DUBLIN - Online home-rental marketplace Airbnb has opened a new international headquarters in Dublin.

Set inside a previously vacant 43,000-square-foot warehouse, Airbnb’s headquarters has been completely designed from scratch.

Following feedback from Airbnb’s Portland, Oregon office staff, the design team focused on creating a space that enabled employees to easily find each other. To accomplish this, the company utilized the “neighborhood” concept, which involves dividing up space into a series of primary and secondary workspaces. 

The primary workspace consists of 29 neighborhoods - each filled with a large central communal table, personal storage, a few standing desks, and a spot to lounge. Secondary spaces include an open atrium, kitchen, and meeting rooms – which, designed by employees, take influence from current Airbnb listings around the world.

Custom-built furniture fills these neighborhoods - most of it coming from Irish bespoke joinery masters Burke Joinery.

Secondary spaces include an open atrium, kitchen, and meeting rooms – which, designed by employees, take influence from current Airbnb listings around the world.

The focal point of the warehouse is a giant staircase that connects the basement to the first floor. Named after the ancient Greek term for a public open space, the Agora staircase acts as a conference space and lounge-style working environment. The staircase serves multiple purposes, from a large conference space and community event space for up to 400 people to a 'lounge style' working environment.

Airbnb was founded in 2008 by Rhode Island School of Design graduates Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky as a site that would allow travelers to stay in ordinary homes instead of hotels. The Dublin workspace will become a blueprint for the company's other campuses across the world.

All photos by Donal Murphy