ELTO Consultancy Transforms Airport Terminal into GTR and Teleport Aviation Workspace

Exploring How Aviation Heritage and Thoughtful Design Help Brands Create Workspaces that Honor History While Inspiring Creativity and Connection

What happens when your office view includes planes taking off and landing in the distance? Imagine walking into work each morning through a tunnel-like entrance that evokes the fuselage of an aircraft, passing seating crafted from actual airplane turbines, and gathering your team beneath a massive wing installation for your weekly strategy meeting. Such an experience is precisely what ELTO Consultancy created when transforming an old Low-Cost Carrier Terminal in Sepang, Selangor into a co-working space for two aviation-connected companies: GTR (Ground Team Red) and Teleport.

The project, which earned recognition as a Golden A' Design Award winner in Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design, demonstrates something valuable for any brand seeking to create meaningful connections through physical space. The building itself can become your most powerful storytelling asset. Rather than fighting against the industrial character of an abandoned terminal, ELTO Consultancy embraced every rivet, every concrete surface, and every sweeping view of the adjacent runway. The result is a workspace where history and innovation exist in remarkable harmony.

For brands and enterprises considering their next office project, renovation, or adaptive reuse venture, the GTR and Teleport workspace offers a masterclass in how thoughtful design transforms locations with unique histories into environments that amplify brand identity, foster employee engagement, and create memorable experiences for everyone who walks through the door. The principles at work in the GTR and Teleport design extend far beyond aviation themes. The design principles speak to how any organization can discover the hidden potential in unexpected spaces.

The Strategic Value of Place in Brand Architecture

Location decisions rank among the most consequential choices any organization makes. Yet the conversation often stops at logistics, commute times, and square footage costs. The GTR and Teleport workspace reminds us that where you locate your business communicates volumes about who you are before a single word is spoken or a single presentation is delivered.

When GTR and Teleport chose to establish their workspace in a decommissioned airport terminal, the companies selected more than a building. The organizations selected a narrative. Both companies operate within the aviation ecosystem, connecting customers through technology, linking passengers to service, and creating opportunities for their people. The terminal setting creates an immediate, visceral alignment between organizational mission and environment. Employees do not simply work in an office that talks about aviation. Team members work in a space that was built to launch journeys.

The alignment between physical space and organizational purpose generates several tangible outcomes for brands. First, the environment creates instant credibility. When clients or partners visit, the setting validates company expertise before any meeting begins. The space itself becomes proof of concept. Second, the design provides employees with a constant visual reminder of the larger purpose behind their daily tasks. Processing data or managing logistics takes on different meaning when you can glance out the window and watch an aircraft ascend into the sky.

The existing window behind the reception counter, which frames ongoing runway activity at the new airport in the distance, serves as a living backdrop that connects the historical terminal to active aviation operations. The window placement cost nothing to create since the architectural feature was already present in the building. The insight was recognizing the window's value and designing the reception area to maximize visual impact.

For brands evaluating potential locations, the GTR and Teleport project suggests a valuable question: What story does a building already want to tell, and does that story align with organizational brand identity?

Transforming Heritage Elements into Functional Experience

One of the most striking aspects of the GTR and Teleport workspace is how ELTO Consultancy transformed aviation components into functional furniture and fixtures. Airplane turbines have been reimagined as seating in the waiting area. The bar top features a distinctive wing shape. The turbine seating and wing-shaped bar are not merely decorative choices. The transformed elements represent a design philosophy that honors origin while serving present needs.

The turbine seating creates an immediate conversation starter for visitors. Guests do not simply wait for their meeting. Visitors experience something memorable that connects them emotionally to the space and, by extension, to the companies operating within the workspace. The emotional connection carries significant value for brands seeking to differentiate their client experience. In a landscape where many corporate environments blend into forgettable sameness, a workspace featuring seating crafted from aircraft engines creates lasting impressions.

The wing-shaped bar top serves a similar dual purpose. Functionally, the bar provides a surface for casual conversations, coffee breaks, and informal collaboration. Symbolically, the wing shape reinforces the aviation narrative at a touch point where employees and visitors naturally gather throughout the day. Every informal conversation that happens at the bar occurs within the context of flight, journey, and connection.

The transformed elements also communicate something important about organizational values. A company willing to invest in converting industrial aviation components into workplace furniture demonstrates commitment to creativity, attention to detail, and respect for heritage. These qualities translate into client confidence. If an organization approaches their workspace with such a level of care, clients reasonably infer similar attention to their projects and partnerships.

The iron plates, rivets, concrete paint, and concrete flooring that enhance the terminal atmosphere work together with the featured aviation elements to create a cohesive environment. Nothing in the space attempts to disguise or minimize the building's industrial origins. Instead, every design choice amplifies the authentic character of the former terminal.

