DESIGN & INTERIORS
TRANSLATING CULTURE INTO MODERN DESIGN
Drawing on inspiration from each of Earth’s continents, KN Group’s new ENA Campus has just been awarded the Big See Architecture Award 2023. Here, the company details how they created the vibrant coworking space and how its philosophy has informed the design process.
KN Group’s new ENA campus takes its name from the Greek word for ONE. It’s a multipurpose working campus, located in seaside Moschato, Athens, that serves as the workplace for a variety of diverse brands who cohabit the campus - from mobile-game development, social media, to telecommunications and more.
Companies like this have an international reach, with an international workforce to boot. Wander into the campus in seaside Moschato, Athens, and you’ll find a diverse workforce hailing from 91 unique countries and speaking 35 different languages. With ENA, KN Group has built a workplace where this diversity is reflected in the buildings themselves.
Each of ENA’s six unique buildings draw inspiration from one of Earth’s continents, from the huge Africa and Asia buildings which stand face to face at its centre, to icy Antarctica standing alone at the tip of the campus. The philosophy of ONE has informed the design process at every stage. From concept to concrete, ENA celebrates the diversity of its workers.
It’s a sign of the ways in which buildings are catching up to our modern, culturally diverse communities. ENA draws
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inspiration from the different vibrant corners of our world, transforming these ideas into a space people can live and work in. In the Barbarian section of its Asia building, which services a leading mobile-games company, an artificial railway network ‘runs’ through the centre, inspired by major Asian railway stations such as Moscow or Beijing. Its Tokykioski restaurant is alive with the handmade fabric lanterns and traditional wooden hand-painted dolls of Tokyo, Japan, all rendered in high-tech, synthetic materials. The fabrics of the Africa building are a fusion of patterns and textiles that celebrate the bombastic design styles of different African countries.
With ENA, KN Group has taken the idea of ONE deeper than material and interior design. The layout of the spaces, the positioning of conference and leisure centres, the style of the restaurants and canteens enable the approaches of diverse cultures to improve the working life of its employees.
The Asia building celebrates the beauty of Asian living. Metal furniture, electronic games and screens, bold graphics and neon lights are incorporated alongside melodic wind chimes, fabric lanterns, and wooden
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