When softness becomes part of the workplace

For decades, office environments have been shaped by straight lines, hard edges and efficiency. For TCC Global, we challenged that convention by asking a different question: can architecture subtly influence the way people move, interact and relate to their surroundings?

Located in the World Trade Center Amsterdam, the existing office floor provided a rational framework. TCC Global challenged us to transform it into something more experiential: an environment that takes visitors on a journey through the company and its work, while providing employees with a workplace that feels comfortable, intuitive and secure.

Rather than designing a collection of individual spaces, we introduced one continuous architectural gesture. A soft, flowing element meanders through the entire floor, connecting hospitality, presentation, collaboration and focused work into one coherent spatial experience.

The intervention does more than create a recognisable identity. It changes the relationship between people and the building.

Instead of moving through conventional corridors and entering a sequence of enclosed rooms, people are guided intuitively through spaces that open up, narrow down and gently embrace them. Curved openings frame views and invite movement, while more intimate settings create moments of shelter without enclosure and openness without exposure.

This balance between connection and retreat is fundamental to our Habitoor philosophy. We believe the contemporary workplace should not prescribe one way of working. It should offer a landscape of possibilities, allowing people to intuitively choose where they want to meet, collaborate, concentrate or simply take a moment away from activity.

Softness therefore becomes more than an aesthetic choice. Through form, materiality, acoustics, lighting and carefully considered transitions, it becomes a tool for shaping behaviour. It reduces the institutional character traditionally associated with office environments and introduces qualities more commonly found in hospitality and residential interiors: warmth, tactility, comfort and a sense of belonging.

The result is not simply a more beautiful workplace.

It is an environment that quietly encourages movement and interaction while protecting the ability to focus. A workplace that supports different personalities, activities and rhythms throughout the day, and transforms a conventional office floor into a place people instinctively understand and want to be part of.

Design team
Casper Schwarz
Iris Zumbrink
Emi Bos
Lisan Geerts