Creating Distinct Brand Territories Within Shared Space

One of the more sophisticated challenges in the GTR and Teleport project involved housing two different companies under a single roof while maintaining distinct brand identities for each. GTR and Teleport share the terminal space, yet each company required their own entrance experience and workspace identity. ELTO Consultancy solved the dual-identity challenge through the innovative use of layered panel tunnel entrances that serve as transitional spaces between the shared reception area and each company's dedicated workspace.

The tunnel-like architraves consist of multiple stacked panel layers that create depth and dimension as people pass through them. The experience evokes moving through an aircraft fuselage or walking down a jet bridge toward a waiting plane. The transitional moment psychologically separates the shared space from the company-specific areas, allowing visitors and employees to shift their mental orientation as they enter their intended destination.

The design team differentiated the two companies through material choices and finishes while maintaining visual cohesion. GTR's presence emphasizes industrial elements with exposed steel and turbine-inspired details that reflect performance and logistics expertise. Teleport's areas incorporate sleeker, more technologically forward finishes that highlight the company's digital connectivity focus. Yet both companies' spaces work within the same aviation heritage framework, creating unity without uniformity.

For enterprises managing multiple brands, departments, or subsidiary companies within consolidated real estate, the dual-entrance approach offers valuable lessons. Physical space can accommodate diverse identities without fragmenting into visual chaos. The key is establishing a strong unifying framework (in the GTR and Teleport case, the aviation heritage and industrial aesthetic), then allowing variations within that framework to express distinct identities.

Shared spaces including meeting rooms and lounges maintain neutral versatility through modular furniture and adaptable layouts. The design flexibility ensures that collaborative areas serve both organizations effectively without favoring either brand identity.

The Psychology of Movement Through Strategic Lighting

Light strips running along the floor create a runway effect that encourages forward movement through the workspace. When employees walk along the illuminated paths, the psychological effect mirrors the anticipation of an aircraft preparing for takeoff. The runway lighting design accomplishes something profound: the illumination transforms routine movement through an office into an experience charged with momentum and possibility.

The overall palette in the workspace leans toward industrial tones with relatively dim ambient lighting. Against the subdued backdrop, the runway-inspired floor strips and strategic use of vibrant orange create visual energy that lifts the atmosphere without abandoning the industrial character. The orange accent color, which connects to GTR's corporate identity, punctuates key moments throughout the space, drawing attention and creating focal points.

The lighting strategy addresses a common challenge in converted industrial spaces. The authentic character of former terminals, factories, and warehouses often comes with lower light levels and monochromatic color schemes. Rather than flooding converted spaces with artificial brightness that erases their character, ELTO Consultancy's approach uses strategic illumination to guide behavior and inject energy precisely where illumination serves the experience.

The directional quality of the runway lighting creates what the design team describes as emotional intention to increase velocity and gather momentum. While every individual will respond differently to environmental cues, the concept of using spatial design to influence psychological states represents an increasingly important consideration for brands seeking to cultivate specific workplace cultures. The environment becomes an active participant in shaping how people feel and behave throughout their workday.

For organizations considering how lighting influences their workspace experience, the GTR and Teleport project demonstrates that thoughtful placement and controlled contrast can achieve more than blanket brightness ever could.

Balancing Transparency and Focus Through Architectural Screens

The perforated panels dividing office areas from shared recreation zones exemplify a design solution that addresses competing needs simultaneously. Organizations consistently struggle with the tension between openness (which fosters collaboration and community) and privacy (which enables focused work and confidential conversations). The GTR and Teleport workspace resolves the openness-versus-privacy tension through architectural screens that allow visual connection while creating psychological separation.

Light passes through the perforations, maintaining spatial continuity between zones. Employees working at their desks remain visually aware of activity in recreation areas without experiencing the distraction that would come from fully open floor plans. Conversely, those gathering in social spaces can see colleagues at work without feeling they are intruding on private focus time. The panels create permission for both activities to coexist.

The perforated pattern itself subtly references aviation motifs, maintaining thematic consistency throughout the space. The attention to detail in functional elements reinforces the immersive quality of the overall design. Nothing in the workspace exists merely to solve a practical problem. Every solution contributes to the narrative experience.

From an organizational behavior perspective, the screens influence how employees perceive the boundary between work and social time. The physical division, though permeable, establishes clear zones with distinct purposes. The clarity can support healthier work patterns by giving employees explicit permission to step away from their desks and engage in recreation without guilt or anxiety about being seen as unproductive.

For brands designing collaborative workspaces, the perforated panel approach offers an alternative to the binary choice between open plans and walled offices. Degrees of transparency can be calibrated to support specific cultural goals, and the screens themselves can carry design elements that reinforce brand identity.

