A Touch Of Whimsy Reigns In This San Diego Tech Office

San Diego is synonymous with sandy beaches, year-round great weather, and stellar Mexican food. But for the regional studio of the nationwide multidisciplinary firm SmithGroup, its beloved locale offers much more. When developing ideas for the downtown offices of a global tech company, the project team drew on the fabric of the city to create two dual concepts that celebrate its lesser-known assets. The first is based on the surrounding natural landscape; the second, on its grittier urban energy. “It’s really easy to make the cliché references,” says corporate, commercial, and civic studio leader Megan Skaalen, who helmed the project, “but there’s also the secret side of San Diego.”

The client loved both concepts equally and requested they be integrated across the workspace, a single 50,000-square-foot floor plate spanning two buildings and connected by an internal bridge. While the obvious approach might have been to assign one idea to each half of the space, SmithGroup took a bolder route. The more vibrant, zanier scheme—dubbed Feel the Pulse—was applied to the central communal zones that link both buildings. Meanwhile, the softer, more contemplative direction—At Home in Nature—was woven into meeting rooms and workspaces deeper within the plan. This strategy not only enhances wayfinding, Skaalen acknowledges, but also establishes a clear visual distinction between areas for connection and those for focus.

SmithGroup Crafts A Vibrant Office For A Global Tech Company

The dynamic energy of the urban-influenced scheme hits immediately upon entry. The main elevator core is wrapped in matte-black steel panels, while matching forced-perspective diagonals slice across the ceiling and floor, making the lobby appear “like it’s ripped,” explains senior interior designer Alex Leadon. An adjacent wall is entirely clad in a relief collage of abstract shapes, vivid colors, and outdoorsy motifs—all nods to San Diego. “The client really puts an emphasis on the local identity of its offices,” Leadon reports, so this arrival moment delivers a bold “SD” signature right from the start.

Throughout the space, arches appear again and again—turning a long corridor into an arcade, for instance, or spanning a deep, banquette-lined wall booth in the coffee-bar area—gestures that reference the Spanish Revival architecture found across the city, particularly the museums, pavilions, and historic structures populating nearby Balboa Park. The color palette in the common zones similarly borrows from the surrounding context of ocean, beach, desert, and mountains. Seafoam green, terra-cotta, and coral are applied strategically “to get the creative juices flowing,” Leadon suggests. Texture is also introduced via materials such as artworks that incorporate sand, natural-wool acoustic panels in the open work areas, and metal mesh layered over glowing light boxes in a pre-function space.

Colorful Palettes Get The Creative Juices Flowing

Skaalen lists comfort and hominess as the workplace qualities most desired by today’s employees. Those admirable attributes are conjured here through soft furnishings and soothing colors, certainly, but primarily through art. Wherever you look, a wide array of custom artworks created by SPMDesign bursts from surfaces, envelops thresholds, and even drips off canvases onto the walls. They are joined by a curated selection of pieces by local artists, enlivening communal areas and meeting rooms.

With the art and other decorative elements, the hat tips to San Diego continue—sometimes overt, sometimes subtle, and occasionally hidden. Around a conference room themed after the SS Monte Carlo—a Prohibition-era gambling vessel now a wreck visible at low tide on the beach at Coronado—five coins are discreetly tucked away for staff and visitors to discover. And for those who look closely enough, a discreet peephole in the lobby-wall relief offers a glimpse of a vintage postcard. “There’s a sense of play,” Skaalen observes, “but it doesn’t feel elementary.”

Feel The Pulse Of San Diego In This Workplace Design

The open office areas and smaller meeting rooms are quieter in tone, so that users can “focus where focus is due,” says Leadon. A variety of breakout spaces, private booths, and even reclining massage chairs are included to accommodate different ways of working and the requirements of neurodiverse individuals. “No matter what personality, learning style, or work employees need to do, there is a place for them to do that,” Leadon explains. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all.” The multitude of settings in which people can meet, converse, ideate, and relax together is critical—particularly today when, as Skaalen points out, many are motivated to come into the office to socialize: “Human connection is needed, even within a global technology company.”

The overall impression created by the interiors is of a much more mature version of the “fun house” tech offices that dominated the 2010’s. Welcoming, adaptable spaces with artful touches of whimsy—rather than glorified amusement arcades or playgrounds—signal a new era for an industry that has outgrown its awkward adolescence. “Tech companies have grown up, and their spaces have as well,” Skaalen concludes. By creating a condensed, abstracted snapshot of San Diego within these walls, SmithGroup has provided an identity tailored for those who, like them, are proud to live and work in the city.

Explore Design Details Like Hand-Painted Murals

SMITHGROUP: ROB MOYLAN; LESLEY SCOTT; GABRIEL CERVANTES; DAVE WANG; PATRICK MACBRIDE; SHAWN NGUYEN; HAL SPIERS; NEHAL DESAI; ANDREA REYNOLDS; MIKE KATAN; JOSE ALICEA; CHRISTINA MOSS. SPMDESIGN: ART CONSULTANT. CREATIVE METAL INDUSTRIES: METALWORK. WB POWELL: MILLWORK. SKYLINE CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT EHMCKE SHEET METAL: STEEL PANELING (LOBBY). LED LINEAR: STRIP LIGHTING. TERRA NOVA DESIGNS: BENCHES. AXIS: PEN­DANT FIXTURES (LOBBY, CONFERENCE ROOM). LIVDEN: WALL TILE (COFFEE BAR). ASTEK: MURAL. MARTIN BRATTRUD: BANQUETTE. FLOS: SCONCES. ALLERMUIR: SIDE CHAIRS (COFFEE BAR, BREAKOUT AREA). HEARTWORK: CREDENZAS (BREAKOUT AREA). STUDIO TK: BENCHES. UNIKA VAEV: PENDANT FIXTURES (PRE-FUNCTION AREA). MOOOI: COFFEE TABLE. WEST ELM WORK: SOFA. ARCADIA: GLASS DOORS. ENCORE SEATING: LOUNGE CHAIRS (PRE-FUNCTION AREA), CHAIRS (CONFERENCE ROOM). INFINITY: MASSAGE CHAIRS (CORRIDOR). STYLEX: PRIVACY SCREENS. STEELCASE: DESKS, TASK CHAIRS (OFFICE AREA).

