Project Data:

Completion Date:     9/1/2020

Square Footage:      60000

Building Use:           Workplace

Design Architect:      IA Interior Architects

Project Description:

Zwift is an app that brings the outdoor experience indoors, blending the fitness world with the fun of video gaming to encourage and facilitate human health and wellness. Zwift allows cyclists, runners, and triathletes at all levels to train and compete indoors in immersive 3D virtual playgrounds. To expand its Southern California headquarters, Zwift added floors 20 and 21 to its occupancy of floor 18 in a building with commanding views of the Pacific Ocean, the Port of Long Beach, and the surrounding area. Aligned with the Zwift motto “Fun Powers Performance,” the design creates a warm, exciting space for employees that inspires activity and playfulness through direct reference to the game and ensures a wow factor for guests. This project integrated the design firm's expertise in strategy, EGD, and lighting, while keeping health at the heart of the design.

The adventure begins at the elevator lobby where high-impact graphics featuring bold directional lines and vivid color create the feel and excitement of viewing a Zwift route map to prepare for a journey. Follow the flow through the portal for immediate immersion into the world of the game called Watopia, Zwift’s most popular virtual environment, and the reason that Zwift employees are called Watopians.

Each floor is individually themed, relating back to the game while introducing geometries and materiality often seen in nature. Floor 18 nods to the nearby Belmont Pier. Arched portals recall amusement park tunnels and the words “Enjoy your ride” set the scene. Enter floor 20 where a series of sculptural wood arches, illuminated from within by LED lights that extend up the arches, cross the horizontal span and continue down the opposite side, recall Fuego Flats, a canyon-inspired by American deserts. At floor 21, geometric wall panels along with light fixtures shaped like clouds reference Watopia Peaks, a fictional location inspired by the Alps. On each floor one of three brand colors are featured, with the overall use of color and pattern subtly connecting to the featured location.

At the main reception on floor 21, an interconnecting stair wrapped in perforated metal painted with a vibrant gradient of highly saturated brand colors leads to floor 20. This vertical portal encourages movement and activates the connection between the two floors, inviting employees to use the stairs in lieu of the elevators. The multi-purpose area adjacent to reception can accommodate lunch, breaks, work, or all-hands gatherings. Flexible collaboration spaces like these facilitate employee health and wellness—providing secondary workspaces in more of a work lounge set up, being able to enjoy lunch with a view, and promoting spontaneous, cross-functional collaboration.

True to Zwift’s company mission to ‘make more people, more active, more often’, the space includes two gyms, one for employee exercise and another for testing and quality control processes. At the latter, a large glass window covered with dichroic film gives employees, visitors, and recruits a glimpse of what goes into making the game.