Office · Gdańsk · 2024

A shipyard building as a loft office

A 250 m² office in one of the converted buildings of the Gdańsk shipyard. The old industrial halls have become loft offices — high ceilings, heavy walls, exposed services.

The answer

There is no dropped ceiling. Instead, circular acoustic panels float below the soffit, with light fittings and air diffusers set among them. The services stay visible while the sound is brought under control — in a tall room with hard surfaces that is the largest problem, and this is what solves it.

The density of the panels changes from room to room: closer together above the meeting and lecture spaces, more sparse along the corridor. The pattern doubles as wayfinding — the ceiling tells you which kind of room you are entering.

The meeting room opens into the lecture space through a folding wall. Used separately it seats a meeting; opened up it takes an event of seventy.

The floor is pale oak, the walls white. Colour comes from the pictures: prints of Budapest buildings along the walls, a drawn wallpaper in the waiting area. The sanitary rooms take the only dark surface — microcement in a warm tone, with a backlit mirror.

Data

Location: Gdańsk, Poland
Year: 2024
Type: Office, full interior design
Area: 250 m²
The building: Converted shipyard building
Status: Completed

Lecture space with rows of chairs, a dense field of circular acoustic panels overhead, prints of Budapest buildings on the right-hand wall and a folding wall at the far end — The lecture space opened up to the meeting room: an event of seventy.

Corridor with pale oak flooring, a sparser field of panels, a glazed meeting room to the left and building prints along the right-hand wall — Along the corridor the field thins out — the ceiling shows where the meeting rooms open.

Reception and waiting area: a white desk, drawn patterned wallpaper on the waiting wall, a black bench, circular acoustic panels and light fittings overhead — The waiting area takes a drawn wallpaper — the only patterned surface among the white walls.

Tea point with an oak run of cabinets, concealed lighting, round standing tables, floating panels overhead and exposed ductwork — Tea point: the ductwork stays exposed and the panels take the sound.

Washroom basin: warm-toned microcement walls, an oak counter, a countertop basin and a backlit mirror — The only dark surface: microcement in a warm tone.

WC cubicle in microcement with pale doors and a concealed line of light running around the ceiling plane — The line of light runs around the edge of the ceiling, so no fitting is needed.

The images are design renders

Ren Design is a Budapest interior architecture studio with work in Europe, the Gulf and South America. On this project the studio designed the whole interior of the office in Gdańsk, from concept to construction drawings. The prints of Budapest buildings return in the office in The Hague.