Wutopia Lab Designs A Pebblelike Spa Building In China

Traditional Chinese landscape concepts have informed many of the country’s most recognizable contemporary buildings: from office towers to opera houses. Tied to philosophical and spiritual ideas of harmonious relationships in nature, known collectively as shan shui, these recurring motifs each symbolize various characteristics. In Zunhua, Hebei province, Shanghai-based architecture firm Wutopia Lab has interpreted the concept of the “flying rock” for the spa building found at the Rock–Cloud Center, a mountainside hotel with views of the Great Wall of China. Wutopia cofounder Ting Yu and his team conceived the site to embody the qualities of transcendence, detachment, and individuality, and appear to defy gravity by cantilevering it from the sloped site.

The pebblelike form is positioned 65 feet above the hotel’s entrance and villa accommodations, and contains a swimming pool, gym, and facilities for enjoying the adjacent outdoor hot springs. While the concrete portion of the nearly 14,000-square-foot building that contains mechanical services is partially buried into the hillside, the steel-framed upper section is clad in aluminum panels to create the visually lighter, rounded roof. “We spent a long time adjusting the form of the rock into a relatively regular pebble,” Yu recalls.

At the structure’s center, a 30-foot ceiling soars over the swimming pool and forms a cavernous hall—in every sense. Smoothed openings and niches in the continuous off-white stucco surfaces evoke rock eroded by the elements, while “light from the skylight spills onto the water’s surface,” Yu adds. “It’s like swimming in a refined cave.” Amorphous north-facing apertures around the glass curtain wall are oriented toward the city below and the ancient wall beyond. Guests can also traverse a spiraling ramp that penetrates and emerges from the boulder-like shell as it leads up to the roof.

Natural materials such as dark stone veneer in the pantry, copper in the lobby, and green marble in the pool and gym further connect the project to the landscape. All the qualities that the “flying rock” represents manifest in a serene and unique amenity space that sets the hotel apart from those “that often lack character,” Yu observes. “This seeks to break that monotony.” And with it, China gains another contemporary architectural gem that’s rooted in tradition yet a stone’s throw into the future. 

A Contemporary Architectural Gem Rooted In Chinese Tradition

PRODUCT SOURCES THROUGHOUT 
CHLOE ZHANG; WEI SHIYU: LIGHTING CONSULTANTS. ECOLAND: LANDSCAPE DESIGN. CHINA STATE CONSTRUCTION URBAN DEVELOPMENT CO.: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

OMA New York Honors Louis Vuitton’s Storied History In Osaka Exhibit

Fashion exhibitions have proven to be blockbuster hits for museums the world over. This is largely thanks to the annual summer show held by the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York—and the media frenzy surrounding the gala that precedes it. The yearly event has ignited widespread public interest in blue-chip designer clothing and lifestyle products, which, until relatively recently, were viewed as elitist and unattainable for many.  Naturally, luxury brands have taken note of this newfound sense of accessibility and created their own exhibitions to spellbind global consumers even more.

Much of what captivates audiences at these shows comes down to dazzling scenography—an art mastered by Shohei Shigematsu, partner at OMA and director of OMA New York, who designed the Met’s “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology” in 2016. Since then, the Japanese architect has collaborated with several houses on elaborate environments that present apparel and accessories, trace institutional histories, and build narrative identities. “Fashion always has a kind of familiarity, but also a certain distance from the normal world,” Shigematsu observes. “By using the space, the garments, and the content of the exhibition itself, we can create an immersive experience and tell the story of the brand.”

Experience Immersive Environments in ‘Louis Vuitton: Visionary Journeys’

The architect’s latest exhibition, “Louis Vuitton: Visionary Journeys,” at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan, last July through September, marked the 170th anniversary of the luxury goods and apparel company’s founding while continuing a partnership with the house that began in 2023 and includes a previous exhibition in Bangkok. Initially, Shigematsu used the dimensions of Vuitton’s signature trunk to create a bricklike module that can be stacked, tessellated, or assembled into sculptural forms. “The brand’s identity, innovation, and history are all crystallized in this single object,” he explains. Rendered in monogrammed washi paper over a wood frame and lit from within, the modules formed eight dramatically elongated lanterns suspended in the five-story atrium of Katsuhiko Endo’s building, welcoming museum­goers. Real trunks, however, appeared at the entrance to the exhibition galleries, where 138 of them formed a geodesic dome—a nod to the hemispheres long used at world fairs as symbols of the future, and a gesture echoed by OMA in the French pavilion at the concurrent Expo 2025 Osaka.

After passing beneath the dome, guests embarked on the titular journey: a winding sequence of 11 galleries—architecturally unique spaces named for themes and places central to Vuitton’s legacy—offering a surprise at every turn. “A lot of people appreciate the non-museumlike experience,” Shigematsu says of the environments, most of which were fabricated and tested near Tokyo before being shipped to the museum for reassembly. The result, he hopes, appealed to both mind and senses: “There was a lot of written text for each object,” he acknowledges, “but each room had an atmosphere that presented the intangible part of architecture, where people could feel the theme or story almost instantly.”

The first gallery, a spacious, mint-green antechamber dubbed “Asnières,” featured a faithful replica of an art nouveau stained-glass window from the Vuitton family home, now a museum in the eponymous town, where the artisanal workshop still operates today. The following room, “Origins,” was wrapped in a flowing, basketlike ar­mature of handwoven bamboo, its undulating form defining six deep bays, each brimming with photographs, artifacts, and memorabilia from an era in the company’s history. This represented only a fraction of the 1,000-plus objects that fashion historian Florence Müller curated for the 19,400-square-foot exhibition. About 200 of them related specifically to Japan—a theme subtly suggested by the bamboo latticework but fully explored in a subsequent gallery, “Louis Vuitton and Japan,” where the interplay between the European house and Japanese culture took center stage. A selection of historic and contemporary garments, artworks, and objects was displayed on floating modular platforms that evoked tatami mats, as did the grid of light boxes suspended overhead.

No surprise, then, that two native talents, Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami, were prominent among the design partnerships celebrated in “Collaborations”—a kaleidoscopic space of interlocking domes lined with mirrored facets that reflected both the garment-bedecked mannequins and the visitors who, Shigematsu suggests, “became part of the exhibition,” bringing the journey to a dazzling conclusion.

