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By Audrey Phoon

IF out-of-the-box office design equates to unconventionally shaped rooms and funky furniture, then it's only fair to call that of Simon Chrisandra Associates' (SCA) new workplace not just out of the box, but out of this world.

After all, you don't usually find things such as a rock-climbing wall, cable-car cabins and barbecue pits inside an office - features which the interior design firm is incorporating into the building that it will move into come May.

The 24,000-square-foot premises - a collaborative design effort by the SCA team that is estimated to cost at least $500,000 - will also be home to theatre company Wild Rice, which SCA is sponsoring in terms of office space for the next three years (the partnership, says SCA chief executive officer Brandon Liu, will allow the two companies to 'work off each other's creative synergies'). As such, it will house open-concept rehearsal studios as well, one of which will be as spacious as the Esplanade's biggest.

Says Mr Liu: 'Creating this sort of an environment works well for us because it's a place for our team to play, get creative and develop themselves. Work is not restricted to each person's desk; we are a creative studio and how we get creative is by interacting with one another.'

Creative spaces

In the new space, then, staff of SCA and Wild Rice have a choice of working within sealed-off 'quiet rooms'; common breakout areas equipped with swing seats and couches; or creative spaces that resemble gardens dotted with cushions and poufs. Meanwhile, in between work or outside office hours, there's the aforementioned rock wall to climb, barbecues to hold and games of pool to shoot; some time down the road, the company plans to 'introduce more activities within the office culture' such as movie screenings and taichi sessions.

'We encourage staff to come in on weekends and use the facilities,' says Mr Liu. 'We're quite people-orientated and we don't want our staff to just work and go home. These facilities will encourage bonding, which is very important because these are the people whom you want to be committed to the team.'

The design of the space, which used to be a technical institute, isn't just gunning to connect with its new users. It also aims to link up with history, plus there's a sustainability factor as well. For example, giant chalkboards that serve as notice boards in the breakout areas hark back to the building's former function, while a trio of cable-car cabins (which SCA bought over from Mount Faber Leisure Group last year) 'adds a Singapore context to the building', explains Mr Liu. He adds: 'It also gives them a new lease on life, as with the premises.'

For now, the upcoming SCA-Wild Rice office is certainly a standout project, but if the number of lifestyle-centric office projects that the design firm has been involved in lately is anything to go by, that direction is where more than a few other workplaces are heading as well. Says Mr Liu: 'The trend is definitely growing. We are doing a lot of agile workspaces for our clients; companies are moving towards fewer individual spaces and more collaborative spaces.'

Whereas five years ago SCA was working with one company per year to design unconventional offices, he observes, demand for such workplaces has since risen by 'at least 20 per cent'. And even government bodies - usually the most conservative of businesses - are preparing to crack convention. Says Mr Liu: 'We have already had queries from two of the government offices on developing flexi workspaces.'

This article was first published in The Business Times.

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