Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, Dual Purpose Office Design by Teodora Panayotova and Max Baklayan

Exploring How Transformative Workspace Design Helps Brands Create Award Winning Offices that Blend Professional Excellence with Community Building

What if corporate headquarters could lead a double life? Picture walking into an office at nine in the morning, surrounded by polished concrete, professional meeting rooms, and the focused energy of a financial institution. Now imagine that same space at seven in the evening, transformed into an intimate gathering venue where colleagues bond over conversations beneath soft neon glows and atmospheric lighting. The dual-purpose workspace concept represents precisely the creative territory that designers Teodora Panayotova and Max Baklayan explored when they received a fascinating brief from Tavex, a prominent gold and silver bullion trader with operations spanning multiple European countries.

The challenge was delightfully ambitious. Tavex needed a regional headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria that would serve as a beacon of pride for over one hundred employees scattered across cities including Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Bucharest, Belgrade, and Athens. The space needed to project corporate credibility during business hours while simultaneously functioning as a venue where teams could decompress and connect after the workday concluded. The resulting 490 square meter office became a masterclass in spatial transformation, earning a Golden A' Design Award in Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design.

For brands considering how their physical environments communicate identity and foster culture, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project offers remarkable insights into the possibilities of intentional design. The workspace demonstrates that offices can transcend their traditional single-purpose limitations when designers approach spatial challenges with creativity and strategic thinking.

The Philosophy of Work and Play as Architectural Principle

Every successful workspace begins with a guiding philosophy, and the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde office operates under a principle that sounds paradoxical until you experience the space: Work and Play, but never mix the two. The guiding principle does not involve separating fun from professionalism through physical barriers. Instead, the approach represents a sophisticated understanding of how the same environment can support radically different activities through thoughtful design interventions.

Tavex operates as a financial institution where trust, stability, and credibility form the foundation of client relationships. Trust, stability, and credibility needed architectural expression that visiting business partners would immediately recognize and respect. Simultaneously, the organization values employee wellbeing and team cohesion, understanding that colleagues who bond outside of transactional work interactions often collaborate more effectively during business hours. The design team faced the task of honoring both needs without compromising either.

The solution emerged through what might be called architectural shapeshifting. During working hours, the space presents as a sophisticated corporate environment where the industrial minimalist aesthetic conveys professionalism and forward thinking. Glass-walled meeting rooms allow visual connectivity while maintaining acoustic privacy. Two balcony floors accommodate offices, training facilities, and collaborative areas. Everything about the daytime configuration supports focused productivity and client confidence.

When evening arrives, subtle environmental shifts transform the character of the space entirely. Neon lights emerge, low-hanging bulbs create intimate pools of illumination, and LED arrays across the library area establish an atmosphere more reminiscent of an exclusive lounge than a corporate office. The transformation happens through lighting design rather than physical reconfiguration, meaning the space can shift personality without requiring staff to move furniture or activate complex mechanical systems.

The shapeshifting approach offers valuable lessons for brands seeking to maximize the utility of their real estate investments. Rather than constructing separate facilities for different organizational needs, thoughtful design can allow single spaces to serve multiple functions with integrity and grace.

Design Thinking Methodology in Corporate Environment Creation

The design process for the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project employed design thinking methodology to address a central question: How do you accommodate all employees, provide them with their necessities, maintain an overall airy feel, and give the space a split personality? The central question guided every decision from material selection to furniture placement.

Design thinking begins with empathy, and the design team invested significant effort in understanding the daily routines and needs of the people who would inhabit the space. Through communication with Tavex employees, patterns emerged regarding how different team members work, what resources they require for productivity, and how they prefer to interact with colleagues throughout the day. The research phase prevented the common mistake of designing for abstract user personas rather than actual human beings.

The problem definition phase crystallized around the dual-identity challenge. The space needed to feel appropriate for morning client meetings where multimillion dollar precious metals transactions might be discussed. The environment also needed to feel inviting for Friday evening gatherings where employees from different departments could build relationships over casual conversation. Morning client meetings and evening social gatherings traditionally demand opposing design approaches, which made the creative challenge particularly stimulating.

Ideation produced the concept of environmental transformation through lighting rather than physical reconfiguration. The lighting-based solution meant that the fundamental spatial arrangement could remain constant while the emotional character of the environment shifted dramatically based on time of day and intended use. The custom work-time lights became a key innovation, creating what the designers describe as an invisible rift between workspaces. Employees can feel appropriately isolated for focused individual work while remaining visually connected to the broader environment and their colleagues.

Prototyping and testing occurred through close collaboration between the design team and Tavex leadership throughout the five-month project timeline from February to July 2020. The iterative approach allowed adjustments based on feedback rather than assumptions, resulting in a final product that genuinely serves the intended purposes.