Nakanoshima Museum of Art Transforms Into A Fashion Wonderland

Not that France had been forgotten along the way: “Workshop” reproduced elements from the Asnières atelier where Vuitton trunks are made—green-painted steelwork, a sawtooth roofline, wall-mounted tools—along with hefty solid-beech workbenches where artisans gave live demonstrations of their craft. And “Atelier Rarex” reinterpreted the mansard roof of Maison Vendôme, the company’s Paris flagship, transforming its two tiers of windows into 20 stainless-steel display niches, each containing an haute-couture creation. Mirror-clad end walls expanded the installation, turning it into an infinite Haussmannian roofscape.

By offering immersive (and photogenic) spaces such as these for the public to enjoy, the fashion exhibition shows no sign of waning. Wherever “Visionary Journeys” travels next, it will continue to transport visitors into new worlds of thematic exploration, each tailored to its context.

OMA New York Explores Louis Vuitton’s Unique Creations In This Exhibition

Dive Into Each Specialized Environment

OMA NEW YORK: JESSE CATALANO; NICCOLO BALDI; XAVIER FOX; BLAKE KEM; FRANCESCA PARMIG­GIANI. NPU CORPORATION: EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION. FLORENCE MÜLLER: ART CONSULTANT. SPECIAL OFFER: GRAPHICS CONSULTANT. TOKYO HEART-S: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. TSUMURA KOGEI: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

Turning Heads With ZARA Nanjing’s Futuristic Flagship Store

While physical retail in the West has slowly shifted closer to an experience-driven model, many stores in China are ahead of the game, formulating immersive, multifunctional spaces where customers can do more than simply peruse the racks. Realizing a need to up the ante in the region to remain competitive, Spanish fashion brand Zara called upon Shanghai studio AIM Architecture to reimagine its Nanjing flagship and create a new concept for this tricky market.

With satellite offices in Antwerp, Belgium, and Chicago, AIM’s founding in Shanghai in 2005 by work and life partners Dutch architect Vincent de Graaf and Belgian architect Wendy Saunders has enabled the firm to gain invaluable insights into Chinese consumer behaviors, while still bringing a European sensibility to its work—an ideal combination for this project. AIM, which stands for authentic immersive matters, understands that to provide real impact, any retail space should improve its wider context and offer services beyond the primary product: in this case, clothing. “We saw it as an opportunity to explore a new direction for Zara, one that connects architecture, technology, and community in a very integrated way,” de Graaf begins.

ZARA Nanjing’s Flagship Embraces a Sci-Fi Aesthetic

The 37,000-square-foot store in Xinjiekou, Nanjing’s central business district and shopping hub, occupies the ground and second levels of an existing glass tower, with a protruding shiny red sphere for feng shui purposes and a long facade stretching out beside a busy thoroughfare. Here was a chance to improve the adjacent streetscape by providing shelter and seating, connecting Zara with the public realm to draw in passersby. AIM installed an exterior canopy and brick benches, creating a shaded area for shoppers to pause beneath, and clad the facade in a sinuous, warm beige composition of 3D-curved steel panels sprayed with a textured sand aggregate.

Meanwhile, a monumental staircase in the same brick as the benches and positioned in the center of the flagship spills out through the glazed facade into the street. “It was conceived as a mountain rather than a staircase, with activity on all sides,” de Graaf continues. The bleacher-style steps rise in pyramidal form before switching to a single flight to the upper floor, providing both circulation and an informal seating area for Zacaffe, a collab with Art Recherche Industrie for Zara’s first in-store café concept outside of Spain. Housed within a hut-style structure modeled on traditional local buildings, the café kiosk also straddles the interior and exterior to serve customers on both sides.

Engaging With Customers on a Different Level

The reddish-pink hue of the brickwork, which is typical of the region, reappears as product displays throughout the store. These contrast the largely monochromatic palette of raw and polished concrete and matte stainless steel. Overall, there’s more emphasis on texture than color, yielding a neutral yet tactile backdrop for the constantly changing product offering for which Zara is renowned. “You need a little bit of rawness to have an impact,” Saunders explains. “Otherwise, it just becomes a canvas for clothes.”

A grid of indented, square concrete panels across the ceilings on both floors is interrupted by sweeping curves around the double-height entry, forming a balcony that overlooks large-scale works by local artists. Clusters of spotlights are integrated into some of the ceiling tiles, while their strict grid layout becomes an organizing framework for vertical partitions in display areas. Elsewhere, details such as leather-wrapped vertical rail supports and door handles add even more texture, while screens are integrated into wall panels and podiums to present Zara’s collections digitally.

A Connected and Evolving Space

The fitting rooms are where things get really interesting, designed as highly experiential salons and each given its own treatment. In one, dappled chartreuse carpeting and chocolate-brown leather seating juxtapose custom mirrors and steel furniture, resulting in a retro-futuristic vibe. “It’s a hospitalitylike moment that feels intimate, comfortable, and slightly unexpected,” de Graaf says.

In another larger area, the sci-fi aesthetic is pushed further by silvery foil curtains that conceal the entrance to an amorphous booth bathed in color-adjustable LEDs. This hidden space, known as Fit Check, was done in collaboration with Barcelona-based digital studio Bagel Affairs and integrates professional-grade lighting and cameras. Customers can book the space via WeChat, capture their own fashion photos and videos, then download and share their content both during and afterwards. Interactive and high-tech, it provides all-important opportunities to drive social media engagement for the brand on such platforms as RedNote and WeChat. An appointment-based personal shopping service is also available in a private salon, for those who desire a premium experience more akin to the luxury sector.

View This Ensemble of Tactile and Analog

By integrating technology, connecting with the public realm, and developing an entirely new visual language, AIM has delivered a store that’s unlike anything in Zara’s portfolio. The Nanjing flagship provides a blueprint for how Zara’s other stores in China, as well as across the globe, can offer the public more than enough reason to get off the couch and shop for new “fits” IRL. “Customers want to engage with the brand on a different level,” Saunders concludes. “It’s important that they get a sense of adventure and inspiration when they’re shopping. Otherwise, they’ll just buy online.”

