It’s been almost a year since Melowntech began the reconstruction of our offices. The whole idea of the renovation and expansion arose after Melowntech was acquired by Hexagon, a global leader in sensor, software, and autonomous solutions. It quickly became evident to us that our team was about to grow exponentially and we’d need a larger and more welcoming space to work.

An architectural company from Brno, Studio AEIOU, was chosen to architect the interior. Together with Tomáš Kavan, Executive Manager at Melowntech, they redesigned the entire interior and coordinated the reconstruction project. The intention of the reconstruction was mainly to expand and modernize the offices with an emphasis on creating a pleasant and comfortable working environment. The offices are located in the Prague River Business Center on Strakonická Street, near Císařská louka. The building boasts magnificent views of the Vltava River and its banks. Therefore, the office design was tailored so that the tables and places for employees are on the side overlooking the river, and the relaxation and technical parts of the office are on the opposite side.

The interior of the office is modern and timeless; we used an industrial palette of materials, like white furniture with simple and clean design, but at the same time, the interior does not feel cold and austere. The dominant feature of the offices are the cylindrical rooms (tubes) situated in the middle of a large open space. Each of these rooms has a specific purpose (dining room, kitchen, relaxation room, and a small meeting room). An interesting feature of the dining room and relaxation room is the vertical carpet inside and outside of the rooms, which not only fulfill a design function, but are a kind of anti-stress element of the office. Our colleagues have a lot of fun stroking, painting or writing with their fingers on the shaggy and soft carpets, especially during long phone calls. The reconstruction itself took about 4 months, from May to August 2020, and was supervised mainly by the management of Melowntech, Tomáš Kavan and Veronika Vlachová.

A few words from the architects:

The proposal consists of maintaining the existing principle of an open space and adding new material for more spatially defined functional spaces. Cylindrical rooms are placed in the middle of the layout and partly around the perimeter in contrast to the open work space. The rounded shapes respond to the triangular floor plan and create a smooth transition between the work and multi-purpose zones. In addition to the functions inside the cylinders, it also creates areas in close proximity for variable use, such as relaxation seating, areas for gatherings or company presentations and exhibitions. At the same time, it creates an imaginary security filter to maintain privacy in the work area. Last but not least, the functions and overall visuals are complemented by a diverse range of materials, loaded with both color and haptic variety. The heart of Melowntech’s research and development department is formed by a brainstorming and relaxation room with a dining room in the middle of the layout, where the most important and valuable activities of the company take place. Therefore, the sides of the materials were conceived differently, comfortably and tactilely unusually, both by the inner and outer carpet cladding. Other volumes are translucent polycarbonate, wood, plasterboard, and glass. The creation of an industrial environment was the intention from the very beginning. The author’s supervision during the implementation was performed by the AEIOU studio.