More stories

  • in

    KKDW Studios creates offices for Yoga With Adriene founder in Austin

    Austin-based KKDW Studios has designed the headquarters for a yoga subscription app called Find What Feels Good, including a space for filming instructional videos.

    KKDW Studios founder Kelly DeWitt collaborated with yoga teacher Adriene Mishler – who became well-known through her Yoga With Adriene instructional videos – to create a base for Find What Feels Good, the platform she co-founded that offers video tutorials for at-home workouts.
    KKDW Studios used a modular system to build offices within the space for Find What Feels GoodLocated in East Austin, the 5,000-square-foot (465-square-metre) space was previously an empty shell with blue walls and a high-gloss, yellow-tinged concrete floor.
    DeWitt’s team described an intention to create “a space to evolve in and experiment with, a place to be inspired and inspired others.”
    Communal workstations are positioned in front of private offices”The space should feel welcoming with a warm, homey ambiance that makes you want to take a deep exhale,” the team added.

    To add this warmth, the majority of the interventions were made with wood, which forms wall panelling, louvred partitions, frames for glass walls, and furniture. The concrete floors were refinished in matte grey.
    A bright kitchen includes an island mounted on castors, which can be moved when neededDesigned for a quickly growing team and to be multi-functional, all the elements of the interiors are either bolted together or mounted on wheels, so they can be easily moved if needed.
    The linear space is divided up along its fenestrated facade. At one end is a cosy lounge area for receiving visitors or communal work, while a bright, fully equipped kitchen is located at the other.
    Warm-toned materials were chosen for the spaceIn between, the modular timber-framed glazed walls form a row of private offices, while an open workspace with large tables is positioned in front.
    Facing the windows is an uninterrupted wall that stretches 80 feet (24 metres), which is used by Mishler and her team as a backdrop for filming yoga videos for their app and Youtube channel.

    Ten homes designed for practising yoga and meditation

    Air ducts and other visual obstacles had to be moved to ensure that the shot is unobstructed, while the vertical slat in the lounge partition pivot to ensure the lighting is just right.
    “Natural light can be inspiring, but when filming, sometimes what they need is control – this allows them the best of both worlds,” said KKDW Studios.
    Slats in a partition can be adjusted to control light levels when filming in the spaceCushions for sofas and armchairs are wrapped in tufted, textured beige fabric in a variety of tones that are echoed in the rugs.
    From the exposed, angled ceiling hang a series of spherical pendant lamps, as well as power outlets on retractable cords for use at the workstations.
    An uninterrupted wall provides a backdrop for Adriene Mishler’s instructional yoga videos”All furniture is completely custom, designed after getting to know Adriene and her team, their needs, workflow, etc,” said KKDW Studios, which also acted as general contractor for the project.
    Yoga – a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices – continues to grow in popularity around the world, and demand for at-home workouts like those facilitated by Find What Feels Good skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
    Here are 10 homes with dedicated spaces for practising yoga and meditation.
    The photography is by Andrea Calo.

    Read more: More

  • in

    Henley Halebrown creates Bauhaus-informed offices in converted London warehouse

    The colours and craft techniques of the Bauhaus movement were the inspiration behind Laszlo, a century-old warehouse building transformed into workspaces by London studio Henley Halebrown.

    Located in north London, the renovated building now contains five floors of flexible offices, ranging from 482 square metres up to 647 square metres.
    Structural elements are left exposed through Laszlo’s interiorsHenley Halebrown approached the project differently to a standard office conversion.
    Instead of a “shell and core” approach, where tenants have no choice but to complete a fit-out, the architects have made spaces that can be occupied simply as they are.
    They did this by exposing the building’s internal structure – its concrete floor slabs and steel I beams – and bringing order to the elements around. Services are neatly organised, while low-tech materials like concrete and timber are used to make adjustments.

    Offices are designed to require minimal additional fit-outStudio founders Simon Henley and Gavin Hale-Brown describe the approach as seeking “to illustrate how elementary the construction of an office might be”.
    The idea is that companies would only need to add their own branding, plus furniture, which would significantly reduce the amount of waste generated when tenants move out.

    Waugh Thistleton Architects creates fully demountable office block next door to Dezeen