Explore a New Direction for ZARA

Dive Into This Experiential Retail Playground

AIM ARCHITECTURE: MARTA POZO; SACHA SILVA; EWA SZAJDA; ALBA GALAN; DAVIDE SIGNORATO; EMILIO WANG; GABRIELLE LIU; GUANLIN LI; HAOCHEN YANG; JERRY GUO; SONG JIE; KANG JIN; JUNGER XIA; KEXIN GAO; MIA LEI; NORA LIU; VICTOR MONGIN; WEI ZHENG; WEISHA DAI; QIANQIAN BAO; XIAO WEN; ZHANG YI; ZHAO NA. BAGEL AFFAIRS: FRANC NAVARRO CIFANI. CAAMAÑO ASIA (KUNSHAN) FURNITURE AND COMPLEMENTS CO.: CUSTOM FURNITURE, CARPET, CURTAIN WORKSHOP. BESPOKE. SUR-MESURE ENGINEERING STUDIO: FACADE CONSULTANT. SHANGHAI CHOYOIN BUILDING DECORATION CO.: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT DE SEDE: SOFA (SALON). THROUGHOUT WIENERBERGER: BRICK SUPPLIER. FAGERHULT: CEILING FIXTURES. INUSUAL COMUNICACIÓN INNOVADORA: DIGITAL SCREENS.

HOK Crafts A Breathtaking Nature-Inspired Headquarters In Ontario

Eighty years ago, Albert Savage, a cofounder of Co-operators—a Canadian insurance and financial-services cooperative—described the endeavor as “an acorn that will grow into one of the greatest oak trees of the cooperative movement.” This idea stuck with the HOK team responsible for the interiors at the company’s new headquarters, a state-of-the-art facility in Guelph, Ontario, which brings together all its operations and over 1,200 employees under one roof. The quote influenced many of the visual cues and material selections for the project, which aimed to reflect the principles of the cooperative movement in the workspaces. The words are even inscribed on a prominent wall as a literal reminder.

“Co-operators’s values, culture, and mission are different from those of traditional organizations, and that really inspired us,” says Caitlin Turner, senior principal and director of design, interiors, at the Toronto studio of HOK, which, with its 26 offices across three continents and expertise in workplace and sustainability, ranks sixth among the Interior Design Top 100 Giants, up from seven last year. HOK has been carbon neutral since 2022, a distinction it shares with Co-operators, which achieved that status in 2020 and saw this move as an opportunity to embrace even more ambitious environmental goals. By pursuing zero-carbon, WELL Platinum, and LEED Gold certifications, the headquarters would become “the first of its kind in Canada,” says Shawn Fitzgerald, vice president of real estate and workplace at Co-operators. “The vision was to be a catalyst for sustainable construction and design.”

HOK Infuses Nature Into Co-Operators’s HQ

Set within a campus of meadow gardens, walking trails, and outdoor exercise stations, the three-story, 225,000-square-foot building features an atrium  around which the spaces are organized—many embodying the “acorn-to-oak” metaphor. On the ground floor, curved, walnut-paneled walls physically represent the tree’s roots. Nearby, a hallway displays a series of framed historical advertisements as a timeline symbolizing the company’s organic growth. And on the top floor, the ceiling of a collaborative area, clad in rippling stainless-steel panels and dotted with circular recessed downlights, recreates the dappled effect of a leafy canopy.

A key client directive was to celebrate Co-operators’s six decades in the city of Guelph, which is located in south­western Ontario. “We really wanted to maintain our presence within this community that we absolutely love and ensure that we continue this long history,” Fitzgerald notes. Thus, the context informs several elements, such as a pitched steel-and-wood frame—modeled after one of Canada’s oldest surviving covered bridges—that shelters a focused-work area beneath a skylight on the third floor, as well as a vibrant custom rug in the lobby, its swirling multicolor pattern based on an aerial topographic view of the city.

Vibrant Patterns Help Create An Engaging Workplace

Several pieces of lore from the company’s past were also translated into visual form. For instance, felt panels emblazoned with tractor-tire tracks across some meeting-room walls nod to the founding meeting with farmers, while recurring imagery of apples and wheat serves as a reminder that co-op members once used those crops as payment. “These are moments in the rich history of the cooperative movement, which is really about supporting the people who are part of the organization,” Turner observes. Co-operators’s distinctive chevron logo, applied throughout as a wayfinding tool, reaches its apotheosis in the library, where it is replicated using 3,000 plants in a green wall measuring more than 34 feet wide and 17 tall.

As a social and cultural hub for the company, the layout of the headquarters encourages what Turner describes as “serendipitous collisions” between employees from different departments. On the ground floor, the coffee shop features soft banquette seating and an adjacent nook with a suspended fireplace, creating a cozy setting for conversations over lattes. In the balcony library immediately above, long custom walnut tables—lit by the atrium skylight during the day and by integrated desk lamps at night—serve as magnets for collaborative work. Connecting the library to the top level, a cantilevered steel staircase with warm wood treads provides another site for chance encounters while also serving as a striking sculptural focal point in the atrium. “It’s a path of travel,” Turner continues, “but also a beacon of place where people come to congregate and socialize.” 

Lush Greenery Sparks Collaboration in This Dynamic Office

Employee health and wellness, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, was another primary driver. Circulation through the building is intentionally conceived to promote activity, ensuring that, along with the outdoor trails and an on-site gym, staffers can easily meet their daily exercise goals. Workspaces designed for neurodiverse individuals feature specially tailored flexible lighting, quiet areas, muted colors, and sensory-friendly textures—just some of the many accessibility and inclusion elements that go beyond standard code requirements.

Co-operators aims to achieve full net-zero status by 2040, and this building represents a significant milestone on that path. It prioritizes environmental targets by specifying Canadian-made, low-carbon materials, intelligent LED lighting, automatic-tinting windows, and furniture made of sustainable materials. Any successful headquarters reflects the company it houses in multiple ways—showcasing its past achievements, present values and culture, and future vision to both employees and visitors. This one fondly looks back and boldly dreams forward, as the growth of the Co-operators “oak tree” continues, benefitting both people and planet. 

