10 Companies on Tyba with Really Unconventional Offices

Goodbye, depressing-ass cubicles, white walls, and eye-blinding lighting, and hello graphic wallpaper, creative decor and unconventional office spaces!

Gone are the days when team members were confined to isolated seating arrangements and solitary lunches. Thanks to tech giants like Google and Facebook, more and more businesses are joining the creative revolution, botox-ing their office spaces to match their personality and company culture.

Startups are often seen as the team captains in this game, embracing the creative challenge and demonstrating tremendous success despite their often weird working spaces.

From Stockholm to Amsterdam and London, we’ve encountered some pretty sick office spaces, so we thought we’d share the eye candy with you.

These are 10 of our favorite unconventional office spaces so far. Ready for it?

1. Memrise // London, UK.

You can literally make yourself at home inside the Memrise office. This converted chapel is home to furniture that’s as eclectic as your dad’s shirt collection, but somehow actually compliments the company’s laid back vibe.

Key features: grand piano for the ivory ticklers in the house, and Mousha, the Chairwoman Cat and local superstar!

2. Comerge // Zurich, Switzerland.

These sweet digs can be found nestled in the home of the Swiss Alps, Swiss Army Knife, and chocolate that’s so good you’ll wet yourself (from all the mouthwatering, we mean). This year, bland office spaces are out, ski gondolas are in!

Key features: weird but cool spaceage contraption (pictured) and more natural light than in God’s greenhouse in the summer.

3. Urbanara // Berlin, Germany.

You probably wouldn’t expect anything less from one of Europe’s trendiest capitals. Is this an office? Is this a bedroom? Is it both? Whatever it is, what better way to get your creative juices flowing than working in an office that looks like a skilled carpenter’s secret bunker.

Key features: the can’t-go-wrong combination of timber beams and whitewashed walls, lampshades that look like giant, sawed-off Christmas baubles, and elegantly-appointed company branding on the walls.

4. TravelBird // Amsterdam, Holland.

Normally, we would advise giving glitterballs a miss when it comes to decorating, but this tech outfit has managed to make it work!

TravelBird team members can escape boredom by just looking around their office space. Multicolor bird cages, miniature airplane models and floating globes all contribute to the creative and unique space that TravelBirdies call a nest.

Key features: so many cool-looking disco balls and bird cages hanging from the ceiling you’ll think you’re at a classy high school prom for parrots.

5. eRepublik Labs // Madrid, Spain.

See you later, plain white walls inspired by every hospital ever, and hi there bright colors and fancy lighting inspired by actual taste! Lined with their very own office art, kitchen bar, and (of course) gym center, eRepublik team members are taking the new age of unconventional office spaces to another dimension. We dig.

Key features: a room that looks like somewhere Harry Potter would go for some “Harry Time” in between doing his wizard stuff. (pictured).

6. Voiceworks // Amsterdam, Holland.

Why rent a conventional office space when you and your team can just build one out of old ship cargo? Voiceworks team members get their inspiration from the industrial look of their company pad.

Key features: Huge windows that invite the sunlight in to play, and an office that doubles up as a games of Jenga for giants.

7. KesselsKrammer // Amsterdam, Holland.

Looking a bit like a big kid’s treehouse, KesselsKrammer’s office is part of a former nunnery. We already checked to see if it was where the Von Trappe family have been hiding out all these decade, but found nothing. Now transformed into a gigantic playground for adults, this is an example of how to make every single one of your employees feel like a boss.

Key features: indoor picket fences hedges, original nunnery features retained, and a shiny floor so you can check how the underside of your chin looks when you come in in the morning.

8. Sociomantic // Berlin, Germany.

Combining elements of the past with accents of the future, Sociomantic’s office space is like a giant time machine of interior design.

Fun Fact: The startup’s giant chandelier actually suspends next to an industrial crane!

Key features: The aforementioned chandelier, interior walls featuring brickwork that’s been exposed like a celebrity who made a naughty tape, ceilings as high as Snoop Dogg.

9. Znaptag // Stockholm, Sweden.

Should you be lucky enough to get the chance to join the Znaptag team, you’ll be able to call this refurnished toll house your professional home. Now that’s what we call “thinking outside of the box”!*

Key features: the office is surrounded by some real greenery — you know, like the kind you see in parks and stuff. And there’s even space to park your Vespa, fixie, or spacehopper.

We are available to perform such Dad jokes at both birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs. Just send us an email to enquire. Not really.

10. Mobypicture // Amsterdam, Holland.

Last, but definitely not least, follow in Mobypicture’s footsteps and you could find yourself boarding floating into work every morning! Not too shabby, right?

Key features: you get to work on a freakin’ boat.

Does your office space get your creative juices flowing? Let us know by commenting below or by sending an image our way!

Words: Theodora Filip

Stay tuned for more backstage insights from Europe’s sexiest startups!

Originally published at blog.tyba.com on January 19, 2015.