Office for Align Technology Inc.

The team of Gint-M has completed the delivery of an office project for Align Technology Inc., one of the global leaders in innovative medical technologies. A standalone 1,100-sqm building is located in Danilovskaya Manufactory Business Park at 9 bld. 1 Varshavskoye shosse, Moscow. As a general contractor, Gint-M performed the entire range of general construction and engineering works.

This is not the first office of Align Technology Inc. in Danilovskaya Manufactory. As the company’s business and staff keep expanding, extra space becomes one of its basic needs. The challenge bogged down to creating modern space near the existing office in Meshcherin BC, where in addition to working zones, walled offices and meeting rooms, a spacious showroom was to be designed, where the company would be able to demonstrate its developments including 3D digital scanners as well as aligners used in contemporary orthodontia and allowing tooth position correction without traditional brackets.

The office, taking the company’s needs into account, is designed in a three-storey building featuring a comfortable and functional space without explicit visual or hierarchic zoning and yet giving a sense of comfort and safety.

The ground floor welcomes visitors with a snow-white reception zone, with a showroom right behind it. The latter occupies almost an entire floor and is split into separate thematic units. Most “charismatic” here is the zone with a dental chair and a huge 1,000-lux lamp whose radius reaches 3 meters.

Also accommodated here is a meeting room where the company meets with its clients, discusses innovations with partners, and arranges conference calls.

A rather austere innovative style with domination of light hues was chosen for the entire ground floor. Cast-in-place micro cement floors, decorative stucco on the columns, artificial moss on the ceiling are out of whack with the white walls, diluting the grandiloquence of the space and making it more dynamic, whereas the dichroic “iridescent” film covering the glass walls of the meeting room adds a colour accent to the interior.

The first floor hosting the working zones of line managers and administrators flaunts a more informal style. Despite the background colour scheme capitalizing on neutral light hues as well, bright colour spots are scattered all over the office. Thus integrated into the open space zone are multicoloured niches with tables and eye-catching comfortable sofas where you may hold fast informal talks, work alone, or make a phone call.

The first-floor meeting room is notable for “theatre lighting” – the opaque space relaxes discussants and enables an open exchange on any business issue without excessive strain.

Three walled offices for the CEO on the first floor are designed in a rich colour scheme. A turquoise kitchen with bright lamps bolsters the concept of colour accents in the interior. Bathrooms on the floors have their own colour each.

The engineering services that overload the ceiling space of the first floor are partly engaged in the new project. The “corners” of the ceiling space in each zone are covered with gypsum plaster, but in the center utility lines are laid bare and painted white. A special emphasis was placed on lighting scenarios. In the office, including in public spaces, lighting is engineered in the way that allows the adaptation of lights to a specific agenda.

Informal space featuring a bar counter, bar chairs with tall backrests, and a coffee point is created between the ground and first floors. The team of Gint-M has designed and built a staircase leading here from the ground floor. A LED band integrated with this bar zone mirrors the structural arches of the ground floor and serves as a stylistic link between these two spaces, whereas a large window with riverside views makes this zone one of the most popular ones in the office.

“Given that this building had different functionality and therefore different safety parameters, the latter had to be revised with the emergence of the new office. Thus the team of Gint-M performed the fire risk calculation and on its basis decided to replace the doors for the sake of providing appropriate escape routes; also to replace the façade windows with opening lights,” says Business Development Director of Gint-M Artem Panteleev, commenting on the project’s specifics. “Our team also created anti-fire shutoffs – structural elements meant to shut off air flows and in this way to hamper fire travel in the event of fire outbreak.”

The upper entresol actually built in the first floor volume is sheer classics. Its walls and ceiling are buttressed by a framework of girders covered with a special protective compound in line with the fire safety standards. This level is totally dedicated to open space that also includes eye-catching “isles” for informal talks as well as a coffee point. A small relax zone with small upholstered sofas, armchairs and low tables is arranged near the staircase flight behind the glass partition.

“The new office appeals to our employees, since everything needed for comfortable and productive work can be found here: diverse working zones, informal spaces, chill-out areas with riverside views where one can relax at a cup of coffee,” says Administrative Director of Align Technology Inc. Victoria Klepatskaya, commenting on the project. “In spite of the fact that the project construction occurred at the time of the pandemic and substantial “labour” restrictions, the contractor was able to meet the set deadline and the quality of all works was uncompromising.”

Align Technology

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