UBERMORGEN AGENCY
EMONTAEV M.
LABAZOV M.
The Übermorgen headquarters is a workspace of the architectural and artistic holistic agency at the PLUTON factory, designed by its co-founders Mikhail Emontayev and Mikhail M. Labazov in 2017. The office is located in the staircase tower of the old warehouse building of the tea factory named ‘Alexei Gubkin's successor - Alexander Kuznetsov & Co’, built by architect Karl Karlovich Gippius in 1912. This building later became one of the factory's administration residences. Thanks to Gippius we now owe those giant round windows illuminating the office. Presumably, these windows were originally used to illuminate the staircase, located below and connecting the floors of the building. In Soviet times the inner volume of the tower was separated from the staircase by a concrete slab and used as a ventilation chamber. The architects of Übermorgen restored the connection between the tower and the stairwell by erecting a steel staircase and organising a hatch in the floor of the room. Originally existing door to the roof became the way to the new designed deck terrace.
The current office is a space designed for intimate intellectual work. Internally, the office is zoned into a staggered vertical micro-hierarchy of podiums made out of white plywood furniture with steel frames: the lower level is a discussion and tea area; above that, there is a working area (with convenient storage cavities underneath); and even higher, beyond the walls,there is an outdoor terrace, a contemplative and hangout space with amazing views. On this terrace we are together observing the starry sky above our heads and always recalling Immanuel Kant and “moral law within us”.