The bank’s 14-storey office anchors the Bay Adelaide Centre’s recently completed north tower, designed by KPMB with Adamson Associates. At the interior scale, KPMB describes the fit out for Scotiabank North as being driven by the concept of “hosting your employees.” What results is a combination of amenities that take cues from both hospitality settings and cultural venues, filling the varied office levels with everything from bistros to art galleries.

Rather than distracting from daily business, these socially-minded “third places” actively support it — indeed, many of them evolved directly from engagement sessions with the bank’s team, which set priorities such as inclusion, accessibility, health and wellness. 

The project’s strong focus on shared spaces is most apparent on the third floor, which has been dubbed the North Commons. Anchored by a grab-and-go coffee shop and outfitted with a full range of seating options (from Maharam-upholstered banquettes to communal tables designed by Mary Ratcliffe Studio), this flexible social hub becomes a destination for everything from quick employee catch ups to full-scale town halls.

Adding to the setting’s appeal, windows look out to the Cloud Gardens Conservatory, a neighbouring Financial District landmark.

Additional coffee stations and bistros are spread throughout floors six to nine, with each of these areas including a staircase linking different levels to promote chance encounters.

Given that many Scotiabank employees play host to important clients, the office’s warm, welcoming atmosphere is also designed with external guests in mind. Private lounges, dining rooms and an outdoor terrace on the office’s higher floors ensure a comfortable, memorable experience for visitors, all while cutting down on the need for offsite reservations.

A dedicated client reception desk on the 10th floor even offers visitors a chance to browse an adjacent art gallery corridor before they’re led to their eventual destination.

The furniture and finishes are similarly gallery-worthy. Throughout, natural materials like stone (used most dramatically on reception desks made with Super Silver from Enmar Consulting Inc.) and wood are complemented by graphic treatments that reflect forest or mountain imagery.

Boardroom designs include custom tables by Nienkämper and executive seating from Andreu World, while an antique table from Scotiabank’s original boardroom sits in another meeting space in a fun nod to company history.  

When it comes time to get down to business, an activity-based working strategy allows employees to choose the space that best suits their task. Floor plans, furniture and technology were planned with each of the bank’s businesses in mind, ensuring that everyone from the trading floors to corporate banking, asset management and group treasury has the right mix of work studios, hoteling desks, private offices and quiet zones.

The outcome is a finely attuned balance of work and play. After all, while there’s no doubt that a workspace needs to support productivity, it also helps to have an office that employees actually like. And when it comes to talent recruitment and retention — not to mention wooing workers back downtown — Scotiabank North’s big investment in social and break spaces seems likely to pay off.

The post KPMB’s Office Design for Scotiabank North Delivers Big Corporate Perks appeared first on Azure Magazine.

Luckily for us English-speakers, the name works on two levels. On the southeast coast of Norway, the six-storey, 3,106-square-metre Lumber 4 office complex is both a neighbourhood icon and a conspicuous showcase for the global possibilities of mass timber design. Built to serve as a commercial hub targeting tenants with a sustainable focus, the building — which forms an extension of a pre-existing office complex — integrates a range of evolving wood technologies into a stylish setting.

Columns and beams made from glued laminated timber (glulam) are complemented by a floor system fabricated with a composite structure of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and concrete. The hybrid, partially prefabricated system allows for a slim, spatially efficient and reasonably sound-absorbing profile that facilitates reasonably long spans and open floor plates, resolving a chronic hindrance of mass timber floors. Meanwhile, the building’s connection to the pre-existing concrete office complex ensures added lateral stability.

Throughout the interiors, a simple exposed spruce structure is paired with wood-wool acoustic panels (mitigating the high noice transfer typical of mass timber buildings) and visible ducts, which were painted a subtle beige to blend in with the organic wood interiors.

