Mix Interiors Issue 229 by Mix_Interiors

interiors

229

Soft Industrial

From the very start, Note Design Studio aimed to showcase the natural beauty of Tarkett materials by blending soft aesthetics with the rationality of industrial components. The palette of strong brick red, calm beige, and vibrant blues perfectly complements Tarkett’s Retrace, Lino Wall, iQ Granit and DESSO & Patricia Urquiola.

The Tarkett Atelier is a multifunctional space — part gallery, part product laboratory — that provides a showroom experience like no other. With its innovative design, it offers an immersive environment to deep dive into the latest sustainable interior finishes and industry-leading recyclable flooring solutions from Tarkett.

Read more about the Tarkett Atelier by scanning the QR code:

Opened in July 2023, the brand new Tarkett Atelier is not only a showroom but also a destination — a home for Architects, Designers and other industry professionals to be surprised and inspired by the many possibilities of Tarkett flooring solutions. Tarkett Atelier is your canvas for creativity.

Book an appointment by scanning the QR code:

Designed in collaboration with Stockholm-based Note Design Studio, the new Tarkett Atelier moves away from the traditional showroom. 47-53 St John St, London EC1M 4AN Open: Monday – Friday 9:30 AM – 5 PM

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Contents

42 18

Upfront Projects, products and people through a futurecentric lens

28 Things I’ve learnt Holly Hallam, managing director of design, branding and strategy practice DesignLSM, shares five career takeaways 30 Height of design Japanese artist and graphic designer June MineyamaSmithson picks the one item she sees as the pinnacle of design

32 Mind matters The importance of recognising – and valuing – neurodiversity, according to HOK’s senior principle and director of workplace, Kay Sargent 34 In conversation with: Thomas van Leeuwen D/DOCK's director on meaningful community and asking, what else? 42

In conversation with: Trevor Morriss SPPARC’s principal shares his key to architectural success

50 Living better Designer and artist Freyja Sewell on why more isn’t always more 52 Case study: 100 Embankment, Salford x+why’s first northern outpost supports its workers and the local community 60 Case study: Queen’s Business School, Belfast This Grade-II listed building designed by TODD Architects is a lesson in topography

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68 Case study: room2, Belfast Locality and sustainability walk hand-in-hand at Belfast’s first ecohotel. 76

Case study: MOO Interior design practice Trifle* collaborated with MOO to form its Camden-based workspace

84 Case study: The Municipal, Liverpool Adaptive reuse but make it luxury: Liverpool's iconic Municipal building is transformed

Contents

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100

92 Positive Impact Artiq's Patrick McCrae, reveals why art holds more value than decoration 100 In defence of concrete If concrete were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of carbon on the planet. But there’s some who are making sustainable strides with this everyday material

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104 Innovative thinking The definition of ‘sustainability’ wavers according to who you speak to – for Steve Gale it means navigating workspace uncertainty

134 Events Our round-up of industry events starts in Stockholm and ends in EC1, London

106 Mix Roundtable with Tarkett What does it mean to create inclusive spaces?

142 Material Matters Nina Woodcroft, owner of Nina+Co, shares the materials used by her design studio to create circular and responsible projects

114 Mixology North23 highlights and winners The big reveal of this year’s winners, at commercial interiors’ night of the year.

138 Mix talking point Are our spaces designed for men?

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143 Innovative material Dutch sustainable materials manufacturer StoneCycling looks to the humble corn cob for its latest plant-based innovation. 144 Final word End of year musings from workplace strategist, Mike Walley

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Colophon The cover

Designer

Manufacturer

Influenced by the flexible qualities of Tarkett’s material catalogue, the vinyl and textile products envelop curved walls and individual elements throughout the Tarkett Atelier London gallery space. As an extension to this visual language, Note (design studio) sculpted a fluid form spelling out ‘MIX’ in a palette of strong brick red and calm beige.

The new Tarkett Atelier, based in the heart of Clerkenwell, is a creative destination for industry professionals. This innovative space showcases Tarkett's sustainable flooring solutions in a contemporary palette, and as bespoke art installations, offering an immersive experience beyond a traditional showroom. tarkett.co.uk

notedesignstudio.se

Get in touch Managing Editor Harry McKinley harry@mixinteriors.com

Events & Editorial Executive Yasmin Waters yasmin@mixinteriors.com

Deputy Editor Chloé Petersen Snell chloe@mixinteriors.com

Art Director Marçal Prats marcal@mixinteriors.com

Managing Director Leon March leon@mixinteriors.com

Board Director Marcie Incarico

Account Manager Patrick Bowley patrick@mixinteriors.com Marketing Manager Paul Appleby paul@mixinteriors.com Head of Operations Lisa Jackson lisa@mixinteriors.com

Founding publisher Henry Pugh

Contact

To ensure that a regular copy of Mix Interiors reaches you or to request back issues, call 0161 519 4850 or email lisa@mixinteriors.com

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Account Manager Stuart Sinclair stuart@mixinteriors.com

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Columnists Steve Gale Kay Sargent Freyja Sewell Mike Walley Contributors Dominic Lutyens Rima Sabina Aouf Lauren Jade Hill Mix Interiors Issue 229 December 2023

Mix Interiors

Printed by S&G Print ISSN 1757-2371

Issue 227

Issue 226

07/08 2023

05/06 2023

Harry McKinley

Welcome I was recently at a conference in Bali, exploring radical ideas in design. A trial, to be sure, but one that I tackled admirably. It was, for the working portion, something of a marathon – long days, late nights, a never-ending stream of tasks and to-dos. Yes, I get it. It was still Bali and your sympathy levels are low to nonexistent. Yet beyond a few resort ambles between commitments or some stolen sunsets viewed from a balcony, before dashing off for networking dinners, it could almost have been anywhere hot, anywhere sunny; certainly many places that wouldn’t require 25 hours of travel door-to-door to get to. In many ways, beyond the work I was there to do, the location was immaterial. But isn’t that the ultimate tragedy? What struck me, at an event surrounded by designers and industry professionals where talk is inevitably of shop, was how many people used the opportunity to bestow the importance of thinking time. Of personal time. Of time to percolate on ideas or to clear the mind and go for a wander. Of time to step outside and feel the Southeast Asian sun on the skin, the Balinese breeze in the hair. Of time to meet a colleague over coffee and bounce around suggestions, good and bad alike. Of time to sack off that couldbe-an-email meeting and go to a local gallery instead.

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Now, I’m by no means suggesting professional truancy as a solution to life’s ills, but the point they were making is a sound one: thinking time, rest time, creative-stimulation time ultimately leads to better work. It’s how the seed of an OK idea blooms into the tree of a great one; it’s the space in which ideas are formed to begin with. I appreciate I’m now beginning to sound like someone who stayed on in Bali for a week (I did), joined too many meditation sessions and drank too much herbal tea (I did not). But no. As we’ve reached the issue where we transition from one year into another, returning in 2024 after a restorative festive break bright eyed and bushy tailed, I simply wanted to emphasise the importance of giving ourselves the gift of time, not only stealing it. It’s often in short supply, I know. But what if, in 2024, we prioritised those moments to think, to step back or to stop? It could lead to some great ideas, even if this one seems the most radical of all. Farewell 2023 and cheers to 2024, Harry McKinley Managing Editor

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sustainable design at your feet

We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Silent Lab Acoustics. This allows us to bring to the UK market a wide range of enclosed acoustic settings that align with the design integrity and quality of our own products. Single occupancy booths and 2-12 person meeting pods with Sound Transmission Class 44 and Noise Insulation Class A+ acoustic ratings, touch pad auto ventilation & controllable LED lighting and access to technology – all in one private space. Sourced and produced in Europe and now exclusively distributed in the UK by Brunner UK. Visit our site for further information or our London showroom to experience the real thing. The silence inside is quite amazing.

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2022

Time for

something new EGGER Decorative Collection 24+ launching in February 2024

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All decors shown and mentioned are reproductions

Qabin Introducing a host of additional features that are now available for the Ahrend Qabin, Including: external wood cladding, curtains, coat hangers, shelving, whiteboards and switchable smart opaque glass, which instantly provides complete privacy to the user.

Fount The Fount collection consists of solo, duo, bench and conference tables and enables different ways of working. Eight types of legs have been developed, each with its own unique look.

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Upfront

Glasgow’s green light After 10 years vacant, the future of Glasgow’s iconic 14-storey Met Tower has been revealed by Bruntwood SciTech, who plan to refurb the former City of Glasgow College building, turning it into an innovative tech hub. Expected in winter 2025, the B-listed building will interconnect with a new 10-storey tower and double height wellbeing plaza, which combined will offer 200,000 sq ft of office space dedicated to the city’s flourishing technology and digital sector. A preview of what’s to come from the £60million project, on the doorstep of Queen Street Station, includes

a 60-person events rooftop space accompanied by floor-to-ceiling windows – with views that reach out to the Scottish mountains – plus wellness facilities, eateries and multiple collaborative breakout areas. Bruntwood SciTech intends to use Met Tower’s distinctive ‘upside down boat’ roof structure as the basis of the new events space, which will benefit from its own private staircase. “Glasgow is already on its way to becoming a world-leading tech hub and one of the UK’s fastest growing clusters, and with approval of our plans now confirmed we’re very much looking forward to Met

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Tower becoming the beacon for the tech community in the city,” comments Daron Williams, building consultancy director at Bruntwood SciTech. The workspace will cater to the smallest of start-ups, to international businesses who require floors spanning tens of thousands of square metres. Bruntwood SciTech is working with partners including Ekho Studio, Atelier Ten, Savills planning consultancy and Cooper Cromar to deliver the project. bruntwood.co.uk/scitech

Tibo / Mark Gabbertas allermuir.com

Upfront

A revolutionary approach For those following Saudi Arabia’s development in recent years, it’s hard not to be roused by the scope of the country’s recent projects. In 2021, NEOM – a newly founded economic zone in the country’s northwest – announced plans to build The Line, a much-publicised 170km selfcontained 100% renewable energy-run development that intends to redefine the possibility of future cities. Recently announced, the sovereign funded group is now pressing on with its next region, Epicon. Located in the Gulf of Aqaba, the resort intends to revolutionise the concept of hospitality with a structure that will ‘rise from NEOM’s desert landscape like a glistening mirage’, made up of two towers; one 225 m tall, the latter other 275 m. Internally, the structures will feature 41 hotel and luxury residences comprised of 14 suites and apartments. A short distance away, the grandeur will continue with an additional 120 rooms and 45 residential beach villas that collectively strive to cement NEOM’s future as a luxury coastal tourist destination. NEOM has said guests and residents of Epicon will experience unrivaled facilities, complemented by ‘views of one of the most desirable shorelines in NEOM’. Amenities will include a premium gym, library, workspaces, pools and lounges. neom.com