    “Working on adaptive reuse buildings like Laszlo is second nature to us as a practice,” said Henley.
    “It builds on our interest in how you create new layers of life within a city while celebrating both its past and future, and of course, the great thing is that the huge environmental benefits that come through reuse are now more widely understood.”
    Geometric graphics signal the building’s change of useOriginally known as Batavia Mills, Laszlo was built in the early 20th century as a facility for manufacturing and printing, although it also served as storage for gas masks during the second world war.
    The Bauhaus become an obvious point of reference for the renovation; not only does it date from the same period, but its core ethos was about being true to materials and finding beauty in craft.
    A steel and timber joisted roof is now exposed on the fourth floorA painting by Bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy Nagy – who the building is named after – provided the cues for repairs made to the concrete floors.
    There were various gaps created where partition walls had been removed. Instead of infilling these with concrete, Henley Halebrown chose an earth-coloured screed that highlights these marks as traces of history.
    Doors throughout the interior borrow tones from Josef Albers’ colour studiesThe building refers to the colour studies of Bauhaus teacher Josef Albers with a series of doors painted in bold but complementary shades of green, yellow, grey and blue.
    Another Bauhaus reference can be found on the exterior, where the brickwork and glazing have been subtly decorated with the same graphic shapes and lettering that give the building its brand identity.
    The reception features a desk shaped like an I beamLaszlo offers various amenities to its tenants, including a large outdoor seating area, bicycle parking and showers. There are also shared spaces on the ground floor, including a reception and an area known as the living room.
    Furniture in these ground floor spaces is designed to feel like part of the structure, with highlights including a reception desk and bookshelf that both look like giant I beams.
    A living room with kitchen is shared by all tenants”Within the framework of the original structure, we composed a series of unconventional spaces with conventional building materials, mostly blockwork, lintels and paint,” said Jack Hawthorne, an associate at Henley Halebrown.
    “These spaces are occupied with pieces of furniture that are imagined and made as oversized elements of structure, ‘furniture as structure’, placing them in playful dialogue with the building’s newly exposed frame.”
    One of the office floors has already been furnishedPhotos of the project show one of the office floors already fitted out.
    The light-touch approach includes glazed meeting rooms, a wooden kitchen and mobile shelves that function as room dividers. Desks and seats integrate bold flashes of colour that feel at home with the rest of the building.
    Each floor is similar in layout and finish, although the fourth floor features an exposed steel and timber joisted roof and a balcony terrace.
    The space features colourful desks, open shelves and glazed meeting roomsLaszlo is one of several innovative offices designs recently completed in London, as companies adapt to more flexible working policies following the impact of the pandemic.
    Other recent examples include a co-working office that doubles as a “town hall” and an office with more meeting areas than desks.
    The photography is by David Grandorge.

    Read more: More

  • in

    MSMR Architects designs DL/78 workspace to double as “town hall”

    MSMR Architects has designed a co-working office in London’s Fitzrovia that can also be used as a space for talks or exhibitions.

    DL/78 is located in 80 Charlotte Street, a new 30,000-square-metre mixed-use building designed by Make for property developer Derwent London. It is offered as an amenity to the company’s office customers.
    DL/78 is designed to be used as a workspace or event spaceMSMR Architects designed the space to be as flexible as possible, able to accommodate different types of office work and also events where Derwent London’s community can connect.
    According to the studio, DL/78 “can be adapted to serve as a town hall for hosting presentations, talks and exhibitions”.
    The space is offered to Derwent London’s office customers as an amenity”Since the pandemic, there has been a lot of talk about the future of the office,” said MSMR Architects’ associate director Kevin Savage.

    “It’s been interesting working on a project that is challenging workspace norms and starting to anticipate changing needs.”
    Curtains allow spaces to be sectioned offWith 780 square metres of floor space, the two-level DL/78 is spread over the ground and lower ground floors of 80 Charlotte Street.
    Amenities centre around a grand double-height space, which is framed on two sides by high-level windows.

    Fathom Architects designs London office with more meeting areas than desks

    Different types of furniture help to organise this space into different zones, but can all easily be moved to facilitate different layouts when required.
    Additional rooms wrap around one side of the space. These include a conference room, a series of meeting rooms, a wellness room, kitchen facilities and a public cafe operated by Lantana.
    Meeting rooms are defined by glass screensGlass screens are favoured over partition walls so that spaces can be both visually connected and acoustically private. There are also curtains, allowing certain areas to be sectioned off.
    “This space is collaborative, flexible and more domestic in feel,” said Savage. “Is that what future office space might look like?”
    Design details take cues from British Constructivist artVisually, the space is designed to reference British Constructivism, a 1950s art movement with strong links to Fitzrovia.
    This can be observed in both 80 Charlotte Street’s architecture and the interior design of DL/78, with many details designed to express structure.
    The space includes a public Lantana cafe featuring bespoke terrazzo floor tilesKey areas include the staircase, where mesh panels slot into the steel beams, and the junction between the balustrade and the exposed floor plate.
    “A challenging programme meant that there was early engagement with trades and craftspeople during the design stages,” said project architect Aaron Birch. “This allowed for a more collaborative approach, which is evident in the detail and finish which really elevates the space.”
    DL/78 is located in the Make-designed 80 Charlotte Street in FitzroviaDL/78 is the latest is a series of projects that explore how office spaces might develop in the aftermath of the pandemic, with companies having to work harder to entice people away from working from home.
    Other recent examples include a co-working space designed around wellness principles and an office with more meetings areas than desks.
    Photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

    Read more: More