Throughout the building, wood provides both an innovative structural tool and an aesthetic identity. The focal point is the scalloped facade, deftly cantilevered above a compact, spatially efficient rounded base. Composed of prefabricated pine elements, the curved walls were painted forest-green. As the building ages, the colour will take on a patina, amplifying a sense of depth already apparent across the facade thanks to the interplay of curved walls and the shadows cast by the straight and slightly extruded eaves of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The combination of mass timber and prefabricated technologies allowed Lumber 4 to be constructed over a period of just 12 months. According to the designers, it also made for a 53 per cent reduction in upfront carbon costs compared to a typical concrete building of the same scale. For Oslo-based Oslotre, the firm’s holistic role as both architects and interior designers — as well as timber structural engineers — helped ensure an even more streamlined process. Here’s to Lumber 5, 6, and 7.

The post Oslotre Designs a Scalloped Timber Showpiece in Southern Norway appeared first on Azure Magazine.

The first challenge was making sense of the building’s prior renovations. Once they determined which interventions had been appropriate (and which had not), the designers made some key upgrades, such as double-glazed windows that boast acoustic and thermal insulation and an energy-efficient intelligent lighting system that adjusts according to the circadian cycle.

With the building brought up to current standards, FMA set out to maximize the 1,000-square-metre footprint, creating a thriving contemporary workspace while retaining the original architectural elements. In line with recent office trends, they opted for a flexible layout, rather than a fixed traditional setup.

Entrance to the workspace is via the ground floor cloister, or central courtyard, which was repurposed as an indoor garden. Under the shade of orange trees, ample seating and tables allow employees to gather for lunch — or impromptu meetings — surrounded by a lush historic setting.  

Upstairs, the office comprises a diverse array of spaces that serve different functions. While they incorporated some group work cubicles and conference rooms, outfitted with blackboards for collaborative ideation sessions, the designers sought to incorporate zones that felt more akin to hospitality or living spaces than workspaces. Take the reception area, for instance, which doubles as a library complete with built-in storage and cozy lounge vignettes suited for quiet work or leisure time. An auditorium next door can also be used as a meeting room.

The coffee bar, however, is the true social hub of Corporativo GO. The U-shaped counter, surrounded by yellow stools and illuminated by a cluster of pendants above, creates a focal point at the centre of the room. A modular sofa defines a TV room on one side of the bar, while a ping pong table at the other end contributes to the space’s lively atmosphere, helping to foster connection among colleagues.

And if you need a break from the action? A meditation room, lined wall to wall with floor mats, offers a moment of quiet sanctuary, promoting mental and physical well-being and ultimately, a more productive workplace. Greenery was also incorporated throughout the office for its biophilic benefits, with specific species chosen for their temperature-regulating and air-purifying properties, as well as their aesthetic appeal.

While each room retains its own quirky personality (clay elements crafted by local artisans, such as lamps, planters and decorative objects, were incorporated throughout), the designers achieved cohesion with an earthy colour palette and natural and local materials. Wood furnishings and finishes add warmth throughout, while sand-coloured plaster walls offer a neutral backdrop for the rest of the design elements. But while FMA has added much character and charm to the interior, their restraint works to highlight the beauty that already existed — carefully placed lighting casts a warm glow over the convent’s original stone walls, fostering an undeniable sense of place.

The post A Mexican Convent Turned Contemporary Workspace appeared first on Azure Magazine.

What makes the lush amenity most impressive is not just the way that it accommodates the occasional off-duty break, but the way that it also facilitates real work — from casual meetings to full-blown team summits. In this way, it reflects Silicon Valley’s growing focus on outdoor extensions of the office.

The overall landscaping strategy at 100 Altair starts down at the ground floor, where the curbless streetscape flows naturally into the surrounding urban environment. Adding to this spirit of connection, walls in the HGA Architects-designed building slide away entirely to reveal an open-air “community lobby” that allows commuters to breeze right in from the CalTrain station nearby — or to stroll right out to the Plaza del Sol park across the street come lunchtime. Meanwhile, vertical green walls tease the garden that awaits on the roof.

Sure enough, for employees seeking a quieter, more private greenspace — either for working en plein air or for corporate events — the upstairs park provides an additional, more business-oriented oasis. Angular planters and zig-zagging pathways give the space a geometric identity while sectioning off various zones suited to a range of different work activities. 