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Upfront

A change of scenery

Visitors to Stockholm Furniture Fair can expect a change of scenery in coming years as Stockholmsmässan, the 114,000 sqm venue and organisation that runs the trade show – part of Stockholm Design Week – is set to be demolished and the entire fair and congress operation sold. Opened more than fifty years ago, the municipal-owned events space is anticipated to turn into private grounds for 10,000 workspaces and 2500 residential homes, creating a whole new district seven miles south of the city centre, that will encompass the area in which Stockholm Furniture Fair is currently located, as well as its

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surroundings. Stockholm City says the project will coincide with a new underground line for the upcoming district, improving accessibility for workers and inhabitants. Stockholmsmässan’s CEO, Christian Clemens, believes the new business venture will benefit the Fair and the city by adding additional resource to the local area. However, despite change being inevitable, visitors will continue to be welcomed to the venue until a buyer is found for the land. Works are not scheduled to start until at least 2030. stockholmfurniturefair.se

RODNEY

RAWSIDE.CO

Upfront

Cannibalised workspace Pushing the concept of sustainable design to its extreme, Australian practice Terroir moved into an abandoned 1960s office in Hobart, Tasmania, and used only pre-existing materials and partitions to transform the space – building nothing new at all. The only new additions across

the entire project were power cables and an internet system. “We have long argued that sustainability is not a technical problem, but an aesthetic problem. We need, as a society, to find beauty in the accidental and contingent, not the perfect and crystalline,” says the practice, who opted to spend money on contractors rather than materials. Self-described as a ‘cannibalisation of what was already there’, old wall finishes were removed, unveiling 1960s framework carpentry and a series of glazed partitions and windows which were reassembled into a new configuration. Other elements to be cleverly reused include the shelving, formed from residual waste. “The resulting spaces and office organisation is a result of accepting these constraints, with a wit and humour in the peek holes and cubby holes, adding new character to how we work compared to our old open plan configuration,” adds Terroir. The practice is now making a conscious effort to embrace more of less across all its projects, starting with its own. terroir.com.au

Image: Brett Boardman

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A woolly intro– duction

Dutch artist and designer Christien Meindertsma has brought wool and technology together with FLOCKS Wobot – a collaborative robot, or ‘cobot’, made to eliminate European wool waste. Independently developed by Meindertsma and Tools for Technology (Tf T), the Wobot constructs industrial structures from wool (an innovative process that sees 3D printing with wool) without the addition of water or other materials, making it not only a revolutionary manufacturing process, but also a sustainable one. The result is described as ‘strong and soft’ and intends to utilise some of the 1.5 million kilograms of wool thrown away each year in the Netherlands while offering a substitute material for the likes of polystyrene foam and foam rubber.

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Two Wobots are currently being developed, one for creating free needle felted forms, and the other a ‘block wool’ machine that churns out masses of wool that can be cut into shape. Meindertsma believes both will lend themselves to the future manufacturing of furniture, acoustic products and insulation. Prototypes of the Wobots can be viewed at Cuypershuis in the Netherlands until March, and the V&A in London through to October 2024. christienmeindertsma.com

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Holly Hallam

Things I've learnt Be curious

Taking inspiration from the thirst of youth, I think you should always stay curious. It is a wonderful trait that leads to exploration, learning and discovery. An inquisitive mind, a desire to know and understand the world around us, enriches your sense of self, often stumbling unexpectedly across delightful pieces of information, art, architecture or being exposed to different cultures, traditions or stories. I find that cultivating curiosity inspires creativity and enriches me both professionally and personally. Holly Hallam is the managing director of leading design, branding and strategy practice, DesignLSM. designlsm.com

Aways maintain your courage and optimism

Self-doubt and uncertainty can be present through life as you experience new challenges and face different opportunities. This was something I certainly faced taking ownership of a hospitality business shortly before a COVID lockdown. Yet, approaching these moments with a positive spirit and taking a step out of your comfort zone ultimately builds strength and resilience, boosting your confidence and teaching you invaluable lessons – equipping you better for the next opportunity.

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Surround yourself with the right team

Whether this be from a personal or professional stance, being supportive of, and supported by, a team helps to strengthen you and your endeavours. Taking the time to listen and share often leads to more well-rounded decisions and innovative solutions – whilst also ensuring you have fun along the way.

Occasionally pause

Life becomes very busy, whether that be looking after my family or running a design studio – often it is too easy to bounce from a day full of meetings to networking evenings back to weekends full of activities. Building in the space to pause and reflect may seem at odds with being productive, but I feel that occasionally stepping outside of the normal routine is extremely beneficial – allowing the time and freedom to celebrate success and focus on aspirations for the future.

Be compassionate

Generosity and kindness are fundamentally positive attributes that we should all try to maintain through life. Developing an understanding of others and being respectful strengthens social connections, enabling a more collaborative approach and generating stronger connections with both clients and friends.

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June MineyamaSmithson

The height of design The item:

Japanese soy sauce pot from Kyoto.

The why

For me, this item embodies the essence of Wabi Sabi – a Japanese concept that celebrates the beauty found in shadows, imperfections and subtlety. 'In Praise of Shadows' (1933) novelist Tanizaki says, “We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates... were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.”

June Mineyama-Smithson, (MAMIMU) is a London-based Japanese artist and graphic designer on a mission to spread optimism. A lecturer at UAL, D&AD judge and speaker at New Designers, London Design Fair and Birmingham Design Festival, Mineyama-Smithson’s bold, joyful work has been featured internationally. mamimutokyo.com @mamimutokyo

Its earthy brown makes us feel grounded, while the unglazed surface is wonderfully tactile and invites us to touch. The handle has just the right thickness, forming a small loop that snugly accommodates only one finger. In contrast, the pale floral pattern runs through the body of the pot. And you will find only one flower escapes to the lid. This is because only when the flower on the lid meets other flowers on the body, the lid closes properly. This subtle play is so delightful.

How does it inspire you or your work?

This item liberates me from the rigid concept of Bauhaus. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of ‘form follows function’ but I also believe that shapes and patterns can exist to bring joy to people, rather than being dismissed as a ‘decorative element without function’, because bringing joy to people, I would argue, is a significant function in itself. Aesthetically, this item may look like the opposite of my work, which is always colourful and optimistic, but the joy it instils is a quality I always strive for.

What has been the impact of this item?

The impact of this item is to inspire us to preserve tradition and craftsmanship. The pot is aesthetically pleasing to start with, but the joy doubles when you use it, as you can sense the artisan’s

thoughtfulness. The tubular handle on the lid enables you to finely adjust the flow of soy sauce from the spout by gently resting a finger upon it. This type of simple pleasure remains constant and should be a legacy that we continue to pass on to the next generation.

The personal connection

Since I bought this over 10 years ago in a small shop in Kyoto, I have been using it almost every day. I remember the lady in the shop telling me how talented and thoughtful the artisan was. The craftsmanship is truly exquisite. If this soy sauce pot were a person, I imagine they would be a wise individual, sparing with words yet exceptionally thoughtful like its creator. It inspires me to aspire to be such a person myself, capable of bringing joy to many people with my design.

What is your personal relationship with this item?

kieurope.com info@kieurope.com 020 7404 7441

Kay Sargent

Mind Matters

Wellbeing and neuroinclusion Everyone’s brain functions differently, hence we are all neurodiverse.

Kay Sargent is senior principal and director of workplace at HOK. kay.sargent@hok.com hok.com/workplace

Neurodivergence is a naturally occurring variation in neurocognitive functioning – the unique ways we all think, process, feel and act, that is considered different to the predominant neurotype. While the functioning of neurotypical individuals falls within set norms, neurominorities, or neurodivergents, fall outside of those parameters. Approximately 1 in 5 individuals, or 20%, have learning and thinking differences, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyspraxia and Tourette syndrome, among others. Because of widespread underdiagnosis, more than half of those in what are considered neurodiverse areas of the continuum don’t even know it. As our awareness related to neurodiversity grows, so does the interest in becoming a more inclusive society. People who are neurodiverse are wired differently and often their differences can be an extraordinary strength in the workplace. Neurodiverse thinkers often possess exceptional talents when it comes to innovation, creative storytelling, empathy, design

thinking, pattern recognition, coding and problem solving. There is a compelling human and business case to be made for ensuring we approach the design of workplaces to be welcoming for all, including neurominorities. In addition to just being the right thing to do, some progressive employers are beginning to recognise that accommodating the different wiring of neurodiverse people can provide a huge competitive advantage that is good for business. Especially in times like we are facing now – with an increased war for talent, labour shortages and an increased need for innovative thinking – welcoming the neurodiverse population into the workplace has never been more critical. Employed workers with disabilities stands at a record high of over 22% and it is estimated that 25% of the population lives with a disability, but 70% are invisible disabilities and aren't counted. As a result of stigmas and fear of exposure only 4% of workers self-identify as disabled. This is leading to a range of more inclusive policies and procedures, though it’s only just beginning to affect workplace design. When designing to be inclusive for

all, it’s important to provide a variety of options to enable users to find a space that fits their specific needs for the task at hand. All aspects of the space need to be designed with purpose and intent. Creating spaces that meet the psychological needs of a wide spectrum of talent starts with the basics. It focuses on workplaces that provide optimal ranges of temperature, lighting, air quality, noise, ergonomics and a sense of comfort and security. We need to address both hyper-sensitivities, where people prefer less stimulation, and hypo-sensitivities, where people prefer more stimulation. When we design for neurodivergency, we create space that enables all individuals, neurotypicals included, to find suitable levels of privacy and concentration, connection and engagement. Design can have a significant impact on the quality of life. Ultimately when considering neuro-inclusion strategies, we must strive to achieve a workplace culture and environment which enables all people to feel safe and included but having a workplace that acknowledges their differences in a positive way, accepts them and allows them to thrive.

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Interview

D/DOCK

Do—ism D/DOCK’s Thomas van Leeuwen on taking risks, creating meaningful community and building a plane while flying it.

