Beyond the Desk

Roar’s fourth workplace for White & Case in Doha is a study in space, materials, and how people work. It is not a repeat of previous offices, but a carefully considered response to the team, the city, and their daily routines. The consistency lies in anchoring every project with the ‘Roar way’ of evidence based design, focusing on flow, behaviour, and experience over mere aesthetics.

From the start, every decision was guided by how the office would function. How partners move through the space. How privacy, collaboration, and focus coexist. Where hierarchy matters, and where it quietly fades. These patterns were mapped through adjacencies, behaviour studies, acoustic strategy, and circulation planning, ensuring the space supports the realities of legal practice.

The reception acts as a psychological threshold. Warm, composed, and quietly theatrical, the bespoke folding light feature sets an immediate tone of assurance without intimidation. Softened geometries, layered lighting, and tactile materials create a grounded sense of arrival. Meeting rooms and boardrooms balance gravitas with comfort, as curved ceilings and rounded forms reduce cognitive load and improve acoustics.

The Majlis is intentionally softer, reimagined as a contemporary living room that encourages open dialogue and natural interaction. Textiles and rugs are both decorative and acoustically purposeful, creating calm, contained zones within the larger open environment.

At the heart of the office, the café connects practice areas and offices, designed more like a members’ lounge than a breakout area. Furniture feels curated rather than specified, lighting is hospitality in tone, and the result is a space people actually want to spend time in, which subtly reshapes workplace culture over time.

Materiality throughout is warm, tactile, and understated: timber grains, rattan cladding, plastered ceilings, bouclé upholstery, and layered rugs combine to create comfort. Curated artworks by Yousef Ahmad, Naema Al Hail, Mhairi Boyle, and Noor Abuissa enrich the space, adding cultural depth and reinforcing connection.

Reflecting on the project, Irena Andonova Senior Interior Designer of Roar said, “Collaborating with an international team while being introduced to a new country was a quietly profound experience. At the same time, we wanted the design to feel new and quietly exciting even a little unexpected for a law firm in the region.

Pallavi Dean Founder and Design Director of Roar also commented, “My favourite part is working with a circular floorplate, it’s pure math when you are working out spatial hierarchy. Having a client that trusts you to lead the decision making and treats you like an expert is a real gift. The Partner who leads the Doha practice Payvand VahDat gave us carte blache which made us go above and beyond to deliver. It was a collaborative process with the office manager Nina who’s main driver was functionality and life cycle costs and head of workplace Olivier Wilkins who helped ensure global guidelines were met while pushing the design narrative”.

This office demonstrates Roar’s belief that when evidence-based strategy meets creative confidence, spaces evolve naturally balancing beauty, performance, and cultural relevance.