Airbnb’s latest office has once again been created by their in house Environments Team in collaboration with local architecture studio Heneghan Peng. The new Dublin office will house over 400 staff, covering a range of teams from customer service to legal. This is the first time that Airbnb has been able to take a space within a new building. This offered the unique opportunity to apply major interior structural changes that may not be otherwise possible. The office is designed to cultivate a sense of community, collaboration and interaction.
Small individual desks are replaced by large central communal tables which facilitate sharing in a way that individual desks could not. The vast majority of the lighting and furniture in the office was made by local Dublin design firms. A dramatic cascading central staircase forms the main point of focus of the office. Coined the ‘Agora’, it connects the first floor to the basement, unifying the various floors. The staircase serves multiple purposes, from providing a large conference space to creating a relaxing environment for individual working.
The Environments Team worked closely with Airbnb’s Dublin Management to design a space that suited their needs. Key learnings from the Portland office showed that employee visibility was an issue. Having a space that allows staff to sit anywhere in the office made it difficult to communicate. The Environments Team therefore designed the space ensuring line managers had sight of all staff, creating a modular open structure where spaces are defined but not closed off. As with other Airbnb offices, some of the interior design takes inspiration from listings around the world.
The Airbnb office was completed in July 2016 and took 18 months from start to move in. Credits: - heneghan peng architects