Words: Chloé Petersen Snell

It’s quite hard to sum up in a few words just exactly what D/DOCK is – perhaps easiest to describe them rather abstractly, as director and partner Thomas van Leeuwen does. Made up of nine companies (so far) the Amsterdam-based D/DOCK launched in 2004, growing from design practice to what van Leeuwen calls ‘design incubators’ – a network organisation of architects, artists, designers, engineers, anthropologists and strategists focusing on, ultimately, change for good; working towards shared goals based around community and sustainability with a refreshingly honest and bold attitude that’s still reminiscent of a start-up, even two decades later. “We tend to say that we’re building a plane while flying it,” says van Leeuwen. “We don’t have all the answers. Yet.” Van Leeuwen studied architecture and then real estate – “I like to match design with reality, I guess” – joining D/DOCK

D/DOCK Interview

10 years ago and helping to grow the team in both numbers and possibilities. “The conceptual power of the team was always very big, but it was only applied to interiors, mainly offices. We knew we could do so much more – not just hotels, schools and residential, but much more than interior design.” Now comprising more traditional design and design & build arms, a circularity studio (Furnify), a research lab, an experiential agency and even a tech start-up, it seems there really isn’t much D/DOCK can’t get its teeth into. The collective is based at DB55, a blended-use venue in industrial docklands a short bus ride from Amsterdam’s centre. As we arrive the space feels well and truly ‘activated’ – giant sculptures hang from the full height of the structure and a jovial team are preparing an art exhibition for an upcoming city-wide design festival. A former timber storage barn, DB55 is

Mix Interiors

Interview

D/DOCK

made up of event spaces, quieter office rooms, collaborative spots for meetings and even a health club. The building is above all adaptable, ready for whatever is required from it. This is a workplace, but so much more: D/DOCK partners with companies and organisations to keep the space active with programming for the community and new users. “For me personally, the most striking thing [about D/DOCK and DB55] is the lifestyle,” says van Leeuwen. “It’s an autonomous artist vibe, but the projects are very tangible.” As with all D/DOCK projects, circularity is at the heart of DB55: wood sourced from roof boarding, floors from former trains and the concrete and glass walls that break up the space are all recycled. Even the AV and kitchen equipment is second-hand, as is 70% of the furniture. Designed from the inside out, windows and façade openings are placed where users’ needs most require them for best access to daylight and views of the docks, and the space is largely open plan – ensuring crosspollination between the various teams.

“I just did a pitch last week and my first slide was: design doesn't matter. You don't go to the office because of the lunch, the coffee, the design, but you go to the office because of the other people that are there. Community is all about bringing people together, it's an inherently human thing. Of course, we can talk a lot about how we design from the inside out and on a human scale, and how we’re always trying to make social impact in what we do, but deep down, and one thing that will never change, is a sense of meaningful community and the feeling you get when you enter a space.” Having primarily worked on the ‘creating’, more recently D/DOCK has turned to ‘connecting’ – adding a new social enterprise arm to its portfolio, after working within the workplace industry uncovered gaps in the market. As such, D/DOCK’s latest venture UseSpace provides much-needed space for various groups and charities during underutilised hours – hoping to optimise the use of unoccupied locations around

D/DOCK Interview

Bottom image: DB55

Interview

Amsterdam, elevate the functionality of underused spaces and, importantly, foster community and a sense of purpose on a local level. “It's a matchmaking company, basically,” says van Leeuwen. “Collecting people that need spaces in evenings and weekends and office spaces, because they're not used in evenings and weekends. We try to connect those companies who best match. We now have about 40 connections, turning offices into destinations when they’re normally closed.” The team expertly matches spaces and those who need them, from the likes of exhibitions, parties and workshops to facilities for packing crisis packages and orchestra rehearsals in the atrium of Amsterdam’s Edge Stadium. Every Wednesday, a big band rehearses (free of charge) at DB55. The notion of connecting the social and environmental is a common thread that runs throughout D/DOCK’s work and has resulted in a blend of social impactdriven projects, initiatives and new ventures like UseSpace. More notably at Dr. Sarphatihuis, a nursing home designed by Abraham van der Hart in 1782, with a courtyard space between the

building that was unloved and unused by residents or staff. In collaboration with its in-house circularity experts Furnify and MOSS (Makers of Sustainable Spaces), D/DOCK developed the main atrium into a vibrant indoor ‘garden on wheels’ – capable of adopting over 30 configurations to cater to a diverse range of activities. MOSS curated the plant selection and Furnify implemented an environmentally responsible approach to the project’s furniture, using repurposed surplus materials from the wood industry to build the indoor garden – easy to repair with leftover materials.

D/DOCK Interview

“This is one of the projects I'm most proud of,” van Leeuwen comments, who lives in a multi-generational building and confesses to preferring conversations with older people than those his age. “It was an atrium where nothing happened and then we put in big planters on wheels with couches that they can just roll around and reconfigure for a variety of events and daily needs. It's easy to design for multigenerational spaces, just some small tweaks and then it works for all ages. I go there often just to check in, it's always busy.” He laughs. “It’s selfish really, it’s very rewarding.”

Bottom image: DB55

“A lot of clients tend to say, ‘let’s not do it because something might go wrong.’ But, what if something went right?”

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Interview

D/DOCK

Above image: Cathedrall, a 15-metre floating structure

A more abstract adventure is ‘Cathedrall’ – an upcoming collaboration with Dutch social enterprise Plastic Whale and agency Max-G, set for launch in 2025. A beautiful, 15-metre-high floating structure made of urban waste materials fished from Amsterdam’s own canals, the project intends to act as a powerful message – engaging the community and serving as a multi-disciplinary hub with an education programme, lectures and even an exhibition. “The whole point behind [Cathedrall] is working towards something with a clear, tangible goal and gathering the people to work on it. It's like Lego, you take it apart once complete. Cathedrall is a similar process. To get there is the most important part and then there will be something that exists, but that's not the end goal – it’s about the journey, the community and raising awareness.” Cathedrall, DB55, the norm-challenging Dr. Sarphatihuis and upcoming plans for an entire resort concept in Italy are all a

D/DOCK Interview

product of what van Leeuwen refers to as ‘do-ism’ – D/DOCK’s superpower. “What we do is all about ‘less talk, just do’. We might fail, but that’s because at least we did something. It’s remarkable how many companies talk, meet, create another report, make another spreadsheet, another presentation – we start with a rough idea and then start doing. We find out what’s a good idea and what’s not on the way, it’s much more interesting.” A way of working that might leave most of us in a cold sweat, but one that van Leeuwen and his team believe is the only path forward to radical, challenging change. “I think too easily often, people just tend to do whatever they know and are familiar with, because they are afraid or haven’t done it before,” says van Leeuwen. “You need to continuously put your energy into convincing people, as it’s very easy to kill an idea. A lot of clients tend to say, ‘let’s not do it because something might go wrong.’ But, what if something went right?”

SPPARC Interview

SPPARC

Interview

When up I grow SPPARC’s Trevor Morriss discusses his journey in architecture, the realisation of a livelong ambition.

Words: Dominic Lutyens

Few people know from infancy that they want to be an architect. But Trevor Morriss, principal of London-based practice SPPARC, resolved to become one, aged four. And, very precociously, by his late teens he had broken into the profession. In a pleasantly airy meeting room with tall, elegant windows in the Georgian building in Central London that houses his office, we chat at length about a career that has spanned over 30 years. While many boys of his generation might have wanted to be an astronaut, say, or pop star when they grew up, Morriss, now in his early 50s, harboured an entirely different, frankly esoteric ambition. “I’m not even sure I understood what an architect was,” he confesses. “Yet I had a passion for buildings, even those people considered awful.” Cue visions of a nursery-age Morriss surrounded by Lego. “Yes, there was a lot of Lego,”

he muses. Not for him messy, free-form finger-painting either. “I always drew meticulously with a ruler, which just felt instinctive.” This surprises him when he looks back: “That’s unusual for me: most things I design now hardly have any straight lines.” This free approach is reflected in the importance he places today on hands-on methods of working. “We start our designs three-dimensionally. I love drawing and making balsa-wood models. Everyone in the office is encouraged to draw and make models.” The starting point for one of SPPARC’s projects, apparently, was throwing a clay pot, its curves and ribs informing the building’s final form. This chimes with Morriss’s enthusiasm for craftsmanship and natural materials – typically timber, brick and glass – which are often subjected to traditional,

Interview

SPPARC

Image on previous page: SPPARC's founder, Trevor Morriss

sometimes obscure techniques to achieve warm, tactile textures. SPPARC’s projects are mainly UK-based and usually large-scale and complex. They often involve refurbishing historical buildings and fusing them with contemporary elements. These include Greycoat Stores in Westminster – the refurbishment of a warehouse for the Army and Navy Co-operative Society, built in the 1890s. SPPARC has transformed it into a 90,000 sq ft mixed-used development incorporating workspaces, retail and leisure facilities and a restaurant.

Below image: Borough Yards

Another is Southworks, a seven-storey, 70,000 sq ft office in Southwark, which has replaced several dilapidated buildings. This features a golden-toned, curved brick façade incorporating a strikingly idiosyncratic double-height entrance made of semi-translucent crystalline bricks fashioned from glass manufactured in Venice. Morriss delights in telling me that

SPPARC Interview

a rather arcane, presumably traditional technique was deployed to achieve their smooth surface. “Full-fat milk was used to make the glass bricks level.” On a more high-tech note, he adds: “The office is future-proofed. Its interior is layered with smart technology, designed to empower its occupants, for example by allowing them to control temperatures to achieve optimum comfort.” Yet another project is Borough Yards, near Borough Market, a development that involved master-planning to make the street layout more interconnected. A Victorian brick railway viaduct had, until recently, closed medieval streets off to public access. These have been reopened to provide pedestrian lanes that link the river to the market. The project, which incorporates shops and galleries, involved repurposing 8,500 sq m of railway arches, and meshing together old structures, contemporary architecture and new public spaces.

