Obrela Security Industries – Operations Center

This office in Athens is the brick and mortar working space for a company that provides exclusively web services such are real time monitoring for threats in the cyberspace.

We were commissioned to expand their security operations center, which quadrupled in size and moved to a dedicated floor. The task at hand was to give form to the immaterial nature of the program while balancing the ratio between work to leisure areas.

The central operations room is situated in between the North and South facing windows, at the center of the floorplan, with supportive and leisure spaces occupying the lateral and better lit areas. Being the backbone of the design, a curved video wall screen is installed so as to allow views from personnel and visitors alike: the gaze towards the screen from the reception area coincides with the focal point of a concave mirror, one emitting instead of reflecting rays of light.

A break-out area next to the operations room is divided with a self standing metal grill divider, while next to the south facing windows two meeting rooms accommodate informal meet-ups.

At the wide corridor behind the video wall, where presentations and brainstorming take place, a long lit wall sheds a strong artificial light.

The immaterial dimension of the architectural design is reflected on the materiality, colors and textures of the intervention: black, light-absorbing surfaces, light emitting walls covered in polycarbonate sheets, perforated metal grills, translucent sand blasted glass walls and anodized aluminium cupboards and dividers. The overall grey appearance of floor, ceiling and surrounding walls accentuates the devices’ reflections and ambience.