by Douglas E. Gordon, Hon. AIA
Executive Editor

How do you . . . symbolically connect people of dramatically different countries through interior design?

Summary: When Nokia, a high-design-minded cellular provider based in Finland, decided to concentrate on the burgeoning market potential in South America, they wanted a symbolic link. The Dallas office of Leo A Daly, working with the firm’s Miami office, provided it with a 10th floor suite in Miami—considered the gateway to Latin America—and a design theme of fire and ice linking Nordic to Latin in an interactive, employee supportive way.

Recently recognized by the American Society of Interior Designers Texas Chapter with its 2008 Design Ovation Award in the category of corporate spaces over 5,000-square feet, the 25,000-square-foot Latin America Headquarters for Nokia, completed in the fall of 2007, employs materiality and color to achieve its fire and ice theme.

“Creating the new Latin American Headquarters for Nokia in Miami represented an exciting design opportunity for our team,” says C. Mark Seiley, AIA, vice president and managing principal of Leo A Daly Dallas. “We are truly honored to have this project recognized for its design excellence.”

The symbolism of color
Through materials, lighting, and color, the interior design brings people into the top floor of a downtown Miami building to a place that is not of Miami, explains designer Sonya O’Dell, who worked with Leo A Daly on the project. The elevator lobby—the public entry point—features slabs of frosted, back-lit acrylic that wrap from wall to ceiling. White ceramic tile flooring and white panels carved with birch-tree patterns add to the arctic presence of the Nokia parent company, originally a wood-pulp and rubber manufacturer and now a worldwide presence in multimedia telecommunications based in the monumental techno-Modern Nokia House research and development headquarters complex in Espoo, Finland.

"At Nokia we have a very human approach to everything we do,” says Vivian Kobeh de Palacio, the Nokia Latin America Headquarters director of communications. “Our Miami office reflects this spirit, just as most of our offices worldwide. A spirit that goes beyond the individual to embrace the whole world in terms of environmental friendliness and concepts such as equality and diversity."

“Fire and ice was the Nokia design group’s idea,” O’Dell says. “They were wonderful clients. They wanted a unique, contemporary, and cutting-edge marketing center to reflect their product line to potential customers. In Finland there are a lot of birch trees.”

Maple-colored composite board encases several columns and wraps its way from the floor up behind the reception desk and across the ceiling. The effect is to connote the trees that are as much a part of Finland as the ice, brought to mind with cool blues and whites predominately in the elevator lobby and reception area. And, although the project designers didn’t go for LEED points, they did want to be as sensitive to sustainability as possible, including abundant natural light.

A tour around the office
The Magnus Olsen seating in the reception area is all white leather and white-coated metal, O’Dell says. “The chair arms have little LCDs with advertising of the Nokia products, which the marketing department keeps updated so you can see the newest Nokia product developments as you’re sitting there waiting to go into a meeting.”

Immediately to the right of the reception area is the Experience Center, with the latest telecommunication devices tethered to acrylic bases for visitors to try out. “So you get the icy display look as you’re experiencing all these fabulous models,” O’Dell says.

Continuing to the right around the rectangular full-floor office plan is the primary conference room, which is enclosed in frosted glass panels with transparent strips that expose the intense orange tones of the room’s sliding doors. “This is where you’re going from the cool area to the warm,” O’Dell explains.

The transition from ice to fire, and frequent views of and illusions to water reference the ties among Finland, the Miami location across the Atlantic, and the Latin American countries the headquarters office serves. As they moved their Latin America headquarters from Dallas in 2006, Nokia conducted an extensive search for a new location, including all the major cities in South America. They selected Miami because of its ready resource of highly educated professionals fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and because of Miami’s role as a gateway hub to all of Latin America. Miami International Airport is just to the south of the headquarters office.

All the areas are connected and oriented around the edge of the building. The next area beyond the conference room is the coffee and lunch area, what the client calls a “coffee point,” O’Dell says. “It’s a gathering area for coffee and catered meals during meeting days. It’s large with lots of red. And as you continue around you get to the reds and oranges together along the back, with open workstations with glass fronts looking out to beautiful views of downtown Miami and the airport.”

Facilitating high-tech road warriors
At the Nokia facility, there is a core group that maintains the headquarters functions and a larger group of people constantly on the road. The highly flexible workstations to accommodate short-term visitors was a strategy to save space, O’Dell explains. The mobile-office workstations feature wheeled tables, moveable dry-erase board panels, and computer docking stations.

"The materials, colors, and light chosen for this office provide a sense of comfort, but also of openness and innovation where everyone feels invited to share a working experience,” notes Kobeh. “The mobile-office workstations translate into an efficient and clean environment for people to complete their tasks either on regular basis or while they stay in Miami for specific cross-functional projects.”

The building’s perimeter circulation pattern returns one, then, back to the reception area and a hand-painted water mural. “It’s all symbolic,” O’Dell concludes. The design links occupants to the fire and ice of the target market and corporate origins, and, with every room having a huge window and captivating views, the office is always very much a part of Miami as well.