Embracing Whimsy as Professional Asset

Perhaps the most unexpected element in the GTR and Teleport workspace is the dimensional printing of a hole to the universe positioned at the end of the open area walkway. The deliberately surreal image creates visual surprise in what might otherwise be a harsh industrial environment. The design team describes the universe portal as creating a sense of humor that allows people to spend time freely and comfortably on their daily tasks.

Corporate environments have traditionally avoided whimsy, concerned that playful elements might undermine professional credibility. The GTR and Teleport workspace challenges the assumption that whimsy and professionalism cannot coexist. By introducing an element of the fantastical, the design communicates that creativity and imagination are valued in the workplace. The message matters particularly for organizations seeking to attract and retain talent that prioritizes meaningful, engaging work environments.

The universe portal connects conceptually to aviation themes of exploration, journey, and discovery. When employees walk the runway toward the cosmic opening, team members participate in a visual metaphor for the boundless possibilities that innovation and hard work can open. The portal is not arbitrary decoration. The universe hole is intentional symbolism that reinforces organizational values through spatial experience.

The placement also demonstrates sophisticated understanding of workplace psychology. Positioning the imaginative element at the destination of a directional path creates anticipation and reward. The journey along the runway leads somewhere unexpected and delightful. The small experience of surprise and wonder, repeated daily, contributes to workplace satisfaction in ways that traditional design elements cannot replicate.

For brands considering how to express their culture through physical space, the universe portal illustrates that appropriately scaled whimsy can enhance rather than diminish professional environments.

Multi-Functional Landmarks that Anchor Community

At the center of the recreation area stands a large platform crowned by a massive wing art installation that has become the signature landmark of the entire workspace. The platform serves multiple functions: casual gathering space throughout regular workdays, stage for media conferences and company events, and visual anchor that orients people within the larger floor plan.

The wing installation transforms functional architecture into symbolic statement. Wings represent the aviation heritage of the building, the journey-focused mission of both resident companies, and the aspirational quality of reaching toward possibility. The single wing element operates on practical, narrative, and emotional levels simultaneously.

Multi-functional spaces offer significant value for organizations managing limited real estate budgets. Rather than dedicating separate square footage to conference facilities, event spaces, and casual gathering areas, the central platform consolidates multiple uses into one adaptable zone. The same space that hosts morning coffee conversations can transform for afternoon press briefings and evening team celebrations.

The wing installation also provides employees and visitors with a natural meeting point and wayfinding reference. In larger office environments, people often struggle to locate colleagues or describe where specific activities occur. A distinctive landmark simplifies navigation and communication. The phrases "under the wing" or "by the platform" immediately orient everyone to the same location.

To Explore the Award-Winning Aviation-Inspired Workspace Design that earned ELTO Consultancy recognition from the A' Design Award is to see how a single bold installation can serve as both functional infrastructure and emotional centerpiece. The wing creates a destination within the workplace, a place worth gathering beneath, and a visual reminder of shared purpose that employees experience throughout their working day.

Design as Cultural Bridge Between Past and Future

The GTR and Teleport workspace demonstrates how adaptive reuse can honor architectural heritage while creating environments optimized for contemporary work. The old terminal building carried decades of aviation history within the structure. Travelers once passed through the space heading toward destinations across the region. By preserving and celebrating building origins rather than erasing them, ELTO Consultancy created a workspace that connects present occupants to a rich lineage of journeys and connections.

The approach to heritage resonates particularly strongly with organizations whose missions involve connection, service, or facilitating journeys of any kind. The terminal setting provides daily reinforcement that the work happening within the walls continues a long tradition of bringing people together and enabling movement toward their destinations.

The design also points toward emerging trends in workplace architecture. As organizations increasingly value sustainability and authentic experience, adaptive reuse projects gain appeal beyond simple cost considerations. Converting existing structures preserves embodied energy in building materials, maintains architectural diversity within communities, and creates workspaces with character that new construction struggles to match.

For brands evaluating their facilities strategy, the GTR and Teleport workspace suggests that buildings with distinct histories may offer branding advantages that generic office towers cannot provide. The story a space tells matters. When that story aligns with organizational values and mission, the workplace becomes a powerful communication tool that operates continuously without requiring active management.

The future of workplace design appears to favor environments that create meaning alongside function. As work increasingly competes with remote alternatives, physical offices must offer experiences that cannot be replicated from home. Spaces like the GTR and Teleport workspace, where every corner connects to narrative purpose and every element reinforces shared identity, demonstrate what becomes possible when design thinking extends beyond furniture selection to encompass full environmental storytelling.

What stories might your organization's workspace tell, and how might the right design partner help those stories come alive in ways that strengthen your brand, engage your people, and create lasting impressions on everyone who walks through your door?