key
The office should invite people to relax and connect, as individuals and as teams. The interior design underlines this connectivity throughout the building in several ways. A shared staircase unites all floors, providing a social space for spontaneous encounters and phone calls. Communal areas on each floor provide places to meet, consult and collaborate, without disturbing colleagues engaged in more concentrated tasks. With an emphasis on togetherness, Adyen had decided to create a large, knock-out kitchen serving lunch for the whole team in a setting that offers stunning city views. The kitchen is flexible and can easily be converted into a workspace.

Materials and sustainability
TANK loves to use the everyday in unexpected ways as a source of inspiration and recognition. For example, it has had the building’s former sanitary facilities and old roof tiles ground down and turned into unique bricks. These have been used to produce custom-made furniture pieces. The entire 17,000 m² office consists of only 20 interior elements that recur in alternating patterns

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Tuning into the building's 70's architecture, Mediapark's entrance hall was designed accordingly.
The brutalist reception desk is fully covered with pebbles and features bold wooden details.
The timber wall panelling and soft rounded shaped furniture make sure you feel as welcome as you should feel upon entrance.

Triangular headquarters

COD truly lives up to the 'put your money where your mouth is'-principle.
Developing the unique NHow Rai-building gave them the opportunity to occupy one of the triangular neck-floors provided with amazing terraces overlooking the whole of our beloved capital.

WORKING GRAND

The Strawinskyhuis offers a boutique-workplace for professionals.
The materials and colors chosen for the interior are based on the original building's building period. Travertine, neutrals and timer set the tone for a grand space, heaped with daylight.

The Strawinskyhuis is situated on a prime spot in the most prestigious business district in the Netherlands; the Zuidas. The boutique property will be redeveloped into high-end, sustainable offices by Flow real estate.

Redevelopment of a 70’s office building into an advanced office building, answering to the highest level of sustainability, technology and health.
The atrium in the middle of the connecting office towers will be covered by a big glass dome to become the building’s beating heart.

TANK designs the complete ground floor, providing large scala hospitality facilities, boardroom areas, reception area and auditorium.

Total sqm: 48.000. Tenants: APG, Alliander & Intertrust
Architecture: Architecten Cie

the way we work today

The TANK Station is designed and run by TANK Amsterdam. With our family of inner space-makers, we amended the boundaries of the working environment, from solid desks to a connective experience where social transactions are fueled and inspiration can flow freely. Here our TANKs are being fueled with energy to battle, play, connect and and create.

PLAZA & VERGADERVLEUGEL

Forget about invisible grey, sweaty offices, boring civil servants, bad air and a lack of view; for the municipality of Amsterdam we made the City Hall's bar, work- and meeting-areas are as welcoming as the city of Amsterdam itself.

Design engineering and execution in collaboration with De Twee Snoeken.

HOW BIG? IT'S MASSIVE!

A grand welcome to the Massive Music headquarters. Massive Music is an international music agency with its roots in Amsterdam - to be specific, on the 15th floor of the A’DAM Tower. The company believes in the social value of music and how it transforms the way people connect and interact. The design for their office had to be bold, urban and inviting. Resulting in long hanging concrete desks, jam-lounge and a multifunctional kitchen element that functions as bar/dj-booth and lunch table all at once.

GLOBETROTTERS HQ

David Lewis’ DJ’s and personnel are true globetrotters. The new David Lewis headquarters had to emanate that on-the-go nature. At the same time it had to offer a home-away-from-home to those who regularly, or occasionally, touch base in Holland’s capital.

The interior with bespoke presentation furniture fits perfectly with the company’s international and innovative character. It showcases a variety of design snuffs such as lighting in the shape of zebra crossings covered by a subway style block roster and window frames shaped like steel pillars like on a train platform.
TANK designed the custom made tables using wooden beams coated with epoxy (resembling railway ties) and industrial steel framing.
The whole space is executed in black, gray and white tones, giving a couple of interior elements the chance to really stand out. For example the world map in the main meeting room, where all DJ’s are ‘pinned’ to their current location, and the super green plants surrounding the entire office space. Special tanned barn wood covers one-third of the walls, completing the office with that homey touch.

A true mad men office...