Sheltered inside intimate nooks that veer off the main pathways, benches accommodate smaller, more focused conversations. On the other hand, a raised area beneath a white shade trellis creates a lively central common space. Along with introducing a stage suited to big presentations, performances and other special events, this platform also serves as a social patio (complete with green Adirondack chairs) during day-to-day use.

While 100 Altair may offer a secluded escape from the street life below, the open visual corridors created by its dynamic composition ensure that it still feels connected to the city beyond. Clear glass balconies allow workers to admire the mountain ranges in the distance, while subtle grade changes in the planting beds echo this rugged topography. The planting strategy, for its part, recalls the meadows of the San Francisco Bay Peninsula, with a mix of native tall grasses.

As a private office amenity that is still deeply informed by its broader context, the overall roof garden manages to strike a balance between vibrant park setting and productive workspace. So, if you’re looking to get down to business at 100 Altair? Head to the roof.

The post An Office Tower Rooftop Designed for Outdoor Productivity appeared first on Azure Magazine.

Over two decades ago, the site, a former parking lot now known as Gillett Square, underwent a drastic transformation courtesy of another London firm, Hawkins\Brown. In 1998, they converted the Bradbury Street terrace into workspaces, opened market kiosks a year later and completed the Dalston Culture House in 2004, rounding out the public space. Hemmed in by abandoned warehouses and Victorian townhouses, the square has become a vital hub in a previously underserved area of the city, hosting events that showcase the diversity and creativity of its community. In 2017, Hackney Co-operative Developments (HCD) received over £1 million to improve the existing workspaces and add capacity for emerging businesses — and tapped [Y/N] Studio to lead the project.

With a few simple design moves, the firm has deftly married the old with the new. After temporarily relocating existing tenants to nearby HCD-operated properties, they removed the building’s roof and walkways to make way for 500 square metres of studio spaces, enclosed in a lightweight structural steel frame supported by the original masonry party walls. A new pitched roof prevents loss of light into the square — and ensures the extension is mostly hidden from Bradbury Street, which falls within a conservation area.

Referencing the blue-green cladding of the nearby Culture House, the whole volume was then clad in a polycarbonate façade. Slightly translucent, it allows natural light to flood the workspaces and terrace behind it while also allowing the original architecture to shine through, rendering it visible from the square. During the day, the façade’s luminescent finish reflects its surroundings; at night, it glows from within.

Ten mini retail units at ground level, each measuring just 10 square metres, face the square, activating the urban realm. These stalls offer below-market rent for a variety of local businesses — which run the gamut from a tailor to a jerk chicken stand and a coffee shop featuring beans from the owner’s family farm in Ethiopia. When closed, profiled metal gates deploy for security and privacy, opening during the day to reveal fully glazed store frontages.

[Y/N] consulted with many existing tenants — including the internationally recognized NTS Radio, who originally set up shop in a Gillett Square retail pod in 2011, and The Mentoring Lab, who provide 1:1 and group mentoring for young people from Global Majority backgrounds — to better understand how to improve the original building while retaining its character. But beyond client satisfaction, the firm had a vested interest in the project’s success: Bradbury Works is also home to its own office.

On the second floor, 600 square metres of existing affordable workspaces (ranging in size from 10 to 36 square metres) have been renovated, retaining and refurbishing the original masonry structure while upgrading the building to current accessibility and sustainability standards. [Y/N] also revamped the circulation spaces with new wayfinding, using the colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black — known as the CMYK printing colour range — as a metaphor for Bradbury Works’ ambition “to become a melting pot of cultures and disciplines which are greater than the sum of their parts.”

The structure, too, plays a central role in the interior. “The industrial style steelwork of the first and second floors was exposed, which required thoughtful consideration of the elements, connections and interfaces with the secondary and existing structure in order to develop an elegant structural solution,” explains Kath Hannigan, a structural engineer at Engenuiti who worked with [Y/N] to develop the design.

Sandwiched between the ground floor retail units and the two-storey addition above, the former circulation decks have been converted into terraces and breakout spaces facing the square. Outfitted with picnic tables and ample greenery, they promote interaction between tenants in all seasons, and bring the building’s social ethos to the forefront.

