This Office Is a Gym at the Same Time

Inteltion, an IT consulting service company, housing 60 employees that often work long hours at the clients’ offices taking care of computer systems, has now become a playful, much-needed time-out space from the everyday office stress. This Bangkok space is a renovation project designed by creative studio Onion that took into consideration the fact that the employees are present at the office only when waiting for a new client, and created a space accommodating meetings with clients and encouraging socialising.

Onion was mostly concerned with the ‘office syndrome’, characterised by employees suffering from health problems due to body postures at work and lack of exercise. Hence, the decision to offer a healthy environment where people can feel motivated to challenge their sedentary lifestyle. By observing physical activities at public parks in Bangkok, the designers decided that the tools in the office should be simple, playful and easy to build. 

Moreover, the tools are organised by areas, ranging from easy to difficult exercises, where an iron tube is a dominant feature as it functions as handrails at the office entry, seating and table structures in the middle of the room, and exercise bars at the rear of the office. What else? Bouncy yoga balls, one continuous iron bar connecting conference tables, magnetic checkers on the charcoal black walls, and conference room tables encouraging the after-hours ping-pong matches. An often empty office became a jungle gym for both exercising and socialising.