Work or Life, It's All Everyday

We are born able to catch a scent. But when that becomes a job, what kind of place should it happen in? After an experiment that broke with the usual idea of an office, E Studio has imagined a new headquarters for DearIrean, one of China's leading fragrance lifestyle brands: a space for experiencing, living, working and unwinding.

Every hurried figure leaves its mark here

Hurried steps slow to a light pause on entering the DearIrean lift lobby. Skirts settle, the corner of a jacket falls back into place, and no one can miss the romance of it all. Flowers in a corner and softly spilling light make a mysterious forest, as fragrance fills the space and wraps around you.

Fleeting flashes of inspiration find their echo here

Scent is elusive: it takes every sense to begin the playful chase. The huge curved meeting table at the centre gives you that moment of freedom. Its lines sweep out from a single point and reach far, like every clash of creative ideas: sharp at first, but with a long afterglow.

Unlike the conventional office, laid out along its walls, it shows a meeting room free of the cold, purely rational mould: one that makes room for creative feeling while serving everyone with rational craft.

Every dream of beauty can be touched here

The bustle you might expect may never happen here, because this was never meant as a workplace, but as a healing retreat filled with fragrance. Step in, and soft colours slow you down first; then light, hidden or revealed, quietly follows. Rest on a warm fabric sofa, or enjoy a tasting at the bar behind it. Business talks and product trials feel just as at home.

It took many different means to create this quiet atmosphere wrapped in light, where an almost dreamlike glow plays off clear, airy glass.

As night falls, the space grows ever more ethereal, like stepping into a hidden fairyland. The curve overhead gently cradles the floating light and gives its glow a visible form.

This is the scent bar, but it is about more than smelling: we wanted scent to be seen as well. A dense, orderly display and metal and stone that look and feel superb engage everyone's sight, hearing and smell.

Come closer, and an elusive fragrance wraps around you, settling into your senses and into the fibres of your clothes.

In this space, work and life are simply the everyday. The fragrance that lingers here distils that everyday once more, inviting us to listen to life's quiet whispers and rediscover nature and stillness.

Client
DearIrean

Location
Tower T1, Qiaochengfang, Shenzhen

Area
3,000 m²

Completion Date
2024.05

Design Firm
E Studio

Lead Designer
Fan, Junjian
Zhou, Xuanzhuo

Design Team
Wang, Yiran
Wang, Yuda

FF&E
Zhou, Jing

Photographer
Meatmountain

Suppliers
VOXFLOR
Moke Lighting
Zhifeng Furniture

Furniture
Shiyu Soft Furnishing

Construction
Shenzhen Mingdian Decoration Design Engineering