An Industrial Evolution
How can workplace design encourage interaction on an intuitive level? Pixel Factory for Hyundai Card in Seoul is a workplace with a raw, industrial edge designed to encourage innovation and real-world collaboration among digital natives.
Over the past 12 years, South Korean credit card brand Hyundai Card has evolved from an emerging player in the financial services world to a confident and established company embracing new technologies. Its new workplace, Pixel Factory, was conceived as a space to foster innovation across the business as a whole, and is a reflection of that growth.
“In the beginning, the workplaces were sophisticated and timeless and employees needed to adapt to that environment,” says Philippe Paré, Principal and Managing Director at Gensler’s Paris studio. Gensler has been working with Hyundai Card since it was established. “Pixel Factory, however, is about the environment adapting to employee needs. The client asked us to envision the space from the perspective of an employee and their day-to-day experience.”
As the credit card industry has become increasingly digital, Hyundai Card has recruited more digital talent, and a driving force behind Pixel Factory was the need to create an environment that would attract and retain these digital natives. “The client wanted a workplace that felt like a start-up,” says Paré. “It needed to have a level of informality and flexibility that would foster a culture of curiosity. So, we had to reinvent what the workplace meant in the context of Hyundai Card.”
To create an authentic canvas for a “start-up” culture in the new workplace – which is located over the third and fourth floors of a building owned by Hyundai Card in Seoul – the team stripped back the space entirely, leaving the raised floor unfinished and the ceiling exposed. A simple monochromatic colour palette with bold industrial accents has been used throughout the fit-out, alongside raw materials and unadorned fixtures, such as cold-rolled steel, milled timber and industrial lights.
One of the major challenges was to ensure ample opportunity for real-world interaction between employees in an environment that is largely focused on digital communication. “It was important to create a variety of spaces so that interactions can happen more frequently and faster,” says Paré. “We had to make sure that technology and the interior architecture wouldn’t get in the way of spontaneous encounters.”
As a result, the majority of the space is open and flexible. Each team has a home base, but employees have mobile pedestals that can be parked into a long counter or be moved around as needed. Likewise, all technology equipment stands on casters – rather than being built into the joinery or interior architecture – so it can easily be moved to where it’s needed. When the technology becomes obsolete, it is easy to replace. “In this world, change is the only constant,” says Paré. “The less we design around technology, the more flexible things remain. What is more important than technology is to make sure that we engineer opportunities for interaction between employees from different teams.”
The open work floor is balanced by a number of informal meeting areas and spaces for collaboration – including a business and tech library by reception, bleacher seating for casual presentations, and a number of freestanding “floating” meeting rooms that can be reconfigured as needed. Tea points are centralised on each floor to force people to naturally move through the space and come together; and plants are used to define social hubs. “Informal ways of exchanging information are typical of tech companies,” says Paré. “So it was important to put that front and centre.”
One of the most defining features of the open space is a bright yellow “conveyor belt” above a snaking communal table crafted from concrete. The conveyor belt supplies power and data in a flexible way – as well as carrying light fittings and sprinklers – while the table offers various points at which to gather. The ceiling height beneath the conveyor belt has been strategically lowered at certain points, creating a sense of place and making the rest of the space feel expansive.
“We wanted to transform something ordinary into something extraordinary by tweaking it,” says Paré. “By painting a necessary, functional element a bright colour, we turned it into a visually iconic feature that helps organise space in a workplace where there are few walls. It makes sense of everything.”
In South Korea, where workplaces are still typically hierarchical, Hyundai Card’s Pixel Factory represents an entirely new way of approaching workplace design. Here, there is no hierarchy and a more entrepreneurial spirit in terms of how the space is used to encourage ongoing collaboration and interaction. “We have challenged the notion of what an office is in South Korea,” says Paré. “It is a counterpoint to what is expected, and has been embraced by employees. They have truly made it their own and it has set a new standard at the Hyundai corporate campus. That’s very satisfying.”