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A lot has happened between Morriss’s childhood ambition to be an architect and the founding of his practice in 2007. “I’m a Sarfeast London boy, I grew up in Lewisham,” recollects Morriss, jokily affecting a mockney accent, before responding to being asked if there were any architects in his family who might have inspired him to follow their example: “No, but there was creativity on my father’s side. My grandfather was an instrumentmaker who made watches and instruments for planes in the Second World War. My grandmother was a draughtswoman, again for machinery, in the 1920s and 1930s, so this was unusual for that era. My father was a surveyor. He was in the construction industry, not architecture but that influenced my interest in it.” He ascribes his fierce ambition to selfmotivation, pure and simple. “I was always working in the evenings when my friends were at the pub. When I was 17, I saw an ad in a local newspaper for an office junior role in (now defunct) architectural firm John Brunton Partnership (JBP) in Bermondsey. I was

offered the job and requested to take a day off once a week to go to college, which the company agreed to. Daily activities included operating the firm’s dyeline machine, a process, now largely obsolete, in which ammonia papers are run through ultraviolet light to create a facsimile of a tracing paper original.” As surprising as Morriss’s childhood ambition is his revelation that he designed a building, aged 17. Along with being driven, he had chutzpah in spades. “One evening, I’d left sketches on a table that caught a senior partner’s eye. The next day he said, ‘Come and see me in my office’; I thought I was going to be thrown out. In fact, he said, ‘That’s an interesting take on what we’ve come up with so far’, so I was given the go-ahead to design the building. It was a warehouse conversion and new-build combined in Shad Thames. This was 1989 – a really exciting time. Terence Conran founded his Design Museum that year and was redeveloping Butler’s Wharf at Shad Thames.” But JBP went under soon after – a casualty of the early 1990s recession.

SPPARC Interview

SPPARC

Interview

Image on previous page: Olympia reimagined as London's Arts, Entertainment and Exhibition District Bottom: Percy Street Top right: Greycoat Place

Fortunately, Morriss, by then in his early 20s, soon got a job at Baily Garner in Eltham. “I had a fascinating two-year role working on social housing projects.” He was still studying – firstly architectural technology at Southbank University to qualify as an architectural technologist, then at the University of Greenwich, where he obtained his BA and MA. “Back then, I was determined to establish my own practice by the age of 30.” Did any architects inspire him as a student? “Frank Lloyd Wright,” he says. “Among students, you have your Le Corbusier fans and Lloyd Wright fans. I had my feet firmly in the latter camp because I was so interested in craftsmanship, in detail.” Aged 23, he applied for a job as a senior architect at real estate and investment management company Jones Lang LaSalle (now JLL). He acknowledges that some looked a little askance at his suitability for the role at that age. “One partner said, ‘Don’t you think you’re a bit cheeky applying for this job’. I replied, ‘This is my third interview, so you must

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be interested’. I got the job partly because I was enthusiastic – I’ve always felt that if you’re enthusiastic others share that enthusiasm”. During his seven-year stint at JLL, he learnt about the commercial side of architecture: “All my design juices were quenched at uni but it didn’t teach me much about the commercial stuff. At JLL, I learnt the financial side of how to construct buildings.” In 2002, Morriss became a partner at Stanley Peach and Partners, based in Westminster. Founded in 1885 by Stanley Peach (he was 25 at the time, so not unlike Morris in terms of his ambition and age), the practice had an impressive history, having created electricity power stations and Wimbledon’s Centre Court. But when Morriss came on the scene, it was running out of steam. Its three other existing partners were reaching retiring age. “One, called Chris Allen, supported me – he could see the practice needed to be shaken up to survive. The other two partners were thinking, ‘Who is this young gun?’”

Interview

SPPARC

Above image: Morriss's House in the suburbs

He faced resistance from one person in particular, he remembers wryly. “I wanted to change the office’s layout from a cellular to an open-plan one. But this person said, ‘You’re not changing me’. For a while, he kept his corner of the room exactly as it was – a 1970s oasis of Muraspec wallpaper, blue carpet and dado rail.” In 2007, Morriss retired as a partner of Stanley Peach, then set up SPPARC as a new entity. The use of an acronym had the desired effect of shifting the focus away from the reputation of an individual towards an image of collaborative teamwork. The practice’s current projects often unpeel and reveal historical layers in street layouts or a building’s fabric. An example of the latter is Greycoat Studios

“We start our designs three-dimensionally. Everyone in the office is encouraged to draw and make models.” whose façade had been covered in a featureless cement render in the 1950s; SPPARC replaced this with brickwork and added arrestingly unusual oval windows. Can Morriss add some final words that encapsulate the practice’s philosophy? Getting under the skin of a location is important at the start of each project, he stresses. “Our process is about detective work, looking into what the fabric of a

SPPARC Interview

building has been through before to understand its essence. And, whenever we make an addition to an existing building, we ask ourselves, ‘How do you create a really good modern addition to something which already has such a wonderful quality?’. We also conduct a lot of research into materials. It all comes back to quality, and ultimately to us being influenced by nature.” Does he feel that architecture now lacks the degree of craftsmanship found in many SPPARC projects? He acknowledges that not all projects can accommodate this but ultimately his taste is more romantic than purely functionalist: “Well, there’s always a desire for simplicity and deliverability but that doesn’t mean you can’t have craftsmanship, too,” he asserts.

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Freyja Sewell

Living better

Less options equals more creativity There is a common misconception that the best thing for creativity is a blank page; that the more choices and options that stretch before us, the more ideas we will have. But in my life as a designer and artist I have found this to be oversimple and often untrue. Instead I actively seek parameters to work within because I find that the less choice I have, the more creative I become.

Freyja Sewell is a futurist designer and artist, creating products for the built and digital environments

Creativity is always a tricky thing to discuss, because it looks different to different people. I do not think of it as being specific to creative people. If you are a living being, creativity is inherent, although a politician, plumber or painter will apply this in different ways and in different quantities. So, allow me to explain using another activity: shopping. It long seemed that more stuff equalled better, but studies now show that too many options can result in something called ‘choice paralysis’. The endless aisles of vast supermarkets, the eternal scrolling through infinite

pairs of jeans: it’s absolutely exhausting. It has also been shown to result not only in less purchasing, but also less satisfaction when the purchase is made. We’re afraid we missed out because we weren’t able to look at every option as carefully as we needed to, at least to make a choice we felt secure with. Consider the concept of choice paralysis within creativity, then. This is where I have found that working as sustainably and ethically as possible is not a negative constriction to resist, but instead a very welcome and useful parameter to embrace. By choosing to work with environmentally friendly materials and processes you give yourself a framework, and a framework is helpful. When I go to an art store I don’t need to bother looking over the endless tubes of acrylic paint, or the glossy resin art kits, because I know they are both products of the fossil fuel industry. When choosing fabrics, I can walk right past the stacks of

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sequins and rainbow Lycra, and head straight to the second-hand. Of course, like anything, moderation is key. I have to balance my desire with reality, sometimes after much thought and experimentation I conclude that I will have to use a bit of super glue to hold it in place, or buy a new item. And I forgive myself for that, because we know that sustainability does not need a few perfect saints, it needs many people doing their best. Most importantly I find that by working in this way I am pushed down paths that often take me somewhere new, somewhere I wouldn’t have gone if I’d just used the easiest, most available option. It helps me find my own materials and processes, and create work that is innovative, often surprising myself as I explore. Treat it like a game, for which you get to set the rules. You might just end up somewhere no one has been before.

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Case Study

100 Embankment

People, Profit, Planet, Purpose 52

x+why’s first Northern outpost delivers a locational design concept with a sense of purpose. Words: Chloé Petersen Snell Photography: Matt Livey

Case Study

100 Embankment

Often in the shadow of its sister city Manchester, Salford has seen a bit of a boom of late, the former factory town and inland port once of greater importance than its neighbour until its industrial decline in the late 20th century. Now, a new type of industry is driving Salford’s renaissance; the arrival of MediaCityUK, the BBC and ITV in the early 2010s laying the ground for much of the regeneration the city now sees. Sitting above now-defunct train platform tunnels on the site of the former Manchester Exchange Train Station next to the River Irwell, Embankment comprises two slick office buildings totalling 333,000 sq ft, towering over Manchester’s medieval quarter like a modern-day castle on a moat. The arrival of the mixed-use scheme was a critical component of the newly reclaimed neighbourhood area, now thriving – all just a hop and a skip away

from Manchester’s city centre and home to the likes of Aecom, Deloitte and flexible workspace provider x+why – the firm’s first Northern outpost. Although only taking up two of the nine floors, x+why runs both the main reception and the party-ready, plant-filled roof terrace, which caters for up to 200 people and offers panoramic views across the fast-growing Manchester and Salford skyline. “The hospitality and design impact starts the moment you come through the main entrance doors,” says co-founder Phil Nevin, cheerily greeting the front-of-house staff and gesturing to a giant mural that takes up a large wall at the back of the airy double-height space. Created by local artist Barney Ibbotson, the mural depicts Salford’s past and present as a centre of evolving industry, from factories and docklands to technology and television.

x+why

Image on previous page: Main breakout space Below image: Communal kitchen

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Case Study

100 Embankment

“When you become a B Corp, you drink the Kool Aid, and you become a bit of an evangelist” As the interior architect, JRA’s design aimed to bring out the rich history of the site in a subtle and contemporary way – nodding to the site’s past as a train station without being ‘railway-themed’, says JRA director Angela St Clair-Ford. In the lobby, signage emulates a train platform sign, and structural features including arches and curves that echo the original station. The material and colour palette take direction from local landmarks, with colour tones used to reflect the local vernacular stone and joinery. “The key design to all of x+why’s spaces is that it’s very much about the building and the local community that inhabits the space,” comments St Clair-Ford. “Phil Nevin’s initial brief and the cornerstone of the success of their spaces is that they put a lot of thought into the branding of the building and bringing in the locale, rather than imposing the x+why brand on the space. They believe this fosters a belonging and pride. It results in unique interior design and artwork that sets them apart from other coworking spaces that can look very similar.”

that plants outnumber people in its spaces), plus dedicated wellness spaces, such as a prayer room, a private mother and baby room, and even a dedicated podcast room. The first-floor breakout and coworking spaces pick up on the adjacent River Irwell with rich blues and greens, and flooring and bespoke joinery designed in organic shapes that follow the shape of the local rivers. Artwork throughout the space was sourced from art consultancy Artiq, including a particularly special set of tufted wool textiles inspired by the upholstery on local buses.

Upstairs, the main office spaces offer a variety of working options filled with abundant natural plants (x+why ensures

x+why

Left: Groundfloor workspace with views of Manchester Left, below: Roof terrace Right, below: Reception space and mural

The project was turned around in just six months, without sacrificing design flair or commitment to sustainability. x+why fitted out 100 Embankment using the RICS accreditation SKA, to ensure a low carbon approach that used the circular economy where possible, building on Salford City Council’s 2019 award for most ‘Sustainable Council in the Northwest.’ The building follows a strict zero waste to landfill culture, that not only reduces its environmental impact but reduces costs too, with plenty of educational literature for employees incorporated into the spaces to ensure the building lives up to its BREEAM standard. Materials for the project were sustainably sourced where possible – including upcycled timber from reclaimed scaffolding planks, that has been sanded down and whitewashed for a bleached oak look. To further decrease the embodied carbon of the furniture package, the design team selected much of the furniture from a pre-owned furniture dealer, also incorporating vintage pieces such as Giancarlo Piretti chairs and rejuvenated mid-century credenzas that sit comfortably against the more modern FF&E.