Material Palette and the Language of Industrial Minimalism

The material selections for the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project communicate specific brand values while creating sensory experiences that support both work and play modalities. Industrial minimalism served as the overarching aesthetic framework, chosen deliberately for the ability to inspire corporate confidence while simultaneously breaking from conventional office design expectations.

Polished concrete establishes the foundational visual language. Polished concrete conveys durability, permanence, and no-nonsense professionalism that aligns well with a financial institution dealing in precious metals. The honesty of concrete as a material, with its unapologetic presentation of its own nature, reflects the transparency and straightforwardness that builds trust in financial services relationships.

Marble imitation introduces sophistication without the maintenance demands of natural stone. A six-meter island bar dressed in black marble creates the primary visual anchor upon entering the space. The dramatic bar element immediately signals that the environment takes design seriously while serving practical functions as both a kitchen preparation area and a social gathering point. The scale of the bar feature prevents the element from feeling like an afterthought and instead positions hospitality as central to the organizational culture.

OSB panels and metal rails introduce warmth and industrial texture that prevent the space from feeling cold or sterile. OSB panels and metal rails acknowledge the creative, forward-thinking aspects of the Tavex brand identity while providing visual interest that keeps the environment engaging over time. Employees who spend forty or more hours weekly in a space benefit enormously from visual complexity that rewards attention rather than demanding attention.

Persian rugs scatter throughout the space, introducing unexpected softness and color that create zones within the open environment. The Persian rugs as traditional elements contrast beautifully with the industrial materials, suggesting an organization comfortable with holding multiple truths simultaneously. A company can value both innovation and heritage, both efficiency and comfort, both corporate performance and human connection. The material palette expresses the organization's sophisticated worldview without requiring verbal explanation.

Lighting as the Primary Transformation Mechanism

Light orchestrates the dramatic personality shift that makes the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project architecturally remarkable. Rather than relying on moveable partitions, sliding walls, or furniture reconfiguration, the designers invested their transformation energy entirely in lighting systems that change the emotional temperature of the space without altering the physical arrangement.

During business hours, daylight enters through expansive windows supplemented by clean, bright artificial lighting that supports focused work and accurate document reading. The daylight illumination profile creates appropriate conditions for spreadsheet analysis, contract review, and the careful attention to detail that financial transactions require. The brightness levels and color temperatures support alertness and cognitive performance throughout the working day.

Custom rail lights become particularly important for managing the work environment. The made-to-order fixtures allow individuals to adjust their immediate lighting conditions without affecting colleagues in adjacent areas. The resulting flexibility means that the open floor plan maintains collaborative advantages while still permitting the personalization that different work styles require. Someone who prefers slightly dimmer conditions for computer work can achieve the preferred setting without forcing nearby colleagues to strain their eyes over paperwork.

When seven o'clock arrives and the professional workday concludes, the lighting transformation begins. Neon installations activate, casting colored glows that dramatically alter the emotional character of the space. Low-hanging bulbs create intimate illumination zones that encourage small group conversations. LED arrays across the library shelving establish visual interest that draws attention and creates a sense of discovery. The overall effect transports occupants from corporate efficiency into relaxed social territory.

The transformation happens through technology rather than labor. A few switch adjustments or automated schedule triggers shift the entire environment from workspace to venue without requiring anyone to move furniture, hang decorations, or perform setup tasks. The efficiency of the lighting-based approach means that after-work gatherings can happen spontaneously rather than requiring advance planning and preparation logistics.

Creating Regional Pride Through Architectural Excellence

Tavex operates across multiple cities and countries, with employees distributed across Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Bucharest, Belgrade, and Athens. The geographic distribution across multiple countries creates organizational challenges around culture, identity, and belonging. Employees who work in satellite offices can sometimes feel disconnected from the core organizational identity, particularly when they rarely visit the headquarters location.

The design brief explicitly addressed the regional identity challenge by requiring that the regional headquarters serve as a source of inspiration and pride for all employees regardless of their usual work location. When team members from Athens or Belgrade visit Sofia, they should immediately recognize the space as worthy of representing their collective professional identity. The environment should make visitors feel welcome and proud rather than like visitors to someone else's territory.

Architectural excellence serves the regional pride goal by creating a physical manifestation of organizational values that transcends geographic boundaries. When an employee from a smaller satellite office visits the Sofia headquarters, they encounter an environment that communicates the same brand values they experience in their daily work, elevated to an aspirational expression. The space tells visiting employees that their organization invests in quality, values innovation, and takes seriously the environments where people spend their professional lives.

