The Theater a Client Built Twice: The Offices of Deluxe, a Foreign Media Company

If the same client entrusts a second office to the same team, what carries over from the first space? After building its Korean branch office with SPACEBASE, Deluxe, a global media company, entrusted its second office to SPACEBASE as well. The first project turned a single floor of 94 pyeong (about 311 m²) into a "movie theater," and the second turned three floors totaling 228 pyeong (about 754 m²) into an "open-air theater." This article puts the renderings and completion photos side by side to show how the same theater motif carried over and expanded across the two projects.

Deluxe is a global media company founded in 1915 that does business in video translation and subtitling services. Its Korean branch had been using a shared office and planned a move to a space of its own, at a time when growing demand for content in Korea was increasing the workload.

The first project was completed in March 2023 and the second in September 2024. The two completions are about a year and a half apart, which hints at how fast Deluxe was growing.

A movie theater concept that started from a red circular logo

First project (March 2023): 3D rendering of the meeting room area. A glass-partitioned meeting room sits under a red circular ceiling, with a red curtain placed on the right.

First project (March 2023): Completion photo of the same area. A glass-partitioned meeting room sits on a gray circular carpet under a red circular ceiling.

The first project's RFP (Request for Proposal) set out a workspace for 30 people, meeting space, a budget, and logo guidelines. On top of that came a request to study Deluxe as a company and stage the space with a mood that suited it. The RFP fixed which spaces were needed, but we had to decide what atmosphere those spaces would have. We presented the proposal by video to Deluxe's contacts, who joined from three countries.

The concept started from Deluxe's red circular logo. Looking at the logo, we immediately thought of the red curtain of a movie theater, and, reflecting the identity of a company built on film and video work, we set "movie theater" as the spatial concept. The theater atmosphere came into the office through a red curtain, a curved ceiling, and circular lighting. So the answer to the request to study the company came from what Deluxe already had: its logo and the nature of its business.

The first office, built as rendered

First project (March 2023): Rendering of the logo wall (3D). The logo sits on the wall of a round column under the red circular ceiling, with a red curtain continuing beside the column.

First project (March 2023): Completion photo of the same area. The logo is on the wall of the round column, and the red curtain continues beside it.

Put the rendering and the completion photo of the logo wall side by side, and the composition is the same: the round column and logo, the red circular ceiling, the gray circular carpet, and even the red curtain beside the column.

First project (March 2023): Under circular lighting, red velvet curtains surround the walls of the meeting room.

At SPACEBASE, after showing a 3D rendering, we hold a separate "finishes meeting" where we show the actual materials that will be used. The texture and color of finishes can't be fully captured in a 3D rendering, so we check them in this meeting. The order is to read the layout of the space from the rendering and to confirm the finishes with real materials.

First project (March 2023): An open work area with white desks and chairs. A column with a vertical-groove finish stands in it.

The first space held a work area for 30 staff, 4 meeting rooms, 2 phone booths, and 2 QC BAYs for checking audio and video quality, and an outdoor terrace was built as well. Design took 4 weeks and construction 40 days.

From 94 pyeong to 228 pyeong

Second project (September 2024): A yellow chair and a low table sit on a round platform in front of a sheer curtain.

The second project began for the same reason. Demand for content in Korea had grown, the workload had increased, and the space had to be expanded for the added staff. Deluxe moved to a different building and took three floors, at 76 pyeong per floor and 228 pyeong in total (about 754 m²), roughly 2.4 times the first project.

The number of staff grew from 30 in the first project to 80. The second project holds 4 meeting rooms, 4 open meeting areas, 6 phone booths, and 6 QC BAYs. Compared with the first, the number of meeting rooms is the same at 4, while phone booths and QC BAYs each went from 2 to 6.

As the organization grew and more QC BAYs became necessary, expanding the space was unavoidable. While the headcount rose by about 2.7 times, the QC BAYs tripled.

The way people gather changed along with the floor area. The first space was too small for a shared lounge, so it had only an internal cafeteria. The second has an open-plan shared space where all-hands meetings can be held.

From theater to open-air theater

Second project (September 2024): Rendering of the town hall and cafeteria area for 45 people (3D). A red circular carpet is laid in front of a curved counter, with stepped benches on the left.

Second project (September 2024): Completion photo of the same area. Under the arched sign structure, the curved counter and the red circular carpet sit in the same spots as in the rendering.

