Thomas Heatherwick doesn’t believe all buildings need to be beautiful. That’s unrealistic, he says, not to mention subjective. What the 53-year-old designer—who’s behind projects including the UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the 2012 Olympic Cauldron, the Vessel in New York, and Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross—does stand against, however, is ‘total rubbishness’. And this is a characteristic he applies to almost all modern architecture. In October last year, Heatherwick launched a searing attack on ‘boring’ buildings and how they make us feel. Through his book Humanise, part of a wider c ..read more

One of London’s most debated pieces of architecture – the stone-clad 15 Clerkenwell Close – is up for sale as owner and designer Amin Taha plans to find and fund a new home and studio space. Taha completed the mixed-use building in 2017 and won an RIBA National award for it in 2018. But 15 Clerkenwell Close has faced its share of trouble on the way to acclaim. Almost immediately after completion, it faced demolition after a council ruling related to Taha’s use of limestone slabs on its exterior. The order was withdrawn following a lengthy, two-year legal battle, and the Clerkenwell building wa ..read more

Soaring 51 storeys up on the western fringe of London’s City cluster, a new office tower is taking the capital’s otherwise languishing commercial real estate market by storm. In tough conditions, 8 Bishopsgate is demonstrating there is life in the UK offices sector yet. You just have to build somewhere people actually want to work. As experts predict a 20% utilisation drop in London offices – their emptiest level since 1993 – Stanhope’s 204-metre tall tower already has over 40% of space filled, with another 40% under offer. It helps that the Wilkinson Eyre-designed building came ..read more

A rich green palette welcomes members to Chicago’s Chief, which feels more like a snug home office than a shared workspace. New York studio AvroKO designed the space, which is the third Chief clubhouse in the US – all of them set up to help female executive leaders network and establish connections. The practice was tasked with creating a homely atmosphere inside the Chicago outpost, with rugs, wooden dividers and deep leather loungers all borrowing from a classic gentleman’s club aesthetic – with a twist. Shades of green dominate the space, with walls, tiles, and even pipework decked out ..read more

In the Japanese tradition, this 86-year-old wood house in Hasami, Japan, was designed to adapt and evolve over time. Still, Tokyo-based architects DDAA approached it with a light hand when refashioning it into a two-storey office and showroom for pottery brand Maruhiro. Hasami is a major porcelain centre in Japan and Marhiro is a major purveyor, reimagining simple pottery forms in a contemporary way. So DDAA’s refresh hit the right notes, putting a clean, polished finish on an already striking space with stripped wood floors and sunken workspaces. To allow in natural light, the team ..read more

As human beings, we pride ourselves on our adaptability, but 2020 tested this to the extreme. When the global lockdown was announced back in March 2020, we took to working from home with gusto, embracing the freelance mentality as employers across the globe announced long-term or permanent work from home protocols. Fast forward 10 months, and many things have changed, including the onset of ‘work from home fatigue’. But what does this mean for the future of coworking spaces? Meeting new demands ‘Coworking is redefining what an office space can be. This is the “new normal”’ said Stijn Geer ..read more

New Yorkers can now check into the office, as Brooklyn’s Wythe Hotel converts one of its floors into private workspaces as it pivots to cope with pandemic life. Hotels across the world saw bookings drop off in recent months, as countries went into lockdown due to COVID-19, and travel came to a halt. But Williamsburg’s Wythe Hotel is one of several reconsidering how it can use its vacant rooms. Photography: Industrious It’s now offering 13 rooms as office space, available to rent daily, starting at $200. They are aimed at people living nearby that want to avoid the journey into the city. Beds ..read more

The post-COVID office may be forever changed, as companies rush to incorporate social distancing into their workspaces. Remote working also means our relationship with our desks has become more tenuous. Designers are coming up with novel ideas to meet the needs of this changing world, designing portable toolboxes, germ-free pods and modular barriers that can adapt existing spaces while shaping the way we will work in the future. Clikclax social distancing kit Credit: Clikclax Australian designer Zahava Elenburg designed Clikclax to help coworking spaces and open offices adapt to social distan ..read more

As people start to think about returning to the office in some form or another, what should that space look like now? ‘Remote work is better, cheaper and healthier than bad office space,’ believes Raphael Gielgen, head of research and trend scouting at Swiss furniture company Vitra, which has released a series of E-papers on this topic. ‘Companies that keep their physical offices will need to make them an attractive place to be,’ he adds. Along with being attractive, they must also comply with new health and safety mores – a conundrum which is taxing workplace and furniture designers. The deat ..read more

Coworking pioneer The Wing sets the bar when it comes to offering female-first amenities in its spaces, from breastfeeding rooms to meeting spaces that honour literary greats. Naturally, its own Manhattan headquarters hones this even further – down to the brand’s signature pink hues and pastel shades. The office is located in a former hospital in the East Village, constructed in 1854 for German immigrants and later expanded with a women-only wing. There’s no shortage of historic elements still in place following the building’s adaptive reuse, including tiled floors and iron bannister rails ..read more