Vodafone CEC / IO Studio

Curated by ArchDaily

Architects: IO Studio
Year: 2011
Photographs:Alexander Dobrovodsky

Text description provided by the architects. The interior design of the Costumer Experience Center was etablished for the presentation purposes to the valued clients of Vodafone. The created platform allows the company's clients to get a personalised and tailored tour which reflects their individual needs and provides them with a 'know how' portfolio of the telecomunication technology and services. The show area has a familiar feel but yet boasts the most advanced technologies which introduced the customer to a wide offer of services and products.The audio-visual experience is supported by a truly strong and genuine interpretation of the whole area.

This arrangement of space which leads into the customer's tour firstly provides a relaxation zone from where the individual is intuitively lured pass the „organic walls“ towards the entrance welcome zone. The main part of the presentation occurs at the central - „Onenet“ object which leads from the back section via a narrow corridor and provides every customer with a slow transition between the real world and the reality created by Vodafone. From there they continue to another two separated and differently shaped parts where the tour comes to an end.

These strong and original creative solutions came directly from the brief and feel we received from Vodafone. The goal was to create a space which reflects this strong corporate identity.The most important role of the presentation is to focus on the complex customer solution known as the „Onenet“ product.That is the reasoning behind starting the display where we did as to capture the form of Onenet as the main central object. We designed a space and shape rich object with a significant and easy to remember feature which in turn created an urge for its exploration.

An exciting oppurtunity was creating a space on the ground floor of the Vodafone CR headquarters in direct connection with the Fuel Cafe, which we realized in 2007. The spaces are separated by a glass wall and thus in direct visual contact.Therefore the central object is designed with the main compositional accent directed at and in the plain sight of Fuel.

Optically opened by two holes which are simultaneoulsy the main conceptual elements of artistic intetion and provide an interesting throughview back. The inside building solution gives the customer an unique space expericence, evocative and touching on cyberspace.

This sensation is increased by the original and very atypically designed tailored furniture. This object due to the constructional design has a relatively large size proportion and is closer to the size of a larger garden gazebo or small building. This is why it is classified into this category of architecture. This kind of preparation and thought is what we hope to see become an example of a very original living or working building.

The designed space is located on the 1st floor of a multi-purpose building complex in Vinice, and is used for the administration and commercial purposes of Vodafone Czech Republic. This space originally costisted of 3 basic rooms and some adjoining toilets with shower. There is a culumn support system in the dimensions of 40 x 40 cm, in the module of 6.0m and 7.5m. There are 2 communication cores which occupy the space, fulfilling both a technological and reinforcing function. The communication cores serve as a distributor of the internal installation and also contains the staircase. Taking the new brief and it's limitations into consideration created these elements and put restrictions on the layout. Hence creating this tailored space taking the client's wishes and the physical boundaries into consideration.

Vodafone CEC / IO Studio - Image 12 of 23 — © Alexander Dobrovodsky

At the very beginning of the proposal the investor placed an emphasis on wanting as much of the equipment portable as possible. Vodafone plans to move in the newly built administration complex West City in Prague 5 – Stodůlky in the end of the year 2014.

This is why the whole proposal is designed to be mobile. All objects give a solid impression and that attempting to move anything is impossible without damaging it, when in fact the opposite is true. All construction is designed and prepared so that it can be completed within 5 working days, completely disassembled and transported to a new location with no detriment to the appearance or quality. The maximum size of all structures corresponds to the minimum size of door openings of a standard administrative building.

Vodafone CEC / IO Studio - Image 4 of 23 — © Alexander Dobrovodsky

Several interesting construction technologies were used in this specific building space. These spatial objects were created on a complicated-shaped steel carrier construction. We firstly composed them in relation to their size in the factory hall and then had to fit them in part by part on location.

For the peripherel shape we chose a steel tube with a 60mm diametral, the rest of the ribs were created with a steel jackel 25x25mm. Subsequently the shape was divided into segments using aluminum moldings used for the stretching of Barrisol foil. We used the combination of red and white foil as to create Vodafon's colour. Another atypical production process was that we had to produce our own custom made furniture. The material Corian was used for these shapes and spatially very complicated furniture. It is possible to bend Corian into many desired shapes using the termoforming technology and with a high level of experience. However, the actual implementation was preceded by careful in-deph drafting in 3D models. All materials used where accompanied by a large number technologies which proudly belong to Vodafone.