Additional workspaces — larger, open-concept spaces with private mezzanines — are concealed in the third-floor extension. In contrast to the colourful circulation route, the designers opted for a muted palette here, allowing tenants to customize each unit to their preferences. A checkerboard arrangement of operable skylights filters light into the upper floors and allows for natural ventilation during the summer. Alongside traditional desk setups, the space is rented to charities and businesses focused on wellness, who offer on-site yoga and art therapy workshops. While much of the space is for private use, a flexible meeting and event space can be rented out either by tenants or the general public.

For its thoughtful design — and its community-centred ethos — Bradbury Works recently won a RIBA London award. “What the jury liked about this project was both its modesty and its ambition,” wrote the RIBA Journal. “Using simple materials and methods, an existing building has been judiciously expanded and improved. But the use of the polycarbonate skin – a relatively basic building material – as a way of unifying what could have been an awkward extension, lifts the whole project.”

The post In London, an Affordable Workspace Hub Gets a Facelift appeared first on Azure Magazine.

The Hermant Building comprises two wings, the 1913 volume at 19 Dundas Square (right) and the larger 1929 tower at 21 Dundas Square (left).

Like its New York counterpart, it’s a space that some locals studiously avoid. They might be missing out. Past the crowds and selfies, the buzzing context gives way to a quiet yet significant pocket of historic architecture. On the south side of the square, the Hermant Building’s two handsome art deco volumes date to 1913 and 1929. Although much taller glass and steel towers now dominate the skyline, the complex was among the city’s early height peaks — and architectural showpieces. Long before the bustling civic square (which opened in 2002) came to dominate the local spotlight, a series of renovations also altered the building’s heritage, gradually eroding its civic presence. As early as 1935, a sumptuous bronze entryway was replaced with a prosaic aluminum-frame door, while the façades of both volumes suffered similarly value-engineered retrofits, and the original interiors were buried under a messy palimpsest of tenant fit-outs and renovations.

An archival photograph of the complex shortly following the taller volume’s 1929 completion.

In recent years, however, the Hermant Building’s fortunes have gradually turned. Immediately south of the complex, HNR Properties added a 40-storey tower (designed by Diamond Schmitt and Arcadis) to the site in 2017, with a restoration of the older buildings undertaken as part of a large-scale redevelopment process that started in 2005. Led by heritage specialists ERA Architects, the conversation process saw the façades and ground floor volumes restored to an elegant and urbane condition.

The striking bronze door at 21 Dundas Square were meticulously recreated by ERA and Heather & Little. PHOTO: Arnaud Marthouret / Revelateur Studio

Designed by Bond & Smith Architects, the 10-storey 1913 volume at 19 Dundas Square was briefly the tallest building in the city. Commissioned by Russian-born entrepreneur and philanthropist Percy Hermant, the structure was built to house the headquarters of Hermant’s Imperial Optical, a firm that pioneered — and then dominated — the Canadian prescription lens market in the early decades of the 20th century. Throughout the 20th century however, the tower’s stately, intricately detailed terracotta face gradually faded with soot and grime, while the forest green window assembly was replaced with more generic commercial fenestration. In 2014, ERA unveiled a sensitive restoration of the frontage, returning the white-glazed terracotta details and art deco windows to their original lustre.

The 21 Dundas Square lobby has been restored to a majestic condition. PHOTO: Courtesy of ERA Architects.

A year later, the heritage architects wrapped up work on the adjoining volume. Situated at the corner of Dundas Square and Victoria Street, the 15-storey tower was designed by Benjamin Brown, Toronto’s first practicing Jewish architect. By the time the buff brick landmark was completed in 1929, Hermant — himself a prominent member of the local Jewish community — was among the largest eyewear magnates in the British Commonwealth. Alongside an expanded headquarters for Imperial Optical, 21 Dundas Square also eventually housed Brown’s own office in the 1940s. Here, ERA and specialty fabricators Heather & Little skillfully recreated the original bronze door and lobby, in addition to deftly revamped retail spaces and an inviting new ground floor lighting program.