The previous Tavex corporate office had earned multiple interior design recognitions, establishing a precedent that the new space needed to meet or exceed. The recognition history raised the stakes for the design team and motivated creative solutions that pushed beyond conventional corporate interior approaches. The recognition from the A' Design Award jury validates that the ambitious goals were achieved. Those interested in exploring how the dual-purpose transformation was accomplished can discover the award-winning dr. jekyll and mr. hyde office through the official design showcase, where the full scope of the project reveals itself through detailed documentation.

The inclusive character of the space reinforces organizational values around welcoming all people and encouraging collaboration. Glass walls throughout the office maximize visual connectivity, preventing the hierarchical separation that private corner offices traditionally create. Executives remain visible and accessible, which communicates flattened organizational structures and open-door policies through architectural choices rather than policy memos.

Balancing Openness with Privacy Through Spatial Strategy

One of the most sophisticated achievements in the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project involves maintaining the airy, open feel that makes spaces pleasant while still providing adequate privacy for focused work and confidential conversations. The balance between openness and privacy proves challenging because the two goals exist in natural tension. More openness typically means less privacy, and vice versa.

The designers resolved the openness-privacy tension through strategic deployment of glass walls and thoughtful spatial arrangement. The two mirroring meeting rooms near the entrance feature towering glass walls that maintain visual connectivity with the broader space while providing acoustic isolation for sensitive discussions. Occupants of the meeting rooms remain part of the visual environment, reducing the exclusionary feeling that solid-walled conference rooms often create, while still enjoying the privacy necessary for client consultations or personnel conversations.

The balcony floor arrangement adds vertical dimensionality that creates natural separation without walls. Employees working on the upper levels benefit from perspective on the activity below while enjoying psychological distance from ground-floor traffic. Vertical separation through balcony floors creates privacy through distance rather than obstruction, preserving the open sightlines that make the space feel generous rather than cramped.

The custom lighting system contributes significantly to the privacy-openness balance. By allowing individuals to create localized light conditions that differ from their surroundings, the fixtures establish perceptual boundaries without physical barriers. A workspace that appears slightly dimmer than neighboring areas reads as more enclosed and private even though no actual walls separate the workspace from adjacent areas. Psychological privacy through lighting complements the physical openness beautifully.

Training zones and office spaces occupy specific areas within the overall floor plan, creating functional neighborhoods that naturally group similar activities together. Colleagues engaged in focused analytical work cluster near other focused workers, while those with more collaborative roles position themselves near conversation-friendly zones. Organic clustering of work styles emerges from spatial design rather than rigid assignment, allowing the office to adapt as needs evolve over time.

Future Implications for Multi-Purpose Corporate Environments

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project offers a compelling model for how organizations might approach workspace design as real estate costs rise and employee expectations evolve. The traditional approach of constructing single-purpose spaces and maintaining separate facilities for different organizational functions becomes increasingly difficult to justify financially and environmentally.

Multi-purpose design thinking allows organizations to extract more value from their real estate investments by enabling single spaces to serve multiple needs at different times. A conference room that transforms into an event venue, an office floor that becomes a team celebration space, a reception area that converts to a workshop zone: multi-purpose adaptations maximize utilization rates and reduce the square footage organizations must maintain to support their full range of activities.

Employee expectations around workplace quality continue intensifying, particularly among knowledge workers whose skills allow them geographic flexibility. Organizations competing for talent must offer environments that enhance rather than diminish quality of life. Spaces that support both productive work and meaningful social connection address the expectation for quality workspaces directly, positioning employers favorably in competitive talent markets.

Sustainability considerations also favor multi-purpose approaches. Constructing and maintaining multiple separate facilities requires more materials, more energy, and more land than housing equivalent functions within shared spaces. Organizations committed to environmental responsibility can demonstrate environmental responsibility values through design choices that minimize physical footprint while maximizing functional capability.

The lighting-based transformation approach pioneered in the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project suggests particularly promising directions for future development. As LED technology advances and smart building systems become more sophisticated, the potential for automated environmental transformation increases dramatically. Imagine spaces that adjust their character not just at scheduled times but in response to occupancy patterns, calendar events, or even biometric indicators of occupant mood and energy levels.

Closing Reflections

The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde office demonstrates that thoughtful design can resolve apparent contradictions between competing organizational needs. By investing in transformation mechanisms rather than fixed configurations, by selecting materials that support multiple moods, and by understanding deeply how employees actually live within their workspaces, Teodora Panayotova and Max Baklayan created an environment that serves dual purposes with integrity and grace.

For brands considering their own workspace investments, the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde project offers inspiration and practical lessons about the possibilities of intentional environmental design. The recognition from the Golden A' Design Award jury confirms that ambitious approaches to multi-purpose corporate spaces can achieve genuine excellence when executed with care and creativity.

What might your organization's workspace communicate if the environment could speak with two voices, one for focused professional excellence and another for human connection and celebration?