Satisfaction with the first concept was high, so we wanted to carry the "theater" into the second project as well. Doing the same design twice, however, risked lowering satisfaction. So we extended the theater motif of the first project and brought "the romance of an open-air theater in nature" to the whole office.

There were two more reasons for choosing an open-air theater. We wanted to apply biophilic design* for the staff's health, and we judged that an open-air theater would be more romantic than a theater and offer more fun design elements. The open-air setting let us handle two things within one concept: carrying on the "theater" and bringing in nature through biophilic design.

*Biophilic design: A design approach that brings natural elements and patterns into a space, on the premise that people have an instinct to connect with nature. It is known to help reduce stress and to support concentration, creativity, and health (Terrapin Bright Green, 2014).

The area in the renderings and completion photos is a town hall and cafeteria sized for 45 people. Stepped benches and a lounge continue right in front of the café, so one area serves as both cafeteria and town hall, and it is composed as a theater-style structure to give it depth and mood. The bar (counter) design applies inspiration taken from the ticket booths outside old movie theaters.

The red curtains and circular carpets show up in the second project's photos too. In the first, a gray circular carpet was laid and the meeting room walls were wrapped in red velvet curtains. In the second, the circular carpet is red and a burgundy curtain hangs inside the arched window.

Second project (September 2024): A burgundy curtain hangs inside the arched window, and a long table sits on a red circular carpet.

Second project (September 2024): A long bench runs along the wall beneath two arched windows hung with burgundy curtains.

The second project took a calm red tone and wood as its base and added the warmth of natural materials. For the finishes, to bring an outdoor mood, we used beige specialty paint, wood, and brick. Specialty paint and brick are materials used outdoors, and the shared lounge was handled with them as well. Bringing outdoor finishes indoors follows from the open-air theater setting. The signs use movie genre names such as DRAMA, COMEDY, and THRILLER.

Second project (September 2024): Close-up of the 'DRAMA' sign.

Second project (September 2024): A wood-finished partition and brown booth-style seating.

A company that puts soundproofing first

For a company that works with video and audio, soundproofing was a condition to weigh from the start in both Deluxe offices. In the first project, the soundproofing performance of the studio mattered because of the nature of video work, so we put weight on sound-insulation design. The audio and video QC BAYs in the second project required specialized construction, from soundproof doors and sound-absorbing finishes to dedicated audio equipment.

Deluxe's head office has its own standards for QC BAY design. The positions of cameras and speakers are set according to internal standards, and the walls and ceiling must have sound insulation and sound absorption so the audio can be heard clearly. The flooring has to be designed so equipment can be repaired or moved easily, and the floor plan has to be designed to block the paths of outsiders, with an area restricted to outsiders as well. Apart from the soundproofing and sound absorption, the rest concerns how equipment is handled and who comes and goes. A QC BAY is a space where, along with sound, equipment and security have to be settled at the design stage.

Soundproofing was a variable from the building contract stage. For the second project, the plan was to use one of the three floors as a basement level with more floor area than the above-ground floors. While the contract was in progress, the SPACEBASE team visited the basement floor, and the vibration felt strong. It turned out to come from a subway line passing nearby. We told the client, and it was decided to lease a different floor.

Subway vibration is hard to block with interior construction. So a company that needs a lot of soundproofed space should check the vibration and noise on site before finalizing the building contract.

When you take on the same client twice

Taking on the same client's project again changes how much information you can confirm at the design stage. A SPACEBASE designer puts it this way:

"When you work with the same client again, you come to know the client's needs in much more detail. The people who use the space have their company's characteristics so ingrained that they can't explain them well, but after two projects, you know the company's needs better than its own members do."

The more familiar a trait is to the members, the harder it is to put into words, and so it tends not to be written into the RFP either. That we could decide in the second project to carry on the "theater" without repeating the same design was also because we already knew how satisfied they were with the first concept.

A company rebuilding its office can start by sorting what to carry over from the first space and what to change. Deluxe's second project kept the "theater," scaled up for the larger headcount and QC BAYs, and added a new space where all-hands meetings can be held.

You can see all the photos in SPACEBASE's portfolio, at Deluxe, first project and Deluxe, second project.

👇🏻 If you're preparing a Korean branch office, read these together.

Office Interiors for Foreign Companies: Three Roles the Korean Branch Space Plays

What to Know Before Fitting Out a Foreign Company's Office: From Branch Office Registration to Restoration to Original Condition

*Photos and design courtesy of SPACEBASE

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