deardesign studio completed a design that was both minimal and colorful for the Atrium of Entertainment Science Campus in Madrid, Spain.

deardesign studio has conceptualized the interior design of the atrium of the Madrid Content City university campus, an exemplary training space that, with an area of 145,000 square meters, will become the second largest audiovisual production center in Europe.The campus brings together, under the same concept, all levels of higher education through the iFP professional training center and the new university school of entertainment sciences, THE CORE, who led this project.

The atrium is located in the Entertainment Science Campus, which is, in essence, the nerve center and connection hub of the university, and its’ most iconic place. The challenge was to conceptualize a spatial identity that would convey the spirit and personality of the first audiovisual entertainment sciences campus in which all users would feel identified. In addition, it was necessary to create a space with enough versatility to be used in a timeless way and equipped with the latest technologies.

For all these purposes, deardesign has created a versatile and modern-looking space that facilitates interaction between students and professionals who work at the university. The idea was to design an emblem, inspiring and multifunctional space for learning. And as the result: an arena featuring an open stage for presentations, conferences or informal meetings and a multilevel seating area allowing different seating formats were created.

Around the arena the collaborative spaces such as co-working areas with work tables and meeting rooms equipped with screens fitting 2 to 5 people and providing visual and acoustic privacy have been implemented. Workspaces have also been placed on the rest of the space, next to the coffee break point. All of these areas offer flexibility to maximize user comfort and optimize teamwork performance.

Ecodesign philosophy
Following the studio’s own ecodesign methodology, all the custom-designed furniture in the common area was built from recycled materials. As for the standard furniture it has been chosen based on the ecodesign criteria or cradle to cradle certification, a concept that literally means “from cradle to cradle” and defines manufacturing processes aimed at recycling, starting with the design itself. So that a product life end does not generate waste, but becomes a new beginning of subsequent production.

The objective has been to create a healthy environment for the user that favors productivity and interconnection, on a day-to-day basis, between students and professionals to maximize their creativity and talent.

Beyond interior design
Basically, this design project has sought to reflect the essence of the audiovisual industry and generate healthy spaces for users and areas for collaborative and individual learning. On the one hand, it has managed to maintain the formal aspect that was developed from the beginning by providing new sustainable materials to enhance the atrium as a space for meeting, experimentation, creation, dissemination of knowledge and celebration.

On the other hand, deardesign studio has also worked on the creation of a digital tool that facilitates interaction between students from different disciplines to develop different projects. It is an app that connects the needs between students in an agile way and contributes to solving projects with the minimum possible time.

Design: deardesign studio
Design Team: Ignasi Llauradó, Carles Margineda, Aya Ulan, Vanessa Ephrem, Albert Cano, Eumo estudio
Photography: Aitor Estevez