Headquartered in Boston with 72 offices worldwide, Aquent is a global marketing, web, and creative staffing agency. Since 2007, Huntsman has planned and designed several regional Aquent offices in North America, all with the goal of developing and ensuring the company’s identity is reflected throughout their workplaces.

For its Boston headquarters, Aquent took the opportunity to explore a different approach to work settings: what if employees could work anywhere, have different environments to choose from, and workspaces not be department-driven?  Departing from assigning individual staff workspaces, Aquent desired a space that comprehensively creates the workplace as a series of shared community spaces rather than individually-owned workstations. 

The design concept creates distinct neighborhoods that provide a series of destinations which offer a variety of social, focused work, and leisure environments.  Each space maintains a unique personality - a terrace, pergola, back porch, library, general store, makeshift huts and garage - each capturing a blend of both a modern and natural aesthetic. At the client’s request, the natural environment was incorporated into spaces, evoking the outdoors, through the use of natural materials such as timber beams, lattice work panels, rail planters, and oversized wood doors. A concierge desk replaces the usual reception and an open café provides diverse work settings and amenities for guests and employees.