The Orange Grove is an initiative of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Athens and its Greek-Dutch partners to help counter youth unemployment and brain drain. Orange Grove is the result of a collective effort of a large group of Dutch and Greek people and organizations: Dutch companies with a long presence in the Greek market, Greek businesses, universities, individuals with links with both countries.
Through its design the project tries to inspire the user, the young entrepreneur, by incorporating in the architectural design some of the keypoints of the Orange Grove project, which are mobility, flexibility and connectivity. Mobility is expressed by making all elements mobile. All furniture is positioned on wheels and even the closed meeting space and concentration spaces can be moved around using the especially positioned track.
Through this mobility full flexibility is achieved and the space is fully adaptable to any function. During the day the working space can be transformed to allow any form of cooperation. And with the help of flexible space dividers, at any point of the space, a seperate area can be created, for presentations or meetings, up to clearing all furniture out of the way for a conference of 250 people. Connectivity is the direct consequence of this. In order to work on a specific spot or in a specific layout one just pushes the furniture in place, plugs in the power cable to the wall socket and connect to the world.
The project was made possible fully through sponsoring and support of Dutch and Greek companies. Therefore financial possibilities were limited. Nevertheless this was seen as a challenge to express what can be achieved with limited means, again giving a positive message to the future users. Specifically was chosen for a bright colourful and inspiring character of the space, with extended use of graphics and symbols refering to industrial and harbour environment, the Netherlands and Greece, and obviously to oranges.
Material Used :
1. Coco-mat - Custom furniture
2. Arper - Chairs
3. Philips - Lighting
