Old gas containers double-up as table legs and plant pots within this office, which architecture practice Waterform Design has created for a company based in the Taiwanese city of Taoyuan.
Designed for gas providers Jing He Science, the 270-square-metre office – which Waterform Design has named Ideal Gas Lab – features a series of furnishings supported by gas cylinders reclaimed from the company's factory.
The design studio said that the use of gas cylinders, which appear in various sizes throughout the office as table legs and even plant pots, help to give a physical form to the company's invisible commodity.
"Steel cylinders which are everywhere in the office visually highlight the invisible gas," explained the practice, "thus, the invisible gas becomes a specific corporate identity."
In the meeting room, a 25-person conference table is supported by a network of rust-coloured gas barrels and cylinders, some of which have been cut in half.
Tubular and cylindrical shapes are echoed across the rest of the interior in the form of chairs with tubular steel frames, rounded orange-leather seats, and the network of tube lights and pipework that's exposed overhead.
The practice said that the material and colour palette was inspired by the company's laboratory and factory. For instance, orange was applied throughout as it's typically the colour for control-panel buttons and factory equipment.
In addition, wall panels that fade from orange to black are intended to resemble the colour of gas at different temperatures.
To mimic the rounded form of the cylinders, these ombré panels have been made to curve inwards at the office's entrance, in the meeting room, on the back wall of the kitchen and around the supervisor's office.
The practice also explained that the "lake"-green floor was designed to soften the space's "stiff lines" and foster a more relaxed atmosphere.
Waterform Design works out of offices in Taipei and Shanghai. Last year, the practice updated a 30-year-old water-dispenser factory to feature a colourful stripy facade.
Inside, the factory was decked out with a host of water-themed features including shimmering glass walls and a stainless-steel entrance that glistens like the surface of a pond.
Photography is by Kuomin Lee.
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