Montreal design firm id+s Design Solutions has won the Grands Prix du Design award 2011 for Office Design excellence across Quebec ( for 20,000 square feet and over) , for the offices of THQ, an American developer and publisher of video games located at 250 St-Antoine West, Montreal, Quebec. Id+s Design has also won this year for the executive offices of Astral Media for the category of Office Design category 5,000 sq. ft. to 20,000 sq. ft.
THQ, a multi-national video games company, opened their largest development studio in Montreal in 2010, occupying 57,000 sq. ft. on 2 floors in a historic building: the former headquarters and printing press of the Montréal Gazette newspaper.
This massive studio with a 400–person capacity includes all sorts of disciplines that serve as THQ’s creative engine. The client’s objective was to maximize the number of people in a collaborative workplace setting and social zones.
The large floor plates were divided into 2 distinctive zones: a darker atmosphere was designated for the artists, a brighter outdoor setting in honeycomb-shaped workstations and wooden “skate park” platforms, for the other disciplines.
Over-sized metal poles, feed the electrical and communication cabling, and create an abstraction of trees or lampposts. Connecting these 2 zones is a giant-sized white tunnel incorporating social gathering spaces and offices.
Complimentary rooms took on a theme of their own; the lunchroom turns into an outdoor rest stop, the screening room exposes its theatrical side and conference room tables transform themselves into ping-pong tables.
The space emulates the very nature of the organization, each zone plays out as series of screen shots underscoring the culture of the multi-media industry, work at play.
Official name of project: THQ Studio
Location: 250 rue St-Antoine Ouest, Montréal
Designers: id+s Design Solutions Inc.
Project leader: Susie Silveri
Design team Stefania Pasto, Pascale Fouchard
Architect: Réal Paul
Engineers: Bouthillette Parizeau
Surface area: 57 000 sq. ft
Project ending date: 2011
Photographer: Claude-Simon Langlois
Web: www.ids-design.com
Source: v2com.biz