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Case Study

100 Embankment

The arrival of 100 Embankment has also created a space for Manchester’s Better Business community, providing a home for B Corp in the Northwest and supporting its regional development. As the likes of Weworwwk crumble, what sets x+why apart from similar offerings is perhaps its sense of self; Nevin and his team know who they are and why they exist – merging design and wellness principles to offer a cultural programme that recognises the link between people, profit, planet and purpose. “When you become a B Corp, you

drink the Kool Aid, and you become a bit of an evangelist,” he comments, handing us a copy of the company’s first edition of Mission Lit, a publication exploring how ‘purpose’ has been misused in business. Written by sustainable business researcher and consultant Richard Johnson, the book features interviews with the likes of Patagonia and Tony’s Chocolonely, collecting brand wisdom into a guidebook so others can follow in their footsteps. “We want to spread the word,” Nevin adds.

Architect JRA

Interior design JRA

Flooring

Interface, Solus Ceramics, Boen

Furniture

Muuto, Rawside, Vitra Limited, Boss Design, Ferm Living, Vinterior, Nikari, Noo.ma, Normann Copenhagen, Floor Story, Ruggable, Icons of Denmark, Ondaretta, Six The Residence, Menu, Parla, Workstories, Skandium, llsfar, Pedrali, Emu Group, Orn Furniture, Vincent Sheppard, Hay, Roger Lewis, Cizeta, Montana Furniture, Haiken, Opendesk, Fogia, PlusHalle

Surfaces

Domus Tiles, Hi-Macs, Re:Felt, Muffle, Cewood, Armourcoat, Dulux, Graham and Brown, SAS International, Latham Timber, CNC Creations, Abet Laminati

Lighting

Mullan Lighting, Industville, Meraki, House of Interiors, Pagazzi, Santa Cole, Muuto, Northern

Other

Kvadrat, Edmund Bell, Camira Above image: The colour palette takes cues from local landmarks

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Case Study

Queen’s Business School

Red brick In its design for Queen’s Business School Student Hub in Belfast, TODD Architects draws from people and place.

Words: Harry McKinley

Case Study

Image on previous page: Light-filled collaborative workspace Above image: Concrete walls and rippling wood grain

Queen’s Business School

In South Belfast, lime tree-lined avenues are fringed with grand Victorian villas and terraces turned smart coffee shops. Since the days of industrial prosperity and urban expansion, it has traditionally been the wealthiest wedge of the city; the BT9 postcode local shorthand for affluence. It’s home to Queen’s University, Northern Ireland’s only Russell Group institute and it’s only bona fide ‘red brick’; receiving its charter in 1845 and today considered a notably prestigious place of study. The university’s estate, made up of variably sized pockets throughout the area, holds some of Belfast’s most architecturally important buildings. The most famous is undoubtedly the Lanyon Building, which graces posters, postcards and even the occasional tea towel. Less known, a building such as Riddel Hall – a handsome, Grade II-listed pile, built in 1913 to house female students and named for its benefactors, Eliza and Isabella Riddel.

TODD Architects

It sits within a 13-acre site, bordered by mature woodland, and is today part of Queen’s Business School – adjacent to the main campus, within a conservation area. It’s against this backdrop of historical and architectural significance that TODD Architects was asked to create something new, a building that could go toe-to-toe with the storied and stately, sit seamlessly within its surroundings and – in no small way – represent innovation and a commitment to today’s concerns; among them sustainability. It was in 2017 that Queen’s Business School identified a need to expand its campus facilities around Riddel Hall, due to the success and growth of its leadership institute. The site allocated: on its southern boundary in front of the hall, but split over elevations, extending into a lower lawn and an existing surface carpark some 4.5m below the listed building.

Case Study

Queen’s Business School

“Any successful building is the product of many great personal endeavours channelled together to achieve a shared vision.”

TODD Architects

now lends its name to the wider Business School campus, Riddel Hall. It straddles those multiple elevations, with entrances both at the top and bottom of the building – while also consciously designed to sit below the surrounding canopy line. Such was the commitment to preserving the natural integrity of the site, that at one point construction deadlines were set around the breeding periods of badgers, so as not to upend an existing sett. Outside, a restrained material palette features red clay brick, red cast stone to delineate colonnades and bronze aluminium – so although the building features a more austere silhouette than Riddel Hall, there’s a common material language.

Opposite page: Banquette seating in the hallway Top image: Simple wooden chairs and wipedown tables Middle image: Exposed concrete flooring Above and next page: Queen's earthy exterior

The brief, developed alongside TODD, included the need for large-scale teaching spaces and academic offices, of course, but also places for collaboration and socialising; computer clusters and boardrooms; quiet study areas and breakout lounges for academics and visitors. It had to be low impact, both as much as possible in the build and in its operations from opening. “The project for us was about ensuring a creative response specific to site and experience,” says Nigel Murray, associate director at TODD Architects. “We felt to not embrace the opportunity of context would be to fail the opportunity of the project.” Both internally and externally then, the Queen’s Business School Student Hub, is a response firstly to the topography of the site, as well as to the original building that

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Internally, board marked in-situ concrete walls – rippling with wood grain – and exposed concrete floor soffits predominate within circulation areas, with floating ceiling rafts enhancing acoustic performance. Expensive-feeling timber sheeting is used to hallmark banquette study booths; a sweeping staircase within the central atrium also wood clad. The terrazzo floor tiling is intended to further speak to the use of natural materials, while also durable and understated. In the common areas around the primary reception, there’s a blurring of the lines between architectural intervention and interior design. Much of the seating, from the study booths to benches, is built into the fabric of the building; function flowing from form and vice versa. What furniture that has been specified here is quiet: simple wooden chairs and white wipe-down tables. For a student environment it feels, throughout, terribly grown up, to the point of tasteful – not always a descriptor synonymous with ‘student hub’.

Case Study

Queen’s Business School

“It’s predominantly for postgraduate and executive teaching,” continues Murray. “So the building is offering a ‘transition’ space, in terms of the internal environment and the teaching programme; providing a more mature and professional environment to help students bridge the gap between academia and the office or future employment.” In this sense, there’s perhaps something of the modern office manifest in the design, through the emphasis on collaboration and the cultivating of moments of creative spontaneity and interaction. In the Harvard Lecture space, a U-shaped layout and swivel chairs encourage debate and discussion, while ‘in-between

spaces’ (circulation corridors or otherwise redundant hallways between rooms) have been devised as non-bookable gathering spaces, for informal study or conversation; characterised by feature seating booths or loose tables and chairs. Long before construction, TODD targeted a BREEAM Excellent rating. It evolved enhanced ecology pre-build, due to the mature nature of the site, and ultimately only seven trees were relocated – to the university’s playing fields nearby. In the finished build, there’s the expected assortment of solar panels, geothermal heating and swish argon-filled curtain walling and glazing; as well as a wildflower meadow roof at

lower level, due to flourish in spring. But there’s also consideration given to changing behaviours and how the city, as a whole, is evolving to accommodate more sustainable practices – such as 32 bicycle stands within the building itself and a shower room with lockers, drying racks and a vanity area, to make cycling to work or study more realistic. “We deliver places for people,” concludes Murray. “Any successful building is the product of many great personal endeavours channelled together to achieve a shared vision.” In this case the client response was summed up in dutifully one-word Northern Irish fashion: “Stunning.”

room2 Belfast

Case Study

Lofty ideals Locality and sustainability walk hand-in-hand at room2 Belfast, the city’s first ecohotel. Words: Harry McKinley

In Belfast lore the ‘back of Castle Court’ (once the city’s largest shopping centre), was a place to be avoided; Castle Street its own isolated ecosystem of debauchery and crime. Adjacent, Queens Street in decades past wasn’t much of a step up, somewhere to be avoided after dark and only skirted through by day. How times have changed. These days, delis selling eye-wateringly priced imported charcuterie sidle up to artisan bakeries and independent boutiques selling candles and ceramics. It’s a story of gentrification seen in many of the oncegritty patches of the city centre; Belfast now one of the most popular tourist destinations in the UK and Ireland, its fortunes transformed from the gloomier days of the Troubles.

The latest arrival to the neighbourhood, on a central and desirable corner on said Queens Street, is room2 Belfast, a design-led aparthotel, or ‘hometel’ as owners Lamington Group more cosily term it. It’s the city’s first out-and-proud ecohotel, with sustainability a core tenet of the project, from design to day-to-day operations. It’s the fourth outpost for the blossoming hospitality brand, but the first outside of England – with 175 rooms spread across nine floors. It’s a new build, occupying the site of the former Lyndon Court building, a dreary cluster of storefronts demolished in 2020.

Case Study

room2 Belfast

In their stead, room2 is a riot of joviality, ambition and vigour, designed to say something about the city it occupies and what both locals and travellers want from a modern, multi-layered hospitality destination. At its most distilled, room2 is a collection of experiences intended to plug into different elements of a day or stay: common spaces to prop up a laptop and plough through emails; lounge areas to relax and socialise; a natty bar, café and restaurant; and even a bijou art gallery showcasing works by local creators. Beyond lobby level, there are workshop and events spaces, a gym and, in-room, nooks to work or relax more privately, with kitchenettes fit for longer

sojourns. In short, it isn’t a one trick pony – a bed for the night – it’s a show horse, with some serious moves.

Previous page: Handpainted artwork

“This project was all about celebrating locality,” explains Lauren Woodhead, Lamington Group’s Interior Design Manager. “It was important for us to create that connection to the city when designing, so guests can feel that connection when they stay. The streets are adorned with striking street art and so we wanted to evoke a sense of creative freedom and self-expression. It’s a homage to the people who call this city home [and so we created] the strapline, ‘Belfast, a city painted with many brush strokes’.”