See How This Office By HOK Embraces Sustainability

Explore An Office With A Focus On Health + Wellness

HOK: KRISTINA KAMENAR; HAYLEY LAVIGNE; PIA GREEN; KIMIA MOSTAFAEI; CRYSTAL VONG. NEO ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. SHOUFANY CUSTOM WOODWORKING: MILLWORK. HH ANGUS & ASSOCIATES: LIGHTING CONSULTANT; MEP. DORLAN ENGINEERING: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. COOPER CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT JUNIPER DESIGN GROUP: DESK LAMPS (LIBRARY), PICTURE LIGHTS (GALLERY). SVEND NIELSEN: CUSTOM TABLES (LIBRARY), CUSTOM SHELVING (CAFETERIA), CUSTOM PERGOLA (BRIDGE). HAY: SECTIONALS (LIBRARY), SIDE CHAIRS (ATRIUM), SOFA (OPEN OFFICE). HERMAN MILLER: SIDE CHAIRS, LOUNGE CHAIRS (LIBRARY), TABLES, CIRCULAR SOFAS (ATRIUM), LOUNGE CHAIR (LOUNGE), SIDE TABLE (OPEN OFFICE), MODULAR SEATING (BRIDGE), BARSTOOLS, TABLE LAMPS (CANOPY). MUUTO: SIDE TABLES (LIBRARY), COFFEE TABLES (LOUNGE, OPEN OFFICE). CREATIVE MATTERS: CUSTOM RUG (RECEPTION). ELLISON STUDIOS: COFFEE TABLES. KEILHAUER: SOFAS (RECEPTION), BENCH (FITNESS CENTER). GLOBAL FURNITURE GROUP: BANQUETTE (COFFEE SHOP). PUNT MOBLES: WOOD CHAIRS. ARMSTRONG: WOOD CEILING. JUNO: TRACK LIGHTING. TEKNION: TABLE (COFFEE SHOP), MODULAR FRAMEWORK (OPEN OFFICE), GLASS PARTITIONING (CANOPY). MAXXIT: PANELING (COFFEE SHOP), CEILING PANELS (CANOPY). CF + D: FIREPLACE (FIRE NOOK). GUS MODERN: SIDE TABLE. RH CONTRACT: PICTURE LIGHTS. RUGGABLE: RUGS (FIRE NOOK, LOUNGE). GEIGER: WINGBACK CHAIR (FIRE NOOK), CANE CHAIRS (ATRIUM), LOUNGE CHAIRS (BRIDGE). MOMENTUM TEXTILES & WALLCOVERING: ACOUSTIC FELT (ATRIUM). KIMBALL INTERNATIONAL: BANQUETTE (ATRIUM), BOOTH SEATING (CAFETERIA). KOROSEAL: WOOD-VENEER WALLCOVERING (GALLERY, LOUNGE). STUFF BY ANDREW NEYER: SCONCES (CAFETERIA). DECO TILE: TERRAZZO FLOORING. AREA ENVIRONMENTS: BOOTH WALLCOVERING. STUDIO TK: LOUNGE CHAIRS, SIDE TABLES (CAFETERIA), SOFAS (LOUNGE), BARSTOOLS (OPEN OFFICE). SPEC FURN­ITURE: BOOTH TABLES (CAFETERIA), COUNTER TABLES (CANOPY). PABLO DESIGN: PENDANT FIXTURE (LOUNGE). EUROPTIMUM: CUSTOM LOGO (LOUNGE), CUSTOM SIGNAGE (FITNESS CENTER), CUSTOM WALL­COVERING (CAFETERIA). HOLLIS+MORRIS: LINEAR PENDANT FIXTURES (ATRIUM). LOLL DESIGNS: ROCKING CHAIRS (OPEN OFFICE). NANIMARQUINA: RUG. BUZZISPACE: LARGE PENDANT FIXTURES (BRIDGE). THROUGHOUT NYDREE FLOORING: WOOD FLOORING. SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY: PAINT.

Inside A Playful Coworking Space In Germany

We all know by now that the world of work has undergone a seismic shift. However, there is still much debate about how future workplaces will look and how they’ll accommodate the evolving habits and needs of new generations of users. Architects and designers are currently in a significant phase of experimentation, striving to determine the next iteration of the “office”—if it can even still be called that—and how these spaces might entice workers away from their homes.

In Laatzen, an industrial area on the outskirts of Hanover, Germany, Ippolito Fleitz Group has taken the experimental approach to an extreme in an effort to redefine this spatial category. The firm’s interiors for Brainhouse247, a coworking brand, have transformed a five-level 1970’s building—formerly a nondescript administrative center for Siemens—into 215,000 square feet of lively, playful environments that provide facilities, flexibility, and fun as compelling incentives for members to show up. “Why are people coming back to the office?” asks Peter Ippolito, an Interior Design Hall of Fame member along with comanaging partner, Gunther Fleitz. “The simple answer is because they want to, not because they have to.”

Ippolito Fleitz Group Builds A Creative Coworking Wonderland

Available to both individuals and corporate employees, Brainhouse247 membership offers round-the-clock access to a diverse range of meeting rooms, lounge and relaxation zones, communal breakout spaces, and food and beverage areas—all designed with an unconventional approach. The concept goes well beyond the beer taps and phone booths of 2010’s coworking startups, one that’s much more refined than the foosball tables and slides of the same decade’s tech-campus wonderland.

Along with more traditional open desk setups, there are specialized facilities for podcasting, photography, 3-D printing, and more, plus a mix of unorthodox places for quiet contemplation or letting off steam, depending on one’s mood.  “We have a room where you don’t see anything because it’s all foggy, offering a moment of quiet,” Ippolito reports. “We even have a room where you can go in and just scream.”

How This Coworking Space Invites Play

In essence, Brainhouse247 is conceived as a landscape of discovery. Each level (four aboveground and one below) features a distinct visual identity but is intentionally left unnamed to encourage users to assign their own monikers, aiding memory and orientation—or so the hope goes. While the top three floors all include a central “marketplace” as a nexus where members can grab coffee, socialize, and relax, each floor has a unique layout and scenario created for it.

