VTB Group Office

Range of professional tasks decided by the agency SPEECH Tchoban & Kuznetsov includes creating of interiors that invariably become a coherent part of architectural appearance of the building and continue to develop it with a maximum degree of further detail and ergonomics.

Most originally there were designed two storeys indicated for offices of the company management. Depart from the storeys’ configuration dictated by rounded form of the tower, there was worked out an original planning decision. Instead of layout with the standard orthogonal boxes, the storeys are as if divided by volumes of the offices floating in the space in pointed streamline forms with walls of glass or finished by wood panels. Due to the contrast of two alternate materials: wood and glass, the interior gets a restrained tensity advantageously shading plasticity of chamfered corners that creates a special atmosphere – energetic and comfortable at the same time. General bionic idea extends to design decisions of separate elements of the interior as well: it feels like the furniture grows from the walls, there are rounded columns and lamps resembling mercury drops. The desks were specially worked up for the each concrete office in such a way that all the curves and lugs correspond to that planning, where they will be located. It is impossible to move them to the next office or to another corner. Their position was located so precisely that special sockets in the floor were marked by a template of a paper table top in the one to one scale. A big amount of original elements of the interior hasn’t exclude interior completing with the best examples of the leading world manufacturers of furniture and lamps. In sum here are presented items from the collections of almost 100 fabrics.

Besides deciding design tasks the agency also provided a complex of measures aimed at compensation of natural mobility of such a high building as West tower (Zapad). Because of wind load, little vibrations happen from time to time and that makes impossible to fasten partitions to the upper and lower ceilings at the same time. The ceiling mount was developed individually: on the floor slab panel there was assembled a steel strap with a slot, in which a steel cap of partition is put. Underroofs were also mounted with a little clearance at contiguity to walls and columns. Thereby it allowed getting a necessary backlash in mobility of vertical elements. Created interiors in essence differentiate from those ones in so called office style. Restrained elegance, warm color range, variety of design decisions, high quality of facing and a great amount of made to order elements of interior and furniture mark out this space among featureless standards of corporate design. Even trendy blue tones are replaced here by calm beige colors. White luminous inscriptions and recognizable horizontal stripes that are used in decoration of different elements of the interior, this is what should resemble about VTB corporate identity.

Interior of the VTB Bank in the “Federation” complex belongs to the most large-scale corporate interiors ever created by the Office in the whole period of its existence. Projects were implemented in the following key areas: entry elements on the 1st and -1st floors; three standard office floors, a corporate canteen floor and two floors for the company top-management.
The most spectacular ones are the two floors designed for the company management offices. Based on floors geometry, an original planning solution was utilized: instead of division into standard orthogonal boxes, the floors were divided into offices with accentuated streamlined forms, as if they were floating in the air, with glass walls or walls surfaced with wooden panels.
Apart from the resolution of purely designer tasks, the architects provided for a set of measures to compensate for the natural movability of such a high building as the “West” tower. Slight oscillations intrinsic for high-rise buildings did not allow using the standard construction solutions for the installation of dividing walls. Instead of the usual rigidly fixed floor and ceiling, a special “floating” floor and ceiling fastening devices were designed to ensure sufficient mobility along with high reliability and safety.
Virtually all rooms were furnished with custom-made furniture: built-in closets and shelves, desks and conference-tables, reception desks and much more were designed specifically for each particular place. However, a great number of original interior elements did not substitute interior furnishing with best samples of the leading global furniture and light fittings manufacturers. Collection items of over 100 factories are presented here. The VTB Bank office interiors differ fundamentally from what is commonly considered the office style. Reserved elegance, a warm color palette, a variety of designer findings, high quality of finishing, and a great number of designer’s interior and furnishing elements distinguish this space from the depersonalized corporate aesthetics standards.