Inside, Giaimo stripped back layers of renovation to reveal board-formed concrete and terrazzo flooring, as well as remnants of original plaster and window sills. PHOTO: GIAIMO

As the exterior and lobby renovations re-introduced the Hermant Building to Toronto, local heritage practice Giaimo gradually set out revitalizing the interiors. Beginning in 2015, the architects renovated over 8,350 square metres of interior spaces across both volumes, peeling back what the design team describes as “decades of accumulating layers of materials and finishes,” which made for an “outdated and overcrowded lacklustre space.” The goal was not to restore the interiors to a facsimile of their original state, but to create functional, adaptable spaces that meet contemporary needs and facilitate future fit-outs, all while showing sympathy to the heritage architecture.

Throughout the complex, gypsum drop ceilings and bulky — often redundant — piping and HVAC equipment lowered the ceilings through layers of additions, while the concrete and terrazzo floors were similarly covered up by numerous renovations. The Giaimo team carefully stripped back decades of additions, exposing raw concrete and remnants of original finishes. In the few places where original plaster work, terrazzo and window sills remained, the features were carefully preserved. Otherwise, the interior was stripped back to its board-formed concrete guts, with the simple finishes and polished concrete floors making for more airy, breathable, and adaptable spaces.

Guided by an intuitively light touch and an economy of means, the renovation process also introduced a streamlined HVAC system, preserving a more open ambiance. In a heritage building where floor plates are significantly more compact than contemporary office towers, the interior restoration maximized usable floor area, while also establishing a framework for future alterations. “By using BIM in coordination with all consultants, the process allows for the client to use the models for future maintenance and operations,” notes the Giaimo team. “Additionally, we designed tenant controls and leasing guidelines, to help simplify building maintenance and reduce waste that accumulates from years of tenant fit-outs.” 

In lieu of an entirely new aesthetic language or a simulacrum of century-old aesthetics, the redevelopment was rooted in an understanding of architecture as an ongoing process. “The design process was not about claiming authorship, but about continuity and ensuring the building remains active for another 100 years,” notes Giaimo. “This building transformation recognizes that the project doesn’t end; it will continue on through maintenance, disrepair, and new tenants.” Like the lively and chaotic public space at its doorstep, the Hermant Building is a living document. And while the civic square seems to evolve by the minute, the architectural transformation is measured in centuries.

PHOTO: Arnaud Marthouret / Revelateur Studio

The post Toronto’s Hermant Building Gracefully Enters a New Era appeared first on Azure Magazine.

From the street, the façade meets its urban surroundings as a wall of bamboo. Although the monolithic two-storey frontage betrays little hint of the eclectic program within, the shoots of greenery that rise above the rooftop give a taste of the laid back ambiance that defines the complex. Inside, the mixed-use space — dubbed “The Vibes” — combines a co-working facility and event venue with a permanent office space, as well as a hospitality program that includes a café and dining room.

The ground floor café and restaurant space.

Past the bamboo frontage, the complex unfolds as a C-shaped, four-storey steel structure organized around a sheltered central courtyard. Featuring a green lawn, a pond, and ample tropical plantings, the courtyard forms the hub of a green spine that extends through the 1,296-square-metre site. On the ground floor, an indoor-outdoor café and dining room is paired with a kitchen, restrooms, and a smaller private dining space, with a pair of smaller atriums carved out of the floor plate, infusing the interiors with light and vegetation.

Upstairs, the second floor features a generously proportioned co-working space, as well as an open room for large meetings and workshops. On the smaller third level, meanwhile, half of the C-shaped floor plate is given over to the roof garden visible from the road, with the offices of a design studio occupying the remaining space.

Finally, the uppermost level features a gallery-like space — which can be programmed to host talks, receptions, or exhibitions — with a panoramic view of its surroundings.

While the infusion of greenery and bamboo cladding fosters a distinctly lush, tropical aesthetic, the strategy creates more comfortable conditions throughout the space, all while reducing energy use. Clad in glass, the simple steel structure’s second skin of bamboo mitigates solar heat gain, using an inexpensive local material that nods to vernacular heritage. Moreover, the C-shaped form facilitates ventilation, further limiting the need for air conditioning. It all adds up to an oasis from the city’s hustle and heat.

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The post In Vietnam, Tranquil Greenery Shapes a Multi-Use Workspace appeared first on Azure Magazine.

