Collective Architecture has completed the design of the Expel offices, a startup cybersecurity company located in Herndon, Virginia.

Expel describes its corporate culture as an irreverent tribe focused on helping customers love security, rebelling against the status quo and getting $#*! Done. Expel’s work is meaningful: they keep corporations safe from cyber bad guys.

This fast-growing company displays its whimsical personality through design at its 9,900 SF headquarters expansion. Expel’s business is based on transparency, which is also a running theme. Another important element is creating an environment where employees can do what they love.

Collective Architecture used a welcoming coffee shop as the primary design concept. This theme resonates with millennial’s and allows for a central, multi-purpose collaborative space. Diverse space typologies promoting individual work and performance as well as team interaction also are featured in the design.

The office is highlighted by polished concrete floors, natural wood beams, intricate ceiling details, a light blue color palette, and an abundance of natural light. “X” patterns also are present in the design – which is a play on the X in Expel.

Collaboration areas serve as both destinations and transition spaces, encouraging employees to get up and move. Using captured glass room fronts, absorptive felt wall panels, and a speaker system, the influence of rogue noise is reduced. Finishes also were selected to mitigate sound transference.

Conference rooms are named after business clichés such as Out of the Box, Pumped, Stoked, Finger Pistols, Laser Focused, Tiger Team, Low Hanging Fruit, Boil the Ocean, Art of the Possible, Close the Loop, On the Same Page and Move the Needle.

Design: Collective Architecture

Photography: Max Cuzmuc

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