Below: A pink and teal-filled snug

room2, Belfast

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Case Study

room2 Belfast

Right image: Winnie's Bar Bottom left: Locally sourced produce Below: Murals by local artists are seen throughout the hotel Right: Abundant greenery

room2, Belfast

In the interiors, there’s certainly a sense of that compelling patchwork of different influences and interventions, both aesthetically and in terms of those drafted in to work on various elements. Visually, room2 is a cacophony of colour and pattern – pink jostling with teal green, florals set against geometric tiled backdrops. An Ege carpet runs through the hallways, adorned with strident splodges of orange, navy, white and red. It is, as Woodhead said, a story of locality, the operator helming design but working with a huge array of native creative talent. There are signature linen lampshades by Linen Lane, based in Bushmills; lighting inspired by the Irish countryside by Mullan, based close to the border in Co. Monaghan; and a dramatic reception mural by Rebecca O’Doherty, who lives in the city, to name only a fraction.

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“We have certain design pillars,” continues Woodhead. “In the common areas we wanted to channel playful expression. Here, character is incredibly important, it had to feel like the dynamism of the city was reflected in the spaces. Whereas, in the guestrooms, it had to be softer; not devoid of personality by any means, but in a way that allows guests to imprint something of themselves on the space. That’s important for rest and relaxation, especially if a longer stay.” These rooms, though subtler in visual to the public spaces, are no less considered. Even the wardrobe interiors feature a surprising, teasing mural by Northern Irish illustrator Jamie Beard. Comfort takes the lead, with squishy, deep-set banquettes or sofas, tactile headboards dressed in soft fabrics and oodles of

Case Study

room2 Belfast

polished wood. Arguably less sexy, but certainly worthy of note, the small constellation of recycling bins for separating waste is a neat touch, one that more hotels should adopt. Of course, at room2 Belfast it’s in service to a much wider sustainability agenda, that includes a lowto zero-waste mantra and sees the building running exclusively on electric and low carbon renewable energy.

laminate recycled from the fashion industry; one made with broken glass from waste wine bottles; and another crafted from 70% recycled clay from the ceramics industry. Even the bedside tables in guestrooms have been crafted in partnership with an NGO, to support and upskill travelling workers.

In design, it means a reception desk crafted from waste shampoo bottles from other room2 properties, carpets fashioned from discarded fishing nets and lampshades created from waste orange peel. In the café, a variety of tables have been used, one featuring white denim

The notion of hospitality with a heart may sound trite, but room2 Belfast demonstrates rather beautifully that socially and environmentally conscious ideals can be more than comfortable bedfellows with smashing experiences and lush, luxe design. It’s a project making a positive contribution and, surely, that’s the type of gentrification we can all get behind.

room2, Belfast

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Case Study

MOO

Paper work The prolific print and design company MOO has encapsulated its brand identity within an inviting new London headquarters in Camden Town.

Words: Lauren Jade Hill Photography: Rob Wilson

Moo

Mix Interiors

Case Study

MOO

Located right at the heart of Camden Market Stables, the glass-clad LABS Triangle landmark lies in contrast with the brick structures of its historic surroundings. Amid the bustle of this colourful market area, MOO now bases its London creative endeavours out of a serene two-storey space within the prominent co-working site. The interior design practice Trifle*, who are long-time collaborators with MOO, worked in partnership with the paper printing company on the new office’s interiors. For Trifle*, representing MOO in these interiors first meant showcasing the company’s affinity for great design while then bringing elements of the brand identity into each area. The brand’s colourways appear through design accents such as furnishings, and paper sculpture has become one focus of the open-plan space which employees and guests first arrive into.

Transforming the existing space, previously occupied by the maximalist Gilgamesh restaurant and, upstairs, by Dr. Martens, Trifle* was tasked with infusing MOO’s light, bright and colourful aesthetic into the interiors. Existing furniture that came with the space has been reused and paired with accent items sourced from sustainable furniture manufacturers in the brand’s colours. Abundant greenery adds biophilic appeal and clever design details, like acoustic lampshades, along with ergonomic furniture, enhances the interiors’ comfort and usability.

“We've worked with MOO for over 11 years and this is our fifth office with them, so we really understand the company culture,” says Nadia Themistocleous, interior designer at Trifle* and the lead designer on this project. “In the new office, the founder and CEO of MOO, Richard Moross, wanted to put flexibility first, making sure everybody has the ability to work in their own way. It’s very open and collaborative, while also retaining more enclosed office space.” This office concept also fits Trifle’s overall approach to human-centric design, which focuses on meeting the preferences and needs of all the people using that space while also promoting wellbeing.

Image on previous page: MOO and trifle*'s design-child Right image: Playful patterns and furniture

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Case Study

MOO

“What we focused on was MOO's beautiful colour palette, that we brought into the space”

On the first floor, an open-plan expanse, in which a sculptural paper centrepiece hangs from the ceiling, is split into collaborative pods such as a communal dining table and areas of soft seating through the placement of new and refurbished furnishings and the use of rugs. A pre-existing kitchen bar, complete with marble worktops, runs along one side of the high-ceilinged, light-filled space and separate meeting rooms and other workshops border each side.

“We made sure there was plenty of depth with all the different textures and where we could the fabrics we picked were as sustainable as possible,” explains Themistocleous. “On the first floor, the space is very big so the greatest impact we could make was on the floor with our use of rugs. We worked with Floor_Story, taking their Rigg and Furrow range and adapting it slightly, and then continued to reflect MOO with everything we added to that space.”

On the second floor, more enclosed workspace encompasses a series of meeting rooms overlooking the inner atrium, a secondary kitchen and a large shared office space for hotdesking. A wellness room leads off of this shared office floor and a balcony overlooking the streets below runs along one side. Ergonomic furnishings, like the HÅG Capisco chairs of sustainable manufacturer Flokk, feature throughout each area, with a soft, warm colour scheme – combining hues of blues with shades of orange, green and touches of pink – that stays true to the identity of the brand.

Designed by MOO’s lead product designer, Felix Ackermann, the paper installation hanging from the ceiling here is made up of coloured sheets of paper, which have been folded over into tapered cylinders representing the ink drop from the MOO logo. The gradient of colours, from blues to yellow, pink and purple, pull together the colour accents featured throughout the rest of this floor’s interior design.

Moo

Top left image: Acoustic curtains lend themselves to coworking spaces Top right image: Soft tones evoke calmness Bottom right image: A touch of abstract art

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Case Study

MOO

Image: A quiet corner

Interior design Trifle*

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Existing wooden floors were sanded and varnished

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“With the second storey, there was so much more scope for us to bring the brand in,” she continues. “There were more walls to work with because there are a lot of cellular spaces up there. And again, what we focused on was MOO's beautiful colour palette, that we brought into the space, also taking every opportunity with the furniture coming in (from brands such as De Vorm) to have good sustainability credentials too.”

As representative of the company’s work culture as it is of the MOO brand aesthetic, this appealing new workspace seeks to engage and inspire those who use it, whether working collaboratively or retreating to a quiet corner. This new hub for MOO demonstrates the balance between interior design in a workplace helping to boost the creativity, productivity and wellbeing of the people who use it, while also conveying a clear brand story.

MOO

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Case Study

The Municipal

Words: Chloé Petersen Snell Photography: Louise Sinclair

Pool of life

Adaptive reuse but make it luxury: Liverpool’s iconic Municipal building is transformed.

Case Study

The Municipal

Image on previous page: The Palm Court

In 1927 the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung had a dream about Liverpool – a city he had never visited – which was so vivid that he wrote an essay, penning famously, "Liverpool is the pool of life, it makes to live". As Jung would attest, Liverpool does have a knack for making a lasting impact, not least for its cultural and architectural heritage – second only to London in terms of listed buildings, an embodiment of its maritime and trade success in the 19th century. The dramatic Municipal building is at home on Dale Street, shoulderto-shoulder with some of the most impressive buildings in Liverpool and within walking distance of the revitalised Royal Albert Dock and Tate Liverpool. Built in 1868 and previously serving as the (slightly drab) HQ of Liverpool City Council for some 150 years, the building is now full of life once again as the glittering, five-star Municipal hotel, transformed by architects Falconer Chester Hall and design studios Koncept ID and Grayland Interior Design. Purchased by the Fragrance Group in 2016, The Municipal now sits as part of Accor’s boutique MGallery arm, post a £60m renovation that includes a newbuild bronze extension that houses a pool and spa. Working with Historic England and Liverpool City Council’s heritage team over the four-year refurbishment, the design teams carefully peeled back the layers of the more modern fit-outs (picture rows of plastic desks and garish purple and white carpet tiles) to reveal original Grade II* listed features.

The Municipal

Below: The restored clocktower

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Case Study

The Municipal

“Turning the hotel from an office designed over 100 years ago into a hotel which needed to meet the hotel brand’s requirements along with that of heritage was... difficult,” says Grayland Interior Design’s Jenny Denton. Doors, for example, were listed yet didn’t comply with fire or noise requirements, so each one had to be refurbished. “This was also the case with heating and cooling, floor compartmentation for fire, structural requirements, repairs to roofs, the list is endless.” A sympathetic balance between the old and new, key details from the building’s past have been restored and celebrated, including a cast iron lift, original tiling and grand staircase. Bells chime every 15 minutes from the building’s meticulously

restored clocktower, which is the same size as Big Ben and a well-loved part of the city’s iconic skyline. According to Denton, the loose design and marketing concept of the hotel is ‘time’ – inviting guests to take time to relax in the hotel and spa. A smaller reception space greets guests, all dark timber walls and gold details. A large feature artwork of the Docks sits behind the front desk, recreated by the original artists specifically for the project. The Art Deco inspired space leads to the venue’s impressive showstopper – the fullheight ‘Palm Court’ space, centred by a square feature bar that offers up a variety of tea-inspired cocktails; with dramatic faux palm trees and skylights.

The Municipal

Lighting is a hero here, and the studio worked with Artin Lights and Northern Lights to curate the various lighting features, including decagonal chandeliers on the Palm Court, each fitting comprising laser-cut antique fretwork and a warm atmospheric glow. At the back of the space guests can find the Seaforth restaurant, where a remarkable Deco-inspired chandelier hangs above marble tables, created by suspending 73 bespoke formed glass pieces within an antique frame, culminating in a floral likeness when viewed from beneath, contrasting against the more traditional wall panelling and heritage elements. The menu includes a refined version of Scouse, of course, served with a side of banter from the waiting staff.