WXY’s and Body Lawson’s The Peninsula bakes the factory typology into a new affordable housing community in Hunts Point, New York, where food processing is the literal bread and butter of the local economy. While the Bronx neighbourhood has long been a significant commercial zone, over the past several decades, its residents have suffered higher-than-average rates of poverty; the new development thoughtfully bridges the gap between two basic needs: permanent housing and opportunities for employment.

For the A.I. giant Nvidia, just outside Silicon Valley, Gensler and Hood Design Studio have envisioned an outdoor dimension that connects tech professionals to their immediate surroundings, making the landscape as visceral and inviting as it can be. While seemingly worlds apart, each setting is designed with people’s well-being in mind.

When it comes to the planet’s welfare, we also spend time in a once-mothballed space that’s been recycled into a vibrant co-working hub. In London, Material Works Architecture has boldly celebrated the imperfections of a heritage building, exposing its time-honoured fabric and playing up its scrappy charm. In devising a workplace dedicated to climate-tech start-ups, the firm also took the opportunity to showcase material innovations — including panelling made with coffee grounds, acoustic pendants crafted from mycelium, and expanses of recycled cork flooring — that augment its sustainable statement.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Major Trends in Office Design

How designers are reimagining office environments around the world with bold colour, human-scaled proportion and cultural engagement.

Furniture for Every Workplace

From soft seating and task chairs to semi-enclosed office hubs (including Nienkamper’s Toko Meeting Pod) – a range of solutions for making the most of your corporate interior project.

Castor Designs for the Stars

Star power meets design distinction in Toronto-Detroit studio Castor’s collaborations with pop-culture phenoms like Matty Matheson and Seth Rogen.

SPOTLIGHT: Residential Inspiration

It’s not all work, work, work: We also showcase home interiors and furnishings with great ideas for how to organize our inner sanctums.

The post Out Now: May/June 2024 Office Issue appeared first on Azure Magazine.

Case Study 1: Domino Sugar Refinery, New York

The Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn was once the largest such operation in the world. Today, it accommodates 15 storeys of office, retail and event spaces — all inside a glass volume inserted within the original facade. This new structure culminates in a stunning barrel vault roof that recalls the American round-arch style of the building’s windows. In adapting the iconic city landmark, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism has impressively bridged the old and the new while letting both shine. To wit: The firm left a deliberate 3-to-3.65-metre gap between the old brick facade from 1884 and the new glass interior, highlighting the ecosystem of native plants between them created by Field Operations.

Case Study 2: La Laguna, Mexico City

In the Doctores neighbourhood of Mexico City, local architectural studio Productora has converted a 1920s textile and yarn factory into an office complex that houses 25 artist’s studios and other creative businesses — including the building’s original function (textile-making) and Productora’s own offices. After a process that took over 10 years to complete, La Laguna’s courtyards are now revitalized. Walled-in by the original concrete and square ironwork grid facades, they now facilitate easy access and free-flowing circulation between complex buildings — in the same shade of green as the factory’s old looms.

Case Study 3: Office of Vértice Estudio Arquitectura, Toledo, Spain

Part of a larger project to revitalize Toledo’s historic city centre, the office retrofit of architecture firm Vértice Estudio Arquitectura excavates, then combines, several eras stretching back centuries. Its Islamic foundation, built in the 9th century, supports city walls dating to the 17th century; its four elegant cast iron columns, from 1906, contrast with the dramatic beam and barrel ceiling that recalls the building’s stint as a paint and sheet metal workshop in the 1970s. Today, the warm, open 134-square-metre workspace is full of light — thanks to the unearthed original entrance.

Case Study 1: DLA Piper, Helsinki

Finnish modernism in all its restraint characterizes the Helsinki office of global law firm DLA Piper. In fact, the workspace is situated in a famed 1962 building by Alvar Aalto. In designing the interior, Fyra hewed close to the original style (with consultation from both the Alvar Aalto Foundation and the Finnish Heritage Agency). Its custom millwork sets the scene for both original pieces (like Aalto’s ceiling lights and fellow Finn Yrjö Kukkapuro’s 418 chair, foreground) as well as contemporary designs that fit the aesthetic, including Fyra’s Boa chair (in the background) and &Tradition’s gold-finish table lamps.

