Publicis Groupe, ‘Le Truc’ Clubhouse
New York, NY
30,000 Sq / Ft
A+I collaborated closely with the French advertising giant, Publicis Groupe, to conceive of and execute an entirely new creative workplace experience, a ‘Clubhouse for Creativity,’ on a full floor at the heart of the company’s flagship building at 375 Hudson Street. Together, we set out to design a space to unlock and elevate creativity for the company’s new collective, Le Truc.
Through its development, the space became a new way to understand how creative work happens. It is a novel initiative that elevated the unique needs of the company’s creative professionals. In our strategy work, we interrogated how, where, and when ideas are formed, nurtured, protected, and made – what happens at each step of the journey, where magic happens, where things fall apart.
We designed the space as a thatch of wildly diverse environments to allow individuals or groups to move between environments that support the creative demands of any given moment. There are bullpens, auditoriums, libraries, nooks, niches, and flexible collaborative lounges near one another to enable an individual to collaboratively test an idea, or retreat to refine one.
The spaces, colors, light, and modes don’t immediately state their intention; they are designed to encourage everyone to discover where they can be creative.
Publicis formed a new collective called “Le Truc” (French for thing-a-ma-jig, or whazzit) appointing a mischievous monster as its brand mascot to represent its own collective of ‘monsters’. Irreverent in character, hidden moments inspired by the spirit of the monster are layered into the design to spark a sense of discovery and surprise.
Designed with far fewer workstations than headcount, and instead more flexible, non-deterministic spaces, the resulting environment encourages choice and fosters spontaneity. The space is defiant of hierarchy and convention; instead, it’s a fluid playground of spaces responding to how people want to work today. It looks and operates unlike any other Publicis office space.
Project Team: Phil Ward, Peter Knutson, Caren Becker, Catalina Rivera, Andrew McBride, Jonathan Elmore, Hamide Rihtim, Emaan Farhoud, Vané Broussard, Arielle Cruz, Maria Lozano, Kelsey Boyd
Awards Architizer A+ Awards Winner 2024 (Commercial Interiors <25,000SF); Interior Design NYCxDesign Winner 2024 (Small Creative Office); Interior Design Best of Year Winner 2023 (Small Creative Office); A’N Best in Design Winner 2023 (Interior-Workplace); Fast Company Innovation by Design 2023 Finalist (Workplace Design)
Photography: Magda Biernat
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