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Case Study

The Municipal

Image on previous page: Presidential suite complete with freestanding copper bathtub

Tucked away next to the main bar, ‘the library’ bar features dark wooden shelving and wooden panelling with traditional oil-paintings of famous Liverpudlians, all complemented by juicy jewel-toned velvet seating. Items found during the renovation are displayed on the shelves, including a lone boot, perfume bottles, letters and keys. A private dining room is a further nod to the maritime heritage, with wave-printed wallpaper and boat-themed artwork. Cupboards feature nautical artefacts and love letters from a merchant sailor are on display.

Below: The library

“We have celebrated Liverpool in lots of ways,” comments Denton. “We retained the Liver Bird crest (the council’s logo) in glass doors and the Palm Court as a nod back to when it was council offices. The meeting rooms are named after the districts of Liverpool and the conference room is named after the building’s

The Municipal

architect, The Weightman Suite, and features portraits and architectural sketches on pieces of newspaper we found during the refurbishment.” Upstairs the warren-like corridors that were once home to offices now play host to 179 richly-layered guest rooms, complete with tastefully abstract Liverpool-themed artwork and William Morris & Co-covered headboards, nodding to the Victorian era. The carpet reflects the architectural layout of the building and on the top floor the former Mayor’s office is now the roomy Presidential Suite, complete with freestanding copper bathtub. “I’m so pleased it’s a hotel rather than offices or apartments,” says Denton. “It’s now alive and buzzing with people who are making memories to treasure and giving the building a new lease of life.”

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The art of office perfection Positive Impact

Why the value of art is more than mere decoration. Words: Patrick McCrae

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Positive Impact

Image on previous page: 31 St James's Square Below image: Artiq x EQT

The art of office perfection

Stories of collecting art can be traced back to ancient civilizations. For centuries, collectors have viewed art not only as objects of beauty or items associated with status but as a reliable store of value. Today, art is as much an asset class as it is an application of creativity and imagination; a commodity as much as an antidote for our times.

the values of a business, is more pronounced than ever.

But artistic expression was born from our need for storytelling, not as a token for trade. Honing in on the unique power of art to tell impactful stories and foster community gives us an alternative metric for the value of art. This value is being utilised by an increasing number of businesses who are looking for new and innovative ways to engage their staff and guests. In doing so, the importance of interior spaces like the office becoming cultural hubs, and places that represent

When properly planned and executed, a business investing into an art collection can create a circular economy that benefits everybody – company, staff and the local creative community. That idea was the foundation on which I built my business, Artiq. My aim was to ensure artists are paid fairly for their work and that physical spaces would benefit from the creativity that art imbues an environment with.

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Investing in culture is proven to be effective. A report by Brookfield Properties found that 69% of office workers agreed that having interesting and visually attractive art pieces in the workplace contributes to their wellbeing.

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The art of office perfection

The majority of our business in the UK is in leasing art collections for use in physical spaces, predominantly offices and hotels. For artists, the benefits are threefold: they diversify their income stream and receive regular payment while their art is on display; they retain control of the artwork and can still sell it at a later date; and leasing doesn’t require them to make more art because the works put into circulation are typically those that would otherwise be in storage or in a studio.

Opposite page top image: Artiq x EQT Right: Brookfield Properties, Our Lives Bottom left and right: Ninety One

The clients we work with, who invest in creativity, reap the benefits by improving employee retention, wellbeing, productivity and team connectivity. Increasingly, we see a trend towards clients wanting to curate art collections that reflect their Environmental, Social and Governance values. Whereas the focus was previously on the environmental aspect, there has been an undeniable shift towards social values in the past year. Businesses want to invest into local artists, support the local creative economy and use their collections to reflect and represent their diverse workforce. It’s true that the value in purchasing an artwork as a collector lies in its scarcity and that is why so much more money changes hands for the works of artists that are dead, rather than those who are alive. The value for office

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Positive Impact

spaces and hotels is totally converse, in that by investing into local artists, they create access for communities that may traditionally have been overlooked or marginalised. Doing so addresses one of the most significant challenges that the art industry faces a lack of social mobility. It’s something we care deeply about at Artiq. 40% of the artists we represent identify as LGBTQ+ or are of ethnic minority background, and we are cognisant of the risks of art businesses failing to make the creative sector more equitable and inclusive. This is a strong selling point to hotels, whose art collections can reflect the locale and give their guests an insight into the rich culture of where they are staying. An additional benefit to leasing collections is the opportunity to rotate them. This can be done seasonally to keep a space fresh and represents an opportunity to engage with staff, who can have a say in the kind of art they want to see in their workplace. 90% of our clients change their collections at least once a year, which means different artists are being paid and their works shown to an ever-growing audience. This all feeds into businesses wanting to develop a narrative about who they are and what they represent, and that story is constantly evolving. Physical spaces are at the heart of this and

Positive Impact

The art of office perfection

the narrative of interiors matters more than ever before. For hotels that are looking to establish a point of difference, particularly in the age of Airbnb where competition to attract guests is fierce, telling a unique and powerful story is a crucial step in creating meaningful connections between places and people.

to fund the next generation of artistic talent outside of government grants or subsidies. If the art and corporate worlds can continue to bridge the gap between them, our interior spaces will become more vibrant and enriching than ever before, to the benefit of business, hotels, staff, guests and creatives.

The proof of this successful partnership between creatives and corporates is in the numbers. Last year we paid a record £2.3m to artists and makers. This is a far cry from the modest beginnings of art rental, when I was phoning up my local pub asking them to place print photography on their wall.

Patrick McCrae is CEO of international art agency Artiq.

This trend towards investment into creativity will only become more pronounced. The creative sector can capitalise on that demand, finding ways

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Fast Forward

Concrete

In defence Why the much-maligned material isn’t necessarily the villain of design

Words: Rima Sabina Aouf

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of concrete

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Fast Forward

Concrete

Fabula inc.

Concrete has an image problem. In the last few years, it’s become common to read that this everyday building material makes an outsized contribution to climate change, accounting for as much as eight percent of all the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. If it were a country, concrete would be the third largest emitter on the planet, after the USA and China. The reason for this high figure is because making concrete doesn’t just require massive amounts of energy or fuel; the production of its main ingredient, cement, also involves a chemical reaction that lets loose carbon dioxide as a byproduct. In elemental terms, cement requires calcium oxide (CaO), but what’s naturally available in the world is limestone (CaCO3). To get from one to the other, you need to subtract CO2. The visibility of this problem has made it a focus for engineers and scientists, who are in a race to bring a zero- or even

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negative-carbon concrete to the market. Some of their ideas boggle the mind. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have succeeded in making cement from limestone that is grown by algae rather than mined from quarries. Like trees, algae draws down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows, so the product would be carbon neutral, releasing only the same amount of the gas back into the air when it is burned to make cement. British start-up Seratech can replace part of concrete’s cement content with a type of silica created using carbon dioxide captured from factory flues — one of many players in the space to see concrete as a potential avenue for the carbon capture and storage of emissions from industry. And US company Sublime Systems has a way of making cement from rocks using an electrochemical process at room temperature, forgoing carbon emissions altogether. Fast Forward

Perhaps most astonishing of all is Japanese company Fabula, which claims to have invented a cement-like material with four times the flexural strength of concrete, all from food waste like cabbage and coffee grounds. The company sees the material as a great option for disaster relief as, in a pinch, shelters or furniture made from it could be eaten. According to materials scientist Dr Anirudhha Baral at the University of Sheffield, there has been a surge in development in alternative concrete formulations and processes since 2020, boosted by government support for lower carbon construction in both the EU and US. But the challenge is making something that can be sufficiently scaled up — concrete is the most used building material in the world after all, and many of these innovations might not be viable outside of the lab.

Thomas Musca, Concrete Castings

He and the team at Sheffield are working on an alternative cement product of their own, using slag, the calcium-rich waste product of the iron and steel industry — another popular material in this field. However, he doesn’t think there will be one silver bullet to solve concrete’s emissions problem; rather, there will be a collection of solutions for different places and times. Using slags, coal ashes and other waste materials may be the most practicable solution now, but as we transition to greener societies, those materials might not be so abundant. “I actually think if we are really going to do net zero without taking into account carbon capture, you need something radical, like electrochemical synthesis,” Baral said. While we wait for those innovations, sustainably minded architects and interior designers have been thinking carefully about their use of concrete.

“The design industry is definitely moving away from concrete as the go-to material for industrial and brutalist-style interiors,” said Jeremy Grove, managing director of sustainable interiors practice Sibley Grove. He points to the growing popularity of more sustainable clayplaster over cement-based wall finishes as an example. “In addition, many of the large suppliers of cement-based products are starting to offer wide ranges of clayand lime-based alternatives,” he adds. At the same time, the rise of alternative concretes means that they need a testing ground, and that testing ground sometimes comes in the form of nonstructural products like tiles, pavers and homewares — products that can provide a point of difference in a sustainable interior. Fabula, for instance, already offers its food waste material in the form of crockery and panels.

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For designer and Concrete Castings founder Thomas Musca, who makes bespoke furniture out of concrete, no available alternative has so far proved satisfactory, including popular variants like hempcrete and ashcrete. He looks forward to one that preserves the ‘magic’ of concrete. “Any structure you can imagine can be made with concrete,” he said. “Its plasticity and versatility allows me to create dramatic shapes with poetic vacancies at any scale. Swooping curves, striking angles, extraordinary configurations — they’re all possible with concrete.” And the material often has unsung benefits, he adds, as with the arching, five-metre-long wine racks he made as a centrepiece for New York’s Moonflower Bar. “The concrete acts as a heat sink, keeping the bottles cool.”

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Steve Gale

Innovative Thinking

Sustainability is a big word When someone mentions sustainability, we assume they are talking about conserving natural resources and improving environmental conditions. But it takes more than this to keep a business sustainable.

