MICHAEL ON DESIGN

 

TripKing was a start up company specializing in planning trips for American drivers. Basically the idea was to help drivers sight seeing along the way, book hotels, find restaurants and other places of interest that would make their journey more interesting, rewarding and entertaining.

TripKing leased a 4,000 sf warehouse space in Salem MA and asked us to come up with something different, interesting and visually unique.

We looked at the 4 brick walls in the long rectangular space, the rows of narrow deep symmetrical windows, high wooden ceiling and exposed timber frame and decided it all looked very, regular, ordinary and predictable.

 

Our response was to insert something into the space that would be a counterpoint to the brick envelope. That something was a vigorous mix of materials, shapes, solids and voids that created unique relationships between the regular and the irregular, the ordinary and the unordinary and the predictable with the unpredictable. The stripped down structural honesty of the building was pitted against the random order of the ‘accidental’ shapes and spaces within.

The most interesting shape was the bathroom enclosure which was a tilted conical section made of painted sheetrock, semi-transparent plexiglas and wire mesh. This curved, swooping shape was placed adjacent to tilted flat sheetrock walls with jagged edges, cut out windows, varying heights and vibrant colors.

The composition, as a whole is unique, memorable and interesting. Working in the open space was interactive and inclusive as the transparency between and among spaces naturally broke down the hierarchical social barriers within the business organization.

Tags: Commercial Design //