Designing a homely law office: Balancing prestige

Design: Amit Galor, Dafna Arbiv

Offices: AOi - ABADI & OIKNINE

"Micha and Dudi's requirement for the design of the offices was to create a central space that was inviting, contemporary and young, and at the same time respectable and exudes prestige befitting a law firm that represents leading clients," says designer Amit Galor, who led the design of the offices of the law firm AOi - ABADI, OIKNINE & Co. , in full partnership with the designer Dafna Arbiv.

Galor says that "after we understood the needs that Micha and Dudi raised - in terms of the number of employees, the various workstations, meeting rooms and secretaries - we issued a conceptual plan that was immediately accepted by the two founders. The work with them flowed from the first moment, the two know how to delegate authority and gave us a free hand in choosing the materials , the furniture and the colors. Of course they were presented with different alternatives and together we chose the best."

"My studio mainly specializes in the design of private homes, so the feeling of 'homeliness' is applied and evident in office complexes as well," says Galor. According to her, "the lawyers often 'spend' very long hours in the office, so it was the feeling of 'home' that guided Dafna and me - and the result speaks for itself."

As mentioned, the worldview that guided the designers was to give the hosts an inviting sense of homeliness, "and the biggest compliment we received was 'visitors' who said they felt in the public space like in an inviting home living room and/or in the lounge of a boutique hotel," says Glaur.

In the renovation of the complex, Amit and Dafna stuck to the division of the spaces into the original rooms while maintaining the existing parquet. The reception desks, on the other hand, were outdated and did not match the concept of innovation that Micha and Dudi wanted to implement, and they were changed and upgraded, design-wise and technologically.

As a continuation of the concept of "the office as a home" - works of art were incorporated into it and a library was built on the top floor with design books from various fields of interest, not necessarily from the world of law - such as wine, sports, yoga, poetry, lifestyle, and even fashion. On each floor you will find a rest room for the staff, which includes a sitting desk and a sofa to rest on.

On the walls of the offices hang works of art, some of which were carefully selected from a private collection, and some of which were specially purchased, including the work "Mosaic of the Works" by the artist Ido Marcus, which was placed in front of the entrance to the offices on one of the two work floors.

The design work of the offices took seriously the small details as well as the big ones - thus allowing each of the founding partners to have a personal touch in their room. "For example, we combined a collection of miniature dolls in one of the rooms and an original personal photo in another room," explains Galor. "In the central spaces and in the partner rooms, we combined natural linen curtains with the furniture to create a luxurious home feeling alongside a respectable professional feeling. And finally, we 'decorated' the spaces with unique decorative accessories and pottery pots combined with vegetation."

The offices were inaugurated for the first time less than a year ago in Tel Aviv, with the founding of the law firm AOi - ABADI, and OIKNINE & Co., led by co-founders Micha (Michael) Oiknine and Dudi Abadi, who served for many years as senior partners in one of the largest and leading firms in Israel. In a short time since it was founded, the ABADI and OIKNINE firm has grown and currently has 23 lawyers. The firm specializes in commercial and corporate law, commercial-civil litigation, privacy protection and information security, and more.

Following the growth of the firm, only half a year after its establishment, Amit and Dafna were asked to design another floor that the firm rented in the building. "Our guideline was to create harmony between the two floors, to maintain the design line, but in no way to 'duplicate' the design," Galor says. "Although the signature does not indicate its mass, nevertheless it seems to me that we succeeded in the task and we have no doubt that in the near future we will be able to design a third floor in the building for the firm."

"The inspiration that led us was to give the clients and employees who come to the offices a different experience of the law firm. We believe that a well-designed and pleasant space affects our consciousness, our mindset. An emotional impression of ease and pleasantness echoes a good feeling," Dafna concludes.