For years Kinematix has been creating devices to get information from body movement, to improve human biomechanics and unlock human potential.
Created in 2007, it started out in the strict context of healthcare, and Kinematix’s first products were aimed at treatment and health. The company has generated knowledge and accumulated experience during 8 years on monitoring human movement. At the moment, Kinematix is developing the first wearable to access sports technique, TUNE, targeted for recreational runners. Their wearable devices extract information, interpret it and create value with it, allowing any runner to achieve their best fitness levels ever, no matter how different their goals are.
Their Head Office is in Porto, a city they believe comes as an inspirational atmosphere for the team, and they also have a subsidiary in Austin, Texas (USA).
We visited their Head Office in Porto for a glimpse of their work space, and understand the impact of these spaces in the way they work.
Office file
Company: Kinematix
Location: Porto, Portugal
Total area: 220 sqm
Year: 2013
Capacity: 33 people (Porto)
Industry: Health Tech Wearables
Culture Overview
The culture reflects their view on challenges, where people get really excited about big challenges and the responsibility that comes with it. There is also self-confidence and ambition to achieve the company goals in a collaborative way, where everyone’s work is truly valued.
The new office space created something new to their culture by bringing together software and hardware into one room.
Diversity is another strong aspect of their culture: diversity in cultures, nationalities, ages, gender brings different angles to see a problem and there is an active effort to achieve diversity in the team.
The Office
Kinematix offices are located in Porto’s downtown, near Lumiere Galeries. They value collaborative work, so their workplace was designed as flexible open space, enabling people to interact with each other and allowing all departments (hardware, software, marketing, design and administrative) to work together seamlessly.
“Team meetings, or just office talks, are essential for us to achieve and accomplish what we challenge ourselves with.” — Paulo Ferreira dos Santos
Lobby
The entrance of Kinematix is cosy and welcomes people almost directly to the working area. Their moving walls are a striking characteristic that immediately attracts curiousity.
Workstations
The main work area is a unique room organised with a central desk along the space. There is plenty of natural light and the acoustic cover of the ceiling enables people to chat without disrupting other people’s work too much. The moving partitions sets the background on one side of the room, providing a rhythmic landscape with a functional purpose of creating flexible spaces.
Workshop
This area is a lab where all hardware can be stored and picked up when needed. It’s designed for functionality, with storage and also has 2 work stations. You can also find a treadmill that is mostly used to test their devices.
Kitchen
There is a cosy kitchen area near the entrance/lobby where all essentials can be found to prepare small meals and snacks.
Meeting Rooms
The movable partitions/walls allow the meeting room spaces to transform depending on their needs: they can be used as 2 meeting rooms or one big room; or open the space to be part of the main Work Area.
Office Room
This office room doubles as individual workplace as well as meeting room, and sometimes used at lunch time as well where people can gather in small groups to eat and talk.
Office Talk
“The Open Space brings us all together, everything becomes more functional. The ability to hear people talk to each other, is almost as important as team meetings.” Sara Mendes
“Being side by side with other teams helps us learn more about what other people do and align ourselves better, without the need of formal communication.” Mónica Pedro
All photos by André Henriques | www.ahphoto.pt/