On level two, for instance, the “playground” is where collaborative work can take place around circular picnic tables or in pink-upholstered diner-style booths, while on the floor above, presentations can be viewed from brightly hued, stadium-style bleachers mounted on wheels for flexibility. “Everything is agile and mobile,” Fleitz explains. For focused tasks, there are custom cylindrical oak pods, which he refers to as “bird’s nests,” raised a couple of feet off the ground and accessed via short orange ladders. Another option for private calls or concentrated work is a series of color-saturated nooks, created by opening up former exhaust shafts and outfitting them with comfortable sofas and intimate pendant lighting.

Bold Colors + Comfortable Seating Enhance Productivity

Members wishing to stay active while they work can utilize dedicated “walk ’n’ talk” areas or organize powwows with colleagues that incorporate sessions on monkey bars, gymnastic rings, and other exercise equipment. “What we’ve learned from completing a lot of projects in the corporate world is that you can’t ever be innovative enough,” Ippolito observes. “Let’s put it this way, the most unconventional formats we offer are typically used the most.”

The raw bones of the original concrete structure and service ductwork, along with existing features like drywall and tiling, have been left exposed in many instances, creating an intentionally unfinished appearance that alludes to the constant flux of work habits. Colorful heating/cooling ceiling panels were installed in several work areas to improve the building’s energy efficiency, while also helping with acoustics. Bold color is applied fervently throughout, imbuing joy and lightheartedness. From forests of vertical textile ribbons suspended above pillowy lounge chairs and soft ottomans to an area dedicated to playing board games in niches between arched spruce partitions, there’s a palpable emphasis on buoyancy and pleasure around every corner.

To further enliven the interiors, street art–style graphics featuring a cast of deftly sketched characters festoon many walls, enhancing the patchwork effect created by the many layered elements. “We love collage because it allows the user to develop their own story,” Ippolito notes. “They see what they want to see, and they connect it with their own memories.” The facility will eventually include restaurants, a fitness center, and maker workshops, among other ame­nities on the ground floor, offering members everything they might need under one roof, if they choose. Choice is a fundamental principle of the project, emphasizing IFG’s contention that the future of work ultimately revolves around freedom—however that may manifest aesthetically.

Swing Through Brainhouse247’s Transformation By Ippolito Fleitz Group

IPPOLITO FLEITZ GROUP: LENA GRZIB; NADINE BATZ; ERKIN SAGIR; MANU DANKHED; KERRY PLIENINGER; NEELE KELINGARN; KATJA HEINEMANN; ARSEN ALIVERDIIEV; JUAN MANUEL DE AYARRA DEL OLMO; TIM LESSMANN; TIMO FLOTT; ROGER GASPERLIN; CHRISTIAN KIRSCHENMANN; JOHANNES HANEBUTH. AG LICHT: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. SUPER 8 STUDIO: GRAPHICS CONSULTANT. LINDNER: CUSTOM FURNITURE, INSTALLATIONS.

OBJECT CARPET: CARPET (TRANSITION SPACE, PRIVATE DESKS). PEDRALI: SOFA, ARMCHAIRS (PRIVATE DESKS). KÖNIG + NEURATH: DESKS. ARPER: ACOUSTIC DESK PANELS. NAIN TRADING: RUG. WÄSTBERG: DESK LAMPS (PRIVATE DESKS), LARGE PENDANT FIXTURE (PLAYGROUND). MARAZZI: PORCE­LAIN FLOOR TILE (PRIVATE DESKS, URBAN SQUARE). VITRA: MESH TASK CHAIRS (PRIVATE DESKS, CONFERENCE ROOM). BLÅ STATION: OTTOMANS (BLEACHERS, URBAN SQUARE). FATBOY: LOUNGE CHAIRS (URBAN SQUARE). NEMO LIGHTING: VERTICAL PENDANT FIXTURES. BRUNNER: STEEL CHAIRS (URBAN SQUARE), TABLE (CON­FERENCE ROOM). FLURSTÜCK: CARPET (PLAYGROUND). EQUIPE CERÁMICAS: WALL TILES. MUUTO: SOFA (NOOK). &TRADITION: PENDANT FIXTURE.

Unwind In The Latest Green Oasis At Singapore Changi Airport

In surveys, frequent global travelers consistently pick Changi Airport in Singapore as their favorite aviation hub. Even those who have never visited the four-terminal complex are often familiar with images of its central multipurpose building, dubbed the Jewel, where a tiered indoor rainforest surrounds a circular waterfall cascading through an oculus in the donut-shaped glass ceiling 130 feet above. It’s a spectacular tribute to the island nation’s “Garden City” nickname.

Other parts of the airport, however, had some catching up to do with the showstopping Jewel. A competition to renovate and expand Terminal 2, which was built in 1993 and last updated in 2003, sought to bring the aging facility up to par with its iconic neighbor. Paris-based practice Boiffils Architectures won the contest, despite having no experience in airport design. But the firm’s expertise in the hospitality sector led it to approach the project from a customer-experience perspective, which is what sold its scheme to the jury.

Transforming Terminal 2 Into A Biophilic Haven

Boiffils’s proposal for the 1.3-million-square-foot, three-level interior avoided the common practice of treating an airline terminal like a factory outfitted with utilitarian materials for high-traffic durability and cold, reflective surfaces that can be dazzling and disorienting under bright spotlights. Instead, the firm selected products with warm, textured finishes that soften the spaces, and introduced vegetation and mineral-evoking elements to create a relaxing, enjoyable environment for those embarking on what can often be a stressful process. “The aim was to make a very blurred boundary between architecture and landscape,” says managing partner, creative director, and principal architect Basile Boiffils, who, in 2004, launched the architecture department of the design studio his parents founded 20 years before. “We wanted to bring in sensuality with the materials, so that they really humanize the experience, almost romanticize it.”

Throughout the terminal, walls feature precast stucco panels with striations that suggest “cutting through layers of soil,” Boiffils observes. Bands of lush foliage emerge between these layers as if breaking out of the substrate. Carpet patterns in the check-in area mimic ocean-wave formations and land topography as seen from high in the air, while the beige solid surfacing of the organically shaped service desks is enlivened with metallic flecks. The same material appears in the earth-toned restrooms, where wavy, reeded-glass paneling, backed with illuminated prints of tropical plants, conjure the illusion of verdant depths.

