Client projects: Sopra Steria Cityscope

It was at the 2016 Stockholm Show that the architect Annie Vitipon discovered the Kinnarps group and its many brands. Seduced by the Swedish manufacturer's Scandinavian style, this architectural practice then wanted to involve Kinnarps in the interior decoration for its most loyal customer: the Sopra Steria Group, a European leader in digital transformation (38,000 employees in over 20 countries, turnover of EUR 3.6 billion in 2015).

The Annie Vitipon Studio had been entrusted with the major job of reconstructing the Head Office in order to make its internal architecture beautiful. The work covered the decoration of the areas designed to house 290 employees, the interior decoration and the choice of furniture.

The building is located in Rue de Presbourg in Paris, and has numerous offices, meeting rooms, and social areas spread across 8 floors, and with the following guidelines:

choose a sober background canvas (white, beige and dark grey walls; light-coloured desks, natural materials such as wood...) and then add touches of brighter colours in the seating trim (desk chairs, sofas, armchairs...). The colours selected are those in the logo: shades of red and orange, counterbalanced by a palette of complementary colours: blue, turquoise and green, the whole being deftly brought together in fabrics with solid colour and stripes.

Colour scheme - Each floor has its own colour – from the coolest on the ground floor to the warmest six floors up - and the top floor with the "Club" space provides a number of alcoves whose seating picks up all the colours found throughout the building. "This colour scheme is the unifying factor across the whole project, and creates a pleasant harmony in the decor. I deliberately played up the sober spaces which have actually become the settings for the furniture," says Annie Vitipon, the architect behind the project.

Nature - A large number of plants and quantities of vegetation bring a touch of nature into the urban spaces. The vegetation wall has a very original decorative look, but also has a number of other good qualities: heat and acoustic insulation, and removing pollution. And above all, it links human beings to their environment, helping us to forget that we are in the heart of Paris!

Art - Finally, the architect's own emotions, as a Fine Arts graduate, can be felt clearly here. Annie Vitipon was as much interested in the larger scale as in the details: a majestic chandelier in reception, an artistic wrought-iron balustrade on the stairs, statues in the corridors, paintings in the offices – the presence of works of art spreads a certain poetry through the offices, providing evidence of an openness to the power of each person's potential imagination and creativity.

It was a difficult task to decorate offices in which the beauty of Paris is spread out below each window: the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Montmartre or simply the gorgeous rooftops of the city... your eyes are inexorably drawn to the exterior. But the architect has delivered a masterpiece:  creating an interior decor where you feel good and where you can enjoy working. Dynamic, vibrant spaces for a company which has its face firmly turned towards the future.