Case Study 2: NeueHouse Venice Beach, California

The West Coast had its own breezy brand of mid-century style. And NeueHouse Venice Beach, a branch of the co-working company envisioned by Toronto’s DesignAgency, hits that note — with warm woods, sandy tones and mossy highlights — then tunes it to the modern moment. The project, situated in a 1920s structure, is built to last: It’s now fortified to withstand seismic forces.

Case Study 3: M&C Saatchi Group, Sydney

In Sydney, Australia, the Transport House, built in 1938, has been revived (with dark wood finishes and metal accents) as the home of M&C Saatchi Group. While key moves included repositioning the building core, adding two new internal staircases linking the tenant’s teams across all three floors, and incorporating a café, flexible work zones and quiet areas, Woods Bagot drew inspiration from the history of the original building, which once housed the Department of Road Transport and Tramways.

Case Study 1: ESW Offices, Munich

A city within an office: Located in a vibrant, diverse Munich neighbourhood, the new workspace of the social housing organization Evangelisches Siedlungswerk (ESW) was created with this civic ethos in mind. The interior layout by Kinzo is animated by large wood “houses,” or alcoves, for both collaborative and contemplative work. Just as full of intuitive nooks and crannies as it is replete with pops of brightly painted wood, the colour-blocked interior makes generous use of primary hues, including the signature red of the brand’s logo, to enhance this warm cityscape and render it a kind of colourful utopia.

Case Study 2: JIC, Brno, Czechia

Colour does the heavy lifting at this workspace for a Czech consultancy by local firm KOGAA. The 400-square-metre headquarters of the South Moravian Innovation Centre (JIC) features a spectrum calibrated to inspire specific behaviours. Depending on the hue, its two types of work areas — framed by transparent partitions in organic, sinuous forms (paired with large monochrome curtains) or defined by corrugated powder-coated metal — delineate either public or private space. Red setups imply action and communication; cool ones, like blue, suggest concentration and silence. Yellow and orange zones meet in the middle as nodes of free-flowing collaboration.

Case Study 3: Santa Tere Espacio, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

When reviving this abandoned self-built home in the San Antonio neighbourhood of San Miguel de Allende and transforming it into the offices of cultural centre Santa Tere Espacio, the trifecta of Office of Collaborative Design, Atelier TBD and Maye Colab put colour directly into the heart of the interior. Their pulsating palette — featuring bright yellow bricks, red tiles and royal blue doors — was inspired by the original house. So was the materiality: Select bricks from the demolition were recycled into the design.

“2033: An Optimistic Future,” a collaboration with Goodee and others.

In designing its new office inside an industrial building in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood, interiors firm Mason Studio — led by Ashley Rumsey and Stanley Sun — took the opportunity to embrace their role as part of a larger creative community. Since opening its new HQ in 2022, the firm has hosted exhibitions and events that transform its main double-height gallery space and entrance with immersive installations that nourish the mind, spirit and even belly (recently, it hosted an ode to Toronto’s multicultural array of dumplings; see page 42) — and that feature both fellow design enterprises and neighbourhood organizations. The result: Mason has cultivated the type of work–play hub that makes design relevant to insiders and everyday folks alike.

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The post Trend Report: New Views on Work appeared first on Azure Magazine.

One of the turquoise-painted columns outside the events space, which is...

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#298

May/June 2023

The expectation that people will keep their heads down at their workstations from nine to five with the occasional jaunt to the water cooler or sojourn in a group meeting has gone the way of the cubicle. Offices, post-lockdown, need to be places that provide mental and spiritual sustenance. And those featured in this issue do exactly that.

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#297

Mar/Apr 2023

In assembling the stories in this issue about circular design, one word kept coming up: value. By rethinking “value,” we’re also reclaiming our own values. If we want to strive for a healthier planet, one that is more ethical and sustainable, we have several examples to follow — and this issue is brimming with them.

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#296

Jan/Feb 2023

In preparing this edition of Azure, the first of the year and the latest of our popular annual houses issues, we sought out to present a diversity of typologies.

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