Steve Gale is head of strategy at M Moser Associates

The narrow definition of sustainability does not do justice to the concept – the word can carry much more weight than this. For a business to be sustainable it needs to handle other existential threats that arrived in the same epoch as the global climate crisis, and two of these challenges bear directly on the working environment. Specifically, as well as the focus on global warming, the pandemic has changed working patterns and created an unwanted war for talent. The difference between global warming and these other two challenges is that global warming attracts government regulation, while the others are completely up to each organisation to resolve. Regulation means compliance with specific codes, while an unpredictable workforce is an internal responsibility. They each have to find their

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own way, without rules or statutory constraints, making judgements and decisions that affect every strand of their operations. For some firms, environmental sustainability is a cost of doing business that has to be kept under control, while learning to tackle new business challenges opens opportunities and demands a lot more data and analysis. And it’s not easy. Changing working patterns are a problem for managers because it is anyone’s guess how remote working will evolve, and the war for talent needs insight into the collective psychology of the workforce. Solutions to these two problems will define the demand for space and how it should be designed, and will guide engagement with employees who crave information, amenities and access to choice. These questions have thrust the workplace sector into an era of uncertainty, which means unpredictability, volatility and risk. Uncertainty is kryptonite for business, it slows decisionmaking and soaks up resources while it tries to steer a steady course. This can mean lease commitments are put off and workspace redesign gets

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shelved while managers try to calculate how much they need, where it should be and what it should provide for a different future to the one they were expecting. It is our duty to reduce uncertainty for our clients. In challenging times businesses need as much detailed information as possible about what is happening today, and what is trending. Data and its intelligent analysis are critical to make difficult decisions. Fortunately, data can be easily collected, but critical analysis is less available. Our workplace sector really needs a more scientific approach to analysis – for decades we got away with loose-fit and approximation. A lot has changed in five years and the demand for numerate and statistical methods has come of age. Loose-fit will always be here, but the size and shape of our model needs to be recalculated. Analytical skills are slowly migrating into our sector alongside new technologies and artificial intelligence to help us create more commercially sustainable workplaces. It’s not just about carbon.

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Mix Roundtable

What does it mean to create inclusive spaces? In this Mix Roundtable with Tarkett, we explore designing people-centred places and ask what different sectors and disciplines can learn from each other in developing environments fit for all.

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Words and moderated by: Harry McKinley

In partnership with

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Tarkett

Mix Roundtable

Harry McKinley Mix Interiors Managing Editor

Shaz Hawkins Tarkett, Segment Marketing Manager

Katarzyna Wereda Perkins&Will, Associate Interior Designer

Defining what inclusivity means is crucial. Much like sustainability, ‘inclusivity’ has become a pillar of contemporary commercial design. But for an industry that deals as much in practicalities as ideas, it’s also a term that has arguably become woolly and ill-defined. Does it simply mean ‘to include’? Perhaps. But our assembled experts agree: concepts that leave seemly limitless bandwidth for interpretation are often unhelpful and not particularly productive. They certainly don’t create a framework that lends itself to measurable outcomes or benchmarks for success. Definitions, then, are key and it’s important as an industry to reach consensus on what it is we’re discussing, how to apply it and why it matters.

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Mix Roundtable Lorem ipsum

Francesca Mutch Corstorphine & Wright, Senior Interior Designer

“Inclusivity is ultimately about affording people opportunities and giving them a voice, with regards to how spaces are designed and how they work,” offered the National Autistic Society’s Richmal Maybank. “It’s about fairness,” continued Design Council’s Roland Karthaus, “and so much flows from that.” For colour expert Justine Fox, inclusivity means ‘giving everybody a chance’. “For too long we’ve designed spaces that are there to be looked at and not necessarily to be accessed by as many people as possible,” she explained. While for Francesca Mutch, Corstorphine & Wright, creating a ‘sense of belonging’ is fundamental. Agreeing, Tarkett’s Shaz Hawkins deployed an apt Verna Myers quote: “Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”

In partnership with

Roland Karthaus Design Council, Design Skills Lead

Justine Fox Studio Justine Fox, Founder & Colour Expert

Designers have a responsibility to seek out underrepresented perspectives. “The common saying is, ‘you don’t make a case for building a bridge by counting the number of people who swim across the river’,” explained Karthaus. “That means, in design, asking: who isn't in the room? Who is not swimming the river but needs a bridge, that we might not be aware of? We mostly set out terms for success based on what we already see happening, not what we don’t see.”

Richmal Maybank National Autistic Society, Employer Engagement Lead

“It’s here that we sometimes confuse empathy with lived experience,” detailed Maybank, “and that lived experience is vitally important. People who have a different way of thinking are often excluded, as well as those with different needs, even from an access perspective. In terms of what would help, involving people from different backgrounds, with different needs, in the design process from the outset is key.” Does Maybank believe this is happening enough and are designers consulting organisations like her own enough, to better understand this diversity of need? “Honestly, no, it isn’t happening enough.”

It’s a disruptive notion; one that challenges established thought and forces the commercial interior design industry to better consider – to better include – those otherwise left out or left behind.

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Tarkett

Mix Roundtable

Can a space be all things to all people? Probably not. One of the trickiest aspects of inclusive design is catering to complex, multitudinous and even competing needs. When considering aspects as distinctive as neurodiversity and disability, or even gender and age, from a design perspective surely something has to give? “You just can’t be everything to everybody,” said Fox, whose own work is highly tied up in how colour can communicate themes and in how it makes us feel. There are commonalities, but she believes that, inevitably, some priority in design has to be given to who or what most needs to be served.

they’re designed to speak to lots of people. But I also think there’s a responsibility on the end user when it comes to determining just how inclusive an environment is. As designers, we can provide a certain space and build flexibility into that space; that becomes a tool. How successfully it is used, and how well that adaptability is implemented, lies with the user. We can create spaces with the potential for inclusivity, we can’t necessarily force them to be used inclusively.” Karthaus concurred, stressing that design has its part to play, but it isn’t the whole story: “It can allow things to happen, or it can prevent and obstruct things from happening. But it can't make things happen. That's all down to the use.”

“Speaking for designers, we have to be pragmatic,” emphasised Perkins&Will’s Katarzyna Wereda. “We’re delivering for a client. There’s typically a main user and a main activity for a space; there’s always a function and a person engaged in that function. That’s helpful, because it narrows your starting point. Then design is about making decisions. But where inclusivity comes in, is in affording the end user some power to make decisions also; adaptability and flexibility make a space resilient for potential changes, and therefore useful and accessible for more people.” We can look to hotels, suggested Mutch, for lessons in balancing inclusivity with purpose. “You're mainly dealing with big spaces; lots of different areas and rooms that people can use in various ways. Hotels today are an amalgam of hospitality, residential, workplace and various other sectors and, for the most part, they don’t fall into the trap of being a jack of all trades and a master of none. By necessity,

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Mix Roundtable

“Including internally,” continued Mutch. “We need to bring more diversity into interior design and architecture to start with. If you're hearing diverse perspectives from inside your own company, it allows you to implement those ideas within your designs; to consider inclusivity in different ways.” In creating inclusive spaces, that expertise could be a colour specialist like Fox, an autism authority like Maybank, a research document like that created by Tarkett or, as the table agreed, it could be simply engaging more with each other crossindustry, to benefit from the lessons learnt, challenges overcome or pitfalls avoided.

Research, knowledgesharing and better communication is key to more inclusive design. “There’s a lot of information out there already but, equally, if we take more time to research and evaluate as part of a design process, we’ll create solutions that might not work perfectly for everyone, but will be better for more people,” said Hawkins, Tarkett having recently completed a landmark research project in the field of dementia; applying the findings to new guidelines for creating reassuring, anxiety-reducing, safer spaces through design. “Expertise is critical to achieving meaningful outcomes,” continued Maybank. “And I think collectively we need to make the case for bringing more of that expertise into the design process.”

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“The lack of engagement has always been a point of frustration,” opined Fox. “We all have different perspectives, but sometimes there’s a lack of reaching out, across studios and across disciplines. If there were more ways of working together or coming together in conversations like this, then it would accelerate progress in the area of inclusivity, and make things better, more quickly.” “There definitely aren’t enough conversations, where we're actually exploring where we’re struggling or where something can be improved,” noted Wereda. “Another point is feedback from users. We don’t always know what the issues are. That is really key. In an effort to design inclusively, we try to understand the communities around us – we try to understand and predict behaviours – but we also need to know if those predictions were correct or not.” It’s here that post-occupancy evaluation could play a part, for Karthaus: “By and large it doesn't really happen. And it's crazy, because it means that every decision that's made is missing out on the lessons from all of the other decisions before it. How do we know how inclusive a space is, if we can’t gauge how well it worked in practice?”

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Tarkett

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Designing inclusively should be seen as an opportunity, not a chore. “There’s so much more awareness now, around issues of making spaces work for people and making more people feel included and that they belong,” said Maybank. “Design has the power to open up wonderful experiences for people, or just to make ordinary experiences more accessible. And giving that to people doesn’t have to add complication or cost. It could simply be considering elements like wayfinding, colour or spatial planning.”

“We need to bring more diversity into interior design and architecture to start with” “Plus it should be fun,” stressed Mutch. “It’s a creative challenge and it allows us to be playful and challenge convention.” That shattering of traditional ideas or approaches is, for many at the table, part of why inclusive design has the potential to be a vehicle for radical originality; as well as the pathway to a more empathetic design future.

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Mix Roundtable

“In the dictionary, inclusivity is both a It’s an optimistic vision and, just like verb and a noun. Quite often we focus inclusivity, one predicated on bringing too much on the noun and not enough people together. As Hawkins concluded: on the verb, i.e. the process of design,” “I think the more that we have these suggests Karthaus. “Inclusivity can never discussions, the more that we learn and be captured by a set of considerations; the more that we're able to share, the everyone experiences the world more that we can actually design and differently. So perhaps inclusivity is create change.” about bringing challenge into the design process and interrogating established views and assumptions. It's a recognition that our past ways of working and our past ways of designing are not fit for purpose for the future.”

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Events

Mixology North 2023

Mixology North23 Thank you to our sponsors:

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Mixology North 2023

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Mixology North 2023

For almost two decades Mixology North has brought designers, architects and manufacturers together for a sell-out night of industry celebration for the top half of the UK – and 2023 was no exception. Held once again at Manchester Central, a hop and a skip from Mix Interiors’ HQ, guests were welcomed into a theatrical evening ablaze with colour, world-class entertainment and friends from near and far to witness the announcement of who had won one of the coveted Mixology trophies, running the gamut of products, projects and design practices. For our 13-strong panel of judges from the likes of PwC, Bupa, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Women in Property, this year’s roster of entries was a difficult collective to score. “What really stood out for me is how every single business is now really focused on

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innovation and sustainability,” comments Ken Kelly, chairman of The Furniture Practice. From mycelium and hemp to replica slate, materiality choices shone and design practices and manufacturers all took into account the carbon emissions released from their projects and products. “Some were really using people and culture as their design starting point,” adds colour expert and founder of her own eponymous studio, Justine Fox. “Those joyful, curious aspects really stood out for me.” But though we received a record number of entries, ultimately each category could have only one winner. Here we reveal this year’s victors. For full event photography visit mixinteriors.com

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