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Cool Workspace: Quietly’s Converted Two-Storey Apartment

This Gastown office gives the phrase "work from home" another meaning.

By Stacey McLachlan / August 30, 2017

This Gastown office gives the phrase “work from home” another meaning.

Why does the Gastown office of content developer Quietly feel so homey? Probably because it actually used to be someone’s home.

“It used to be an apartment,” explains Michael Ciebin, VP of Operations. “The building is a live-work space so we wanted to keep that theme and functionality when we planned the design, layout, and seating arrangement.” So when the company’s 25 employees come to work, instead of a standard reception desk, there’s a functional home kitchen, a dining table and living room awaiting them on the main floor, and desks set up in former bedrooms upstairs. Home sweet home.

Check out more pics from Quietly’s office below!

The art is curated by Untitled Art Space, who installs a new batch of artwork by local artists every four or five months (which Quietly celebrates with a launch party each cycle).

The living room is used as a hangout space, but also for working and meetings. The office is furnished primarily with Ikea pieces.

“We have assigned our teams to seating areas by department, but once a year we reassign these teams and areas so everyone gets moved,” says Ciebin. “It’s a fun opportunity to get to know a different part of the office and we find it’s a refreshing change to keep things interesting.” Since everyone works on laptops and store their documents in the cloud, it’s usually a smooth transition.

Ciebin’s favourite thing about the office? “Every window has a view…the city, ocean and mountains,” he says. “I also really enjoy the architecture of it, lots of interesting shapes, angles and unique spaces.”