SAY Studio Refreshes LinkedIn’s MENA Headquarters
02 Feb. 2023For the refresh of LinkedIn’s MENA headquarters at Business Central Towers in Dubai, SAY Studio drew inspiration from the diverse landscape and history of the city.
Through color, texture, pattern and art, SAY designed each floor to connect people to one another and with Dubai. It was a priority for the design team to create a community of new experiences that brings employees closer together with their teams, encourages them to explore the office, and features creative design elements that reflect the city of Dubai.
“We come from all over the world, but SAY was born in the U.A.E. We share a love of this city with LinkedIn.” says Laila Al-Yousuf, Design Director of SAY Studio. “The stories of LinkedIn and Dubai share common threads for their origins, growth, community, and connection. These threads are woven together throughout the space in the materiality and manifestation”
It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood! A blended, neighborhood layout balances workstations with work points to foster a “new way of working” – LinkedIn MENA transitions from assigned desks to a dynamic work environment.
How Do You Wanna Do This? Desks have been turned into alternative settings to promote more flexible working styles and use cases by providing a variety of options to encourage deep focus, informal collaboration and formal meetings.
Meeting Needs Hybrid collaboration as the norm. Meeting rooms with state-of the-art technology have been planned to embrace hybrid work for a clear, collaborative experience.
Becoming Pod People Phone booths provide additional, soundproof work points to allow for focused work, 1-on-1 collaboration, and, of course, a place to take a call.
LinkedIn Learning IRL The Training Room provides a space dedicated to learning and development. Demountable partitions allow the space to be flexible.
What Have You Bean Up To? Stop counting calories, start making connections! The cafés on both floors accommodate co-working spaces to share both a meal and ideas.
If These Walls Could Talk Actually, they do! Bold, vibrant, graphics throughout the office are inspired by the region, and QR codes digitally share the story behind the graphics in each meeting room.
High Standards as Standard Through the use of sustainable and biophilic strategies, the project is targeting LEED® Gold and WELL™ design philosophies.
Managing Director of SAY Studio, Matthew Sexton, says, “Future-focused clients have embraced hybrid working, but LinkedIn pushes the envelope through their dynamic work environment. Their workplace provides employees with flexibility to work however they need to with a blend of spaces.” LinkedIn provides opportunities for people to create new contacts and partnerships to make them more productive and successful. The aim in designing their refreshed regional headquarters is to embody these concepts in physical spaces that represent LinkedIn’s mission. Their dynamic work environment gathers teams in neighborhoods and provides a variety of workpoints to allow staff to choose how they work. The graphics, furniture and finishes ground the spaces in the history of the city of Dubai.
