In 2010 Ubisoft, with stimulus money from the Province of Ontario, undertook to build a new Head Office in Toronto so as to help create 500+ jobs. SDI was selected to be Ubisoft’s designer of record in Toronto. Since 2010, SDI has completed 95,000 sq.ft. of space for Ubisoft in 13 individual project increments. These have included corporate office space, a sound studio, auditorium, sophisticated server room, and a state of the art motion capture studio.

As with many other tech industries, staff at Ubisoft work hard and play hard. Teams spend long hours on collaborative and heads-down activities at their desks, but the space provides ample opportunity for relief including a multitude of different types of lounge and relaxation spaces.

“The first step to having fun at work is believing that the words “fun” and “work” belong in the same sentence.” We maintain our core design philosophy for Ubisoft, but with each phase we create a special design element unique to that phase and to the working group the space is being designed for. For each phase, we speak with and learn about the end user group in order to create the special representation of who they are. This is a place that promotes creativity and imagination; each team is constantly working on developing and improving proprietary software to better capture not only body movement but also the actors’ facial expressions and voices. Our role as their interior designer becomes critical to their communication effectiveness: the spaces connect their people and promote their culture effortlessly. Being voted the “best space to work” three years consecutively indicates we have done our job.