Travelzoo Office

Dubbeldam Architecture + Design shaped the Canadian headquarters for Travelzoo, a global internet media company working across travel and entertainment. The brief asked for an interior that would carry the authority of an established international business while keeping the youthful energy of the enterprise, and the result is an unusual pairing of a loft-style fit-out inside a Class A office tower.

Set on the 23rd floor above the landmark Toronto Eaton Centre, the office looks out across the city skyline, City Hall, Lake Ontario and the CN Tower. Within a raw shell of exposed concrete floors and a textured ceiling, the team arranged the programme as a series of distinct volumes, ordering circulation, framing the views and drawing daylight deep into the plan.

Travel supplied the design language. The conference and lunch-room volumes reference the architecture of high-speed transport such as train stations and airports, while the huddle rooms and lounge areas evoke calmer destinations like cabins, parks and beaches. Travelzoo's brand palette, red for action and blue for calm, is lifted with bold accent colours throughout.

A tight budget drove a resourceful approach to materials. A cabin volume is clad in a Japanese automotive product printed to resemble timber, and the conference rooms are finished in metallic silver that catches the light like the flank of a train. The client's wish for an exposed ceiling was met with a metal mesh soffit that keeps the space feeling open while concealing the rougher structure above.

Interactive graphics reinforce the company culture. An arrivals and departures board in the kitchen tracks where staff have travelled, and the reception is anchored by a wall-mounted world map, built as a timber peg board by local maker Atelier Kozak, where employees mark the places they have visited with coloured pegs.

The fit-out covers around 446 m2 and completed in 2015.

Credits: Dubbeldam Architecture + Design (project team Heather Dubbeldam, Marisa Maggs, Rachel Tameirao and Joseph Villahermosa). Photography by Shai Gil.