MONO Architects is an architectural bureau that reveals new facets of the minimalism philosophy to the world.

XINWEI OFFICE

Team

Victoria Oskilko, Natalia Shchyra, Maksym Parokonnyi, Kostyantyn Kashchuk, Dmytro Kozynenko, Oksana Sobol

DATE

2016

SIZE

1700м²

LOCATION

Kyiv, Ukraine

PHOTO BY

Andriy Avdeenko

Office-museum inspired by ancient Chinese traditions

Our design emphasizes company’s cutting edge business along with the teaching and philosophy of ancient china. According to traditional chinese beliefs, the world is made up of five basic elements: water, fire, wood, metal and earth. The permanent nature of water – to be wet and to flow down; fire – to burn and to rise up; wood – to resist bending and straightening; metal – to submit to external influence and change. The anture of the earth is to take the seed and to yield a harvest.

The main accents of the interior are giant chrome “drops” that represent the first and the main element – water. Plants located throughout the space and the “living wall” are expressions of wood and earth. Fire is brought with ward decorative lightning and in safe fireplaces that use ethanol fuel and which are lit at sunset. Finally, we introduced metal by including aircraft engine turbines in the interior.

During our preliminary planning we decided to weave together the offices, with panoramic windows and stunning Kyiv views, with the exhibition area, where chinese cultural showpieces and Xinwei’s innovative products are on exhibit. Another interesting feature is the design of the meeting rooms which are freestanding translucent cylinders of different diameters.

Another highlight of the interior is the 20-meter interactive projection along the main wall which can be easily changed to alter the atmosphere inside the office-museum.