Forest

Eda-archi was engaged by Manulife, a financial planning and insurance company, to design their new office in Yangon, Myanmar.The project started in December 2019 in Yangon and completed in May 2020 during the COVID-19 period to provide a space of 1,200 square meter for total of 120 staffs which reflects their brand mission with a touch of professional and clean environment. Envisioned as an office that would allow employees to embrace the goal as “customer first” while working in the office spaces, Eda came up a concept of as a forest of people and trees as Manulife's services hub incorporating different purposes of the office operations.
Upon entering the office, visitors will be greeted by a warm and inviting customer service counters, featuring a harmony of marble and timber appearance wall decoration with the accent of Myanmar traditional touch for the waiting area seating. The creation of multiple spaces catering for different requirements has been the unique idea of the project which includes offices, customer service area, and training facility for agents. The open concept layout serves dedicated zones for workstations, communal spaces, work cafes and meeting rooms. Starting from zoning of different operations, we categorized different uses of the spaces and find the interactions between zones. Each zones are interconnected with the central focus of customer service area. Each zone is strategically planned to strike a balance between collaboration zones and quiet spaces for individuals. The interiors are completed with brand identity theme, corporate colors of company, environmental wayfinding solutions that harmoniously enhance the functionality and aesthetic of the space. The U-shaped space made it difficult to connect two sides of the space. A connecting corridor is inevitable but we have arranged common uses of meeting rooms and phone booths with decoration of corporate branding. The corridor therefore becomes lively and optimized as a way for interactions rather than just passing by.