The offices are organised along a 200-metre-long corridor, where screens and shelves take the shape of a music play button, cursor arrows, the @ symbol and even a Pacman logo.

A printing station is concealed behind a large bulbous clock and meeting rooms are framed by ribbon-like shapes and coloured curtains.

The reception desk resembles a text box, like one where a computer user inputs their username or password.

Yandex is currently the largest search engine is Russia and the architects explain how they wanted to give guests the impression of being "inside the Yandex search service."

We've also featured interiors of other technology companies, including Google, Facebook and Skype - see them all here.

See all our stories about office interiors »

Photography is by Peter Zaytsev.

Here's a project description from Za Bor Architects:

It is indicative that this office is to some extent a return to the roots of cooperation of za bor architects and the largest Russian IT-corporation Yandex.

The first office developed for Yandex by za bor architects is in the same building of the Benois business center in Saint Petersburg, but on a lower floor. In 2008 it was a brilliant premiere published by almost all the leading architecture and design media in Russia. The project has picked up many awards.

Four years later za bor architects and Yandex had decided to repeat the success on a larger scale – Yandex Saint-Petersburg office II is almost twice as large as the previous one – it houses the entire fourth floor of the building and has a corridor about 200 meters long (total floor area 3310 sqm), but size doesn’t matter, clients wanted an "extraordinary office like no other."

So the architects had at least two challenges – first to organize a very complex space outstretched along a central corridor axis. The second challenge was to make the office a showy and impressive.

After a long thought Peter Zaytsev, and Arseniy Borisenko, the project architects, decided to use the double loaded zoning, with meeting cells, work areas, and unusual objects located along the corridor. The unusual objects being provided with a particular function. As a result of this concept implementation, guests find themselves inside the Yandex search service: at the reception they are met by a well-known "Search" button and a yellow arrow (an unofficial Yandex logo and a significant part of the web-site).

While passing the corridors they see the familiar user name and email password input boxes, and at each step they meet symbols and icons of Yandex services, although they are not always easy to recognize as tiny pixel icons, had turned into 3D objects.

The office guests receive a unique transcendental background, the one of which Aldous Huxley hadn’t even dreamed of. Visitors find themselves both in an amazing space which architects had transformed from linear into 3D, observing the pixel objects which grew to gigantic proportions.

Thus, according to the architects conception, guests and employees of the office are involved into Yandex net services, to which they are accustomed to work with exclusively in 2D screen. That is why in some places miniature "icons", which grew to giant size are breaking to large volume "pixels" sprouting from the walls.

Bright colors, spots scattered here and there, guide visitors through the office and cheering up the office staff.

Speaking of function, many of the major elements seem to be decorative only at first glance. The spiral elements for example are separating the informal communication zone from the corridor. The casted polymer "jellyfish" clocks contain network printers station, etc.

The project has turned out rather complex, the first thing because no one did such things before, not only in Saint Petersburg but even in Russia. Therefore, many solutions are made on the spot during on-site designer supervision.

The difficulties were not caused by 3D objects – they are made according to advertising designs technologies (their cages are filled with polystyrene foam, meeting all standards of fire and environmental safety).

On the other hand – the ceiling, build up of original "blades" was extremely difficult to install.

As Yandex offices have twenty-four-hours operation schedule, the project was provided with variety of well-developed recreation zones.

In addition to working areas and rooms, the office has a gym, cafeteria, showers, and several coffee-points.

The number of formal and informal points for negotiation, two lecture halls, and workplaces perfectly equipped with Herman Miller and Walter Knoll systems, make this office a place of attraction, fascinate visitors, and surely makes work very enjoyable pastime.

Plan - click above for larger image 

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by Za Bor Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

This residential building for the riverbank in St. Petersburg by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat has been approved for construction.

Called Moika Krukov, the six-storey building will have stone horizontal, vertical and diagonal bars criss-crossing in front of the plaster facade.

The windows in this plaster layer will increase in size towards the building's rounded corners.

The block will contain twenty apartments of varying size and completion is due for 2011.

Here are some more details from Erick van Egeraat:

St. Petersburg approves high end residential project by Erick van Egeraat

The urban planning council of St. Petersburg Russia, approved Erick van Egeraat’s concept design for Moika Krukov. Moika Krukov is a six storey elite residential building located along the historical Moika river embankment in the centre of St. Petersburg. It faces the New Holland Island, and has visual links to the St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the famous Mariinsky theatre. The client, a leading St.Petersburg developer, aspires a high class building with high standards regarding architecture.

The project comprises of twenty high-end apartments varying in size, including two large luxurious penthouses with roof terraces overlooking the city centre. An underground parking garage provides for 42 parking places for the residents.

“The building blends in with the unique architectural qualities of the historic centre of St. Petersburg”, Erick van Egeraat says. “The design of the façade is an interpretation of the classic façade principles found here along the Moika river embankment. It is a regular aperture pattern, an accentuated plinth and roofline and decorative framing of window openings and entries”.

The façade consists of two separate layers: a plastered inner layer with a regular pattern of openings, gradually changing size to open up wide at the rounded corners and an outer layer which consists of stone-clad horizontals, verticals, and diagonals in an irregular pattern. The juxtaposition of these two layers creates a façade which is both contemporary and contextual.

The building is scheduled for completion in 2011.

See also:

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VTB Arena Park by Erick van Egeraat	Budapest City Hall by Erick van Egeraat	Grave City Hall by Erick van Egeraat

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