Jo Lee Magazine - Luxury Edition 2020

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Netherlands
Red Bull
By Susan Berger
New York / San Francisco / Hong Kong / London / Tokyo /
Rome / Toronto
Energy drink Red Bull’s office was designed to reflect its involvement in
sponsoring the arts and extreme sports. Following the corporate motto
“Red Bull gives you wings”, the space is comprised of unusual angles that
challenge the mind and eyes to part with convention.
The office was built in an old shipbuilding factory in the Noord district of
Amsterdam, which has undergone redevelopment to attract artists and
media companies. While the exterior of the warehouse remained
unchanged, the interior was redesigned to reflect the brand image of Red
Bull. It was planned based on the opposing nature of the human brain’s
two hemispheres – reason and intuition, good and evil, arts and industry,
light and dark. This was reflected in black and white spaces and play and
business sections. One zone consisted of meeting areas, a DJ booth and a
recording studio. Next to it was an open playground with video screens
and a bar. The canteen was called The Dive, and a neon-filled resting space
was named The Crash Room. The washroom contained mosaic walls
illustrating religious figures DJing and performing karaoke, and true to its
motto, the urinal had wings. Offices and workstations were decorated with
artwork and brand images of Red Bull cans.
The size of ten football fields, the office included studios, workshops,
offices, student housing, festival venues and restaurants. Nicknamed “angel
versus beast”, it was comprised of public and private spaces, with the beast
represented by geometric black metal and plywood structures topped with
rest areas, symbolizing skateboard ramps and mountain cliffs to emphasize
the brand’s wild side.
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