Design Details Include Wayfinding Paths and Green Walls 

In another passenger stress-reducing tactic, Boiffils has ensured that the step-by-step process of navigating the terminal is as visually clear and straightforward as possible. Travelers entering the departure hall are immediately directed to the automated check-in kiosks and baggage-drop stations, which are arranged like strings of islands in the open space, rather than the typical solid banks of counters that would block the view beyond. The next area, the central immigration hall, is accessed through a portal in the Wonderfall, a 45-foot-tall digital-display wall, conceived by multimedia studio Moment Factory, on which an image of cascading water plays continuously. Mesmeric and soothing, the LED installation is visible from every angle in the departure hall, drawing passengers toward it with the power of a natural phenomenon.

Nature also permeates several double-height spaces in the form of columnlike vertical gardens. Devised in collaboration with botanist Patrick Blanc, a pioneer of the green wall concept, these vegetation-covered steel structures either rise from the floor or descend from ceilings clad in digital panels displaying real-time external weather conditions. “There’s not a single fake plant,” says Boiffils, whose team painstakingly created an irrigation system and optimized lighting conditions to ensure the greenery thrives. These areas are equipped with surround-sound systems that play recordings of local bird and wildlife calls, carefully synchronized with the visual displays to further enhance the immersive, naturalistic atmosphere.

While the balance between technology and nature is weighted significantly to disguise the former and highlight the latter, this effect is achieved through the use of advanced materials and fabrication methods. In the departure hall, for example, the ceiling is hung with deep aluminum fins incorporating complex double curvature, necessitating that each be individually designed using parametric software. Deployed in sweeping bands, these graceful champagne-color elements not only provide a sense of direction overhead but also conceal mechanical services and access infrastructure. Similarly, the sculpted check-in kiosks below were carved using a five-axis CNC machine. And, of course, the falling water and changing skies are all courtesy of giant vertical and horizontal digital screens.

“Another thing we’re proud of is that we brought craft into the airport,” Boiffils notes. “A lot of the design was only possible through the work of skilled craftspeople.” The human hand is evident in such touches as the stucco wall panels, each unique, or the custom mouth-blown glass pendant fixtures, which hang like giant raindrops amidst a forest of vertical-garden columns near the departure hall entry and elsewhere. They, too, help extend Singapore’s signature lush environment into the airport and, as the architect concludes, “bring back the pleasure of traveling.”

Take A Nature Walk Through Changi Airport’s Terminal 2

BOIFFILS ARCHITECTURES: HENRI BOIFFILS; JACQUELINE BOIFFILS; SANDRA BLANVILLE; LAETITIA BERNOUIS; ARDA BEYLERYAN; MONIR KARIMI; SUNG JU KWAK; NICOLAS DELESALLE; VICTOIRE BONNIOL; LAURA FOLLIN. RSP ARCHITECTS PLANNERS & ENGINEERS: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. PATRICK BLANC: BOTANICAL CONSULTANT. GENESIS NINE ONE: LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT. PH.A CONCEPTEURS LUMIÈRE & DESIGN: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. MOMENT FACTORY: MULTIMEDIA CONSULTANT. J. ROGER PRESTON: MEP. C.C.M. GROUP: MILLWORK. TAKENAKA CORPORATION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT JC DECAUX: LED BILLBOARDS (DEPARTURE HALL). ARPER: MODULAR SEATING (DEPARTURE HALL, ARRIVAL HALL), ARMCHAIRS, OTTOMANS (ARRIVAL HALL). LASVIT: CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURES (DEPARTURE HALL). THROUGHOUT S.O.E. STUC & STAFF: CUSTOM STUCCO PANELS. SG-BOGEN: ALUMINUM CEILING PANELS, BAFFLES. ERCO; IGUZZINI; LUMENPULSE: DOWN­LIGHTS. ROYAL THAI: CUSTOM CARPET. COSENTINO: STONE FLOORING. KRION: SOLID SURFACING. PORCELANOSA: FLOOR TILE.

Guillaume Bottazzi Unveils An Artful Lighting Collection

The Reward For Navigating This Pink Maze in Dubai? Coffee!

Have you ever stood in line at a café, perplexed about what to order? This common conundrum formed the concept for I Really Don’t Know, an interactive maze in Dubai by Kidz, an experiential architecture studio based in Belgrade, Serbia, with the motto: “Let’s create something amazing together and unleash your inner child.”

That it did. The temporary installation, created for the brick-and-mortar I Really Don’t Know coffee shop in Abu Dhabi, UAE, popped-up in the Dubai Design District last January. To reach the order counter, visitors first had to navigate a puzzle of pink partitions labeled with prompts, which forced decisions that determined their journey. “Wanna eat?” directed to a cozy space with seating; “Wanna play?” led to an adventure that began via a slide down into a ball pool.

Along the route, cutouts in the partitions offered glimpses into other areas, as well as out to the waterfront. Each space had a different aesthetic, such as the Hide and Seek zone with obstacles and a swinging bench that oscillated through a gap in the walls. The final stop was the coffee shop proper, where guests who had eventually ordered could sit on ottomans made from expanded clay blocks, topped with cushions attached using construction ties. The 1,300-square-foot project was built in a week over the New Year holiday and offered a playful and art-driven experience for all ages.

Unwind in the Chase Sapphire Lounge at LaGuardia Airport

Let’s face it, air travel is more stressful than ever. Packed terminals, long security lines, and chaotic scenes are causing major disruption and inducing dread ahead of our trips. A shining light in this seemingly dark time for aviation is the revamped LaGuardia Airport, New York City’s once-reviled domestic hub that has undergone an $8 billion overhaul and become the talk of the town for the right reasons instead. That’s especially true in Terminal B, which has received a state-of-the-art revamp by HOK and WSP Design. It’s there that Chase Sapphire credit-card holders have access to a newly opened flagship lounge by Corgan and ICRAVE, a Journey Studio, that promises to remove as many airport pain points as possible, whether for individual business travelers or a family en route to Disney World. 

