City Habits, Urban Materials

In the heart of Rotterdam at Blaak 16, we designed and realized the new office for Dupi Insurance Group on the 6th floor, in 2017. The floor offers a sublime view over the city with all its daily habits, which inspired our interior design. Outward-facing, open-minded, bold, minimalist yet with a playful touch. This matches the people at Dupi, who have been specialized providers and market leaders in insurance and professional services for the international shipping and transport, dredging, construction, trade, and energy industries for over 30 years.

The interior concept we developed is CITY HABITS // URBAN MATERIALS. The city plays out outside, but the office needed to feel the same. The heart of the floor is the brasserie, built as an elevated terrace of paving stones with a crosswalk where brainstorming, lunching, socializing, and celebrating take place. A large island covered in tiles reflects the urban metro character.

The central core is covered with life-sized facade bricks like those found in the city. Surrounding the core are gallery walls with relevant art and niches displaying treasured items that reflect Dupi’s relationships. These walls enclose functional spaces such as repro rooms, restrooms, and the cloakroom. Around the central core is the “street” where people move, meet, and collaborate. Along the facades are workspaces in the open space and meeting rooms. Storage space is becoming less common in the office, but instead of hiding files in a closed room, all documents are now stored in the ‘yellow studio job cabinets.’