The tech-office has become a recognisable workplace typology breeding both innovations and cliches in equal measure. With global ambitions searching for new markets these firms often require a local office where the resulting spaces can speak volumes about the culture and character of the companies they house.

Airbnb has always had a ready concept from which to draw their design inspiration – having long designed their offices to reflect the living rooms of the houses and apartments that make up their product. Paris is built for just such an approach. The façades and large blocks of Haussmann’s Paris are heavily and perhaps thankfully regulated, making them practically unchangeable. This focuses renovations and additions onto the interior where basements, attics and combining spaces help those in search of larger floor plates to find the space they need in the city of lights.

Requiring space for their 60 local staff, Airbnb attacked this project in-house with the design driven by their own team of interior architects supported by the local branch of Studios Architecture as architects of record. The collaborative team worked to their respective strengths with the in-house team synthesising the culture and direction of the company and Studios offering an experienced hand in navigating the often opaque Parisian building process.

Stepping off the elevator onto the sixth floor, one is greeted by a plant-filled greenhouse in a space that is both larger and lighter than one may expect. The concept of a string of connected living rooms is clearly understood, with each room having both a distinct character and large doorways connecting the warren of spaces together. In a larger space, it might be confusing, but at this scale where rooms remain legible, the meeting rooms and work areas take the best features of an open-plan office while creating a range of open and closed work environments. It takes stepping out onto the small rooftop balconies to remind oneself you are opposite Garnier’s Opera House and in the centre of Paris.

The introduction of a hospitality lounge is a feature unique to the Paris office as designer Rebecca Ruggles explains: “Paris is more focused on community engagement, and therefore, it was a priority for them to have a hospitality lounge, now called Le Nid [The Nest], where they can host external events, lectures, and meet-ups for the public. This is unique to all Airbnb offices.”

As with all Airbnb offices throughout the world, a local approach to design was encouraged, continues Rebecca: “The open office and other public spaces, however, are always meant to reflect the local culture. It’s important that they feel like an Airbnb office, but that each one is unique to its specific location and feels like home to the employees who work there.” In this case, the bones of the old building, beams, skylights and trim were retained and exposed to form a Parisian core to the office.

Rebecca is quick to point out that Studios and the Airbnb team made time for the details, sourcing a lot of the furniture in small batches locally. “We mixed that with a variety of vintage objects from Paris’ famous flea markets and modern furniture designed by famous French designers.” In a city like Paris where food takes such a central role, it is perhaps no surprise the local staff had one core request of their design team.

“We also adjusted the programme to emphasise spaces that were more important to the local team,” Rebecca continues by adding: “For them, the kitchen is the heart of the space and where they gather daily to share meals. It was a priority to highlight that space and make it the heart of the office.”

The design team had a rich history to choose from when it came to material and detail selection with liberal use of oak herringbone floors, exposed beams and original mouldings. Where modern materials were used, the design team took a deliberate approach, as Rebecca explains: “When we used more modern materials, we selected patterns that reference a more traditional style – like the acoustic panel wallcovering in the small meeting rooms and the patterns on the carpet tile.”

After a couple of months and now having settled in, there have been a few surprising developments as a result of the office move. As a mobile workforce most staff had used laptops with larger desktop screens; however, the office proved so cozy the staff requested the desktop screens be removed to lower the barriers between people. With no monitors and a domestic scale to both the layout and details, the office really does feel like a group of people working in their living room.

Airbnb has an aim for its users to feel like they can belong anywhere. This requires a careful balancing of interests where the interaction with Airbnb and the sale process is as consistent as possible, meanwhile the location, price and experience sought by users can be as wildly different as a French chateau or a Mongolian yurt.

Studios and the in-house team at Airbnb have attempted a similar trick with the design of the Paris office. There are no fixed desks, yet the designers have made sure the range of spaces available to work, meet and play means there is a space to suit all tasks, groups and attitudes.

Anything that functions like it should while appearing effortless is the surest sign that it took a lot of work. But for a company whose business is a marketplace of other people’s comfortable living rooms, they made it look all too easy.

Travelling for work
Airbnb’s headquarters in San Fran provide a sense of adventure.

At T999 Brannan, the new 14,000m² office for Airbnb in San Francisco, each space is designed to reflect travel destinations around the world.

Designed by Airbnb’s Environments team with local architecture studio WRNS, each floor is styled with the colours, patterns and materials of a different city, namely Buenos Aires, Kyoto, Jaipur and Amsterdam. Additionally, the interior of each meeting room is inspired by existing Airbnb listings around the world.

The centre of the building houses The Castle, which is created using vertical pinewood strips that emphasise the verticality of the atrium and play on the castle shape created by the floor levels. On an upper floor, The Boat is a whimsical feature that can be used for private meetings.

Office spaces are comfortable and domestic, with soft furnishings and a mixture of standing desks and communal tables. These are divided into 16 neighbourhoods that house up to 50 people each. The building houses over 1,000 staff.