On June 25th 2010, group8 revealed its project of new offices, the Cargo. The project embodied our spirit and identity in a space (in a context).
group8 settled down on May 20th 2010. A former industrial hall, near from the centre of Geneva, hosted the office, designed in order to make the best use of the 780 sqm and the 9 meters of height. The white and luminous space contained a hidden treasure: 16 recycled shipping containers. All of which have been travelling across the world for thousands of kilometres through the oceans of the globe. Piled up as giant Legos, the containers were preserved “as found” without any outside cosmetic transformation. This aesthetic keeps the poetry of their former use and differentiates them from the immateriality of the big neutral space they lie in. Concretely, the use of containers represents a gain of about 200 sqm, while making good use of the height within the space. By reapropriation, or following Marcel Duchamp’s idea of “ready-made”, these monumental objects acquired a new function. Modern objects and industrial space both recover a functional use which turns them into contemporary living and working spaces. The containers formalize structured collective spaces. Each container embodies a collective form or a situation of our work : meeting rooms, cafeteria, lounge zone, bathrooms and showers, etc.
The other half of the scheme is in opposition with the containers’ structured zone : an open space enlightened by natural light travelling through the glass-roof. This informal working space gathered all the employees together, generating a strong synergy of work. The second zone was composed of informal meeting spaces, radically differentiated by the containers’ privacy. The white open space gives shape to a neutral environment, necessary to a creative work. The white furniture gives a spatial rhythm through its developed skyline, like a small city inside the city. The non-repetition of patterns in the furniture design gives birth to a kind of miniature landscape, far away from habitual rigid office environments.
