Golden A' Design Award Winner 2020
Michael Setter's Noble Energy Israel Offices exemplifies the contemporary evolution of workplace design wherein the traditional boundaries between corporate efficiency and domestic comfort have become productively blurred, creating environments that acknowledge the whole human being rather than merely the productive worker. This interior demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how material choices, chromatic decisions, and spatial organization collectively influence occupant experience and organizational culture. The pervasive aquamarine palette, ranging from the painted walls to the polished floor surfaces, establishes a coherent environmental identity while the warm wood tones of the media unit and ceiling elements introduce thermal contrast that prevents the cool palette from becoming clinical or uninviting. The decision to expose rather than conceal mechanical systems represents a philosophical stance regarding transparency and authenticity that has become characteristic of progressive workplace environments, suggesting an organizational culture that values openness and honest communication. The carefully curated shelving display surrounding the media screen transforms a functional technology integration point into an opportunity for cultural expression, the potted plants and decorative objects personalizing what might otherwise read as purely corporate infrastructure. The coral shell chairs function as chromatic punctuation marks within the composition, their warm hue and organic silhouette providing visual relief and suggesting that comfort and individual expression remain valued within the professional context. The layered screens that partially enclose the lounge zone create what might be understood as a spatial threshold, marking transition between more public circulation areas and the semi-private retreat of the seating arrangement without imposing rigid boundaries. This approach to spatial definition reflects contemporary understanding that effective workplaces require varied zones supporting different activities and social configurations. The viewer might consider how such environments shape daily experience for their occupants, and what messages about organizational values are communicated through these material and spatial choices.
Noble Energy is an independent exploration and production company, which energizes the world by safely and responsibly delivering oil and natural gas to the marketplace. Noble Energy Israel is drilling natural gas from Mediterranean reservoirs. The main inspiration of the design was the gas platform: its geometry, its materiality and color scheme, and the feeling one has standing on it.