Dezeen Magazine

Hot Desk by Boys and Girls

Hot Desk by Boys and Girls

Dublin creative agency Boys and Girls has installed a new reception desk supported by giant Jenga blocks at one end and balloons at the other.

Hot Desk by Boys and Girls

The agency created the desk in response to an article in Marketing Magazine that mentioned how ordinary their reception area was.

Hot Desk by Boys and Girls

Boys and Girls also has a boardroom table made of Lego.

Hot Desk by Boys and Girls

See also our story about a bench held up by balloons and a workplace with a desk made of Duplo bricks.

Hot Desk by Boys and Girls

Photographs are by Liam Murphy. Here's some text from Boys and Girls:


Late last year, Marketing Magazine were nice enough to write their cover story about Boys and Girls’ first 2 years in business, and how we were growing up fast.

In the first paragraph Michael Cullen wrote “the reception is small and routine”, the reference being in comparison to the visual onslaught of the Lego boardroom table that followed. It became something of an in-joke in the agency – we mentioned it every time we ushered people into our “small and routine” reception and I must admit, it got my goat.

Plans were drawn, crayons sharpened and collaborators consulted to come up with a reception desk that would put “small and routine” in its place for once and for all. This is the result of months of planning and some fairly heavy scientific research.

A company called Twisted Image finally started production in February. Their job was to fabricate permanent hot air balloons strong enough to carry the weight of the desk. A new type of rubber composite was used to make balloons that were genuinely air-tight and would never degrade, and Caltech were called upon to supply a Heluim/Hydrogen hybrid gas with an atomic weight 150 times lighter than Helium alone.

Ribbons reinforced with Carbo-Titanium (and in pretty colours) were used to secure the table top to the balloons, tied off on an aerospace grade titanium cleat.

Finally, giant Jenga blocks were carved from solid wood and placed on the reinforced floor.

All-in-all, a “small and routine” project for Boys and Girls.

Photographs by Liam Murphy.