Officially named the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club, the nearly 22,000-square-foot project is the third in this network of members-only spaces to open after Boston and Hong Kong, and provides a unique cardholder perk for New Yorkers and those passing through. To craft an exclusive hospitality experience for these customers, the clients—JPMorgan Chase and Airport Dimensions—tapped leaders in two sectors: airport specialist Corgan and customer-experience expert ICRAVE—#6 and #70, respectively, among Interior Design’s top 100 Giants. “Chase came to us with the brief to reinvent the airport lounge,” ICRAVE creative director David Taglione begins, “a new benchmark within the U.S. market.” Also ranked 10th on the Hospitality Giants list, ICRAVE was up to the task.

The designated two-level site, located within the bowels of the airport, proved a considerable challenge. With low, 8-foot ceilings and no windows, the teams had to get creative with spatial moves and innovative lighting systems across the envelope. “The lack of windows took us outside the realm of the airport altogether, and really freed us up to do something incredibly fresh,” Taglione reveals. Together with Corgan, their considerations revolved around questions such as: “How do you de-stress guests? How do you give them the experience of feeling like they’re in a whole other world, and not the daily grind of traveling?” according to Ginger Gee DiFurio, vice president and aviation studio design director at Corgan, which is also 7th amid the 100 Sustainability Giants. 

The de-stress process begins upon arrival, when guests are greeted by agents, then guided through a low corridor before emerging into a bright double-height volume—a sequence that exaggerates the feeling of compression and then opens up, explains Taglione. The void the firms carved through the thick central floor plate offers an impression of spaciousness, and introduces curvaceous shapes around wire mesh–covered, softly illuminated mezzanine balconies that are echoed across the ceiling as layered coves. 

Organic treelike forms on both levels are wrapped in undulating walnut-veneer panels to disguise structural columns and pipework, and rise to meet mirrored panels that create the illusion of continuing growth through the ceilings. Timber is a recurring material, adding to the high-end, inviting vibe through such applications as paneling of oak veneer or rift-cut white-oak tambour and wood-effect porcelain floor tiles laid in a herringbone pattern. 

At the center of the lounge, a large circular bar is conceived as a beacon and a place to gather. It’s fitted with bespoke brass taps, exquisitely tailored stools, and a quartzite countertop, and crowned with halo-like rings, evoking a “chandelier, or an amazing piece of jewelry,” Leanne Fremar, JPMorgan Chase chief brand officer, suggests. “It’s the very first thing people look for, a helpful wayfinding element,” Gee DiFurio adds. 

Guests are encouraged to use the different areas as they desire, whether joining Zoom calls in cossetted booths, dining or having a drink, or kicking back on luxe seating by the likes of Francesco Favaretto, Monica Förster, and Nendo before their flights. Some spaces are more intimate, like the areas demarcated by glass partitions around the perimeter of the lounge. These include a family room and adjoining playroom to keep children entertained, while tweens and teens can find a retro-style arcade with a jukebox, pinball machine, and shuffleboard hidden beyond an unassuming photo booth. 

A staircase sweeps up to the mezzanine, past a mix of live and faux plants cascading over the balconies, to a quieter space for reading and relaxation. From this level, also reachable via elevator, guests can access a trio of resort-inspired private suites offering such spa-like details as tiled baths, generous vanities, and rain showers “as if they were in a five-star hotel,” Fremar describes. The suites offer “everything you need to get ready for your destination,” she adds, noting that these facilities must be pre-booked in advance. 

Each Sapphire Lounge is conceived to reflect its location, so the LaGuardia project takes influences from the city’s iconic entertainment venues, “with Madison Square Garden on one end of the spectrum and the Boom Boom Room at the other,” Fremar explains, the leather ceiling and sexy lighting in the private suites channeling the latter. Several well-known Manhattan spots were tapped as collaborators on food and beverage menus—West Village bistro Joseph Leonard, cocktail bar Apotheke, Joe Coffee—while regionally inspired artwork includes a mural of Polaroids taken all around the city by a commissioned local photographer. 

The space is devoid of any blatant branding—there’s intentionally only hints of Chase’s signature blue. Instead, warm illumination, natural materials, and soft furnishings create a calming environment to unwind, regroup, and make merry ahead of an onward journey.

Inside The Chase Sapphire Lounge At LaGuardia Airport

CORGAN: BRENT KELLEY; SHELLY NICHOLS; FARHAD MODY; GREG VESSELS; TONY GIARD; SHANE FYE; ASHLEY LAPPE; MATTHEW SHAYO; GABRIEL NG.

ICRAVE, A JOURNEY STUDIO: NICOLE RAVASINI; KAMALA HUTAURUK; DEBRA CHAN; CLAUDIA DE LEON; EMILY EVANS; ANDREW DELGADO; ADAM MURPHY.

GOLDSTICK STUDIO: LIGHTING DESIGNER. 

CARVART; DANZER: WOOD­ WORK. 

TEXSTON: PLASTERWORK. 

RIGIDIZED METALS: METALWORK. 

BLONDIE’S TREEHOUSE: INTERIOR LANDSCAPING. 

ARORA ENGINEERS: MEP. 

TURNER CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT BERNHARDT DESIGN: SWIVEL CHAIRS (MEZZANINE), DINING CHAIRS (BAR), SIDE TABLES (SUITE). 

MARTIN BRATTRUD: CUSTOM SOFA (MAIN SEATING AREA), CUSTOM OTTOMANS (RESTROOM). 

FREDERICIA FURNITURE: OTTOMANS, SIDE TABLES, WHITE ARMCHAIR (MAIN SEATING AREA). 

DAVIS FURNITURE: GRAY CHAIRS. 

APPARATUS: SCONCES (RECEPTION), CEILING FIXTURES (SUITE). 

PARLA: STOOLS (BAR). 

FLORIM; SALVATORI: TILE (RESTROOM). 

TUOHY: SETTEE (SUITE). 

MINOTTI: CHAIRS. 

ULTRA FABRICS: CEIL­ING LEATHER. 

ROLL & HILL: CHANDELIER (SUITE RECEPTION). 

SHAW CONTRACT: CUSTOM CARPET (ARCADE). 

TURF: WALLCOVERING. 

THROUGHOUT BANKERWIRE: WIRE MESH. 

NEW YORK STONE; TERRAZZO & MARBLE SUPPLY: STONE FLOORING. 

FORMGLAS: COLUMN CLADDING. 

LOLOEY: CUSTOM AXMINSTER CARPET. 

MOHAWK GROUP: CARPET TILE. 

BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT.