This concept was designed for a design competition organized by the province of West Flanders.The assignment was to fill up a large empty space (+ – 900m2), which is in the middle of several offices, with furniture where the users could gather. These offices are let to young starting companies.

Suivez le guide, image courtesy 5AM © ThomasDeBruyne

Given these existing offices are quite static, we looked elsewhere. “Suivez-le-guide” breaks with the conventions in the field of office furniture. It is a response to the demand for other ways of working and communicating.

Suivez le guide, image courtesy 5AM © ThomasDeBruyne

“Suivez le guide” is a series of 7 volumes of plywood, with an acoustic felt on the inside wall,which does also functions as a bulletin board. Each box allows the user to practice another activity.

• Advalvas: a box where users have their mail boxes, but also can make announcements
• rest: a box where people can rest in a completely enclosed space
• (flex) work: here you can perform your deskwork, alone or with two
• meeting: a big box for 6-8 people for informal meetings
• relaxation: bingo golf, darts and a bar.

Suivez le guide, image courtesy 5AM © ThomasDeBruyne

Suivez le guide, image courtesy 5AM © ThomasDeBruyne

Each box got its steel frame on wheels and is mounted on a rail. Users can move the boxes to create other / more functions. Like this they can create larger meeting places, intimate workplaces, joint relax areas, …

+ Project facts

Suivez le guide
Spanjestraat 141, 8800 Roeselare, Belgium

Design: 5AM | http://www.fiveam.be/
Press text : Suivez le guide
Completion: April 2012
Pictures : © ThomasDeBruyne

+ All images courtesy 5AM

Christopher Megowan Design recently completed two townhomes in Malvern, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Twin Townhomes, image courtesy Christopher Megowan Design

Twin Townhomes, image courtesy Christopher Megowan Design

The two homes stretch across the site from east to west and use north facing light courts, skylights over the stairs and skillion roofs to the rear lounge to maximize sunlight to the spaces of the two homes which require it most. The homes achieved an excellent standard of energy efficiency thanks to its creative siting, passive ventilation and thermal mass contained in the rendered brick exterior walls of each home. Double-glazing, solar panels, solar hot water, LED lighting throughout and rainwater tanks complete the environmental package.

Twin Townhomes, image courtesy Christopher Megowan Design

Twin Townhomes, image courtesy Christopher Megowan Design

Built on a tight budget for a speculative developer, the homes quickly sold for above market value. The street frontage of the two homes features ebonized mountain ash timber accents and channel set glazing to the front balconies. The homes are littered with carefully thought-out custom joinery to the robes, kitchens, studies and bathrooms. The rear lounges have vaulted ceilings and a clear connection to the outdoor garden. This indoor/outdoor flow allows for the each home to feel much more spacious than most of homes of a similar size and for the homes inhabitants to better connect with the famously fickle Melbourne weather.

+ Architect: Christopher Megowan Design

+ All images courtesy Christopher Megowan Design

The BASF corporate building is situated in Insurgentes Avenue, one of the most famous avenue in Mexico City.

BASF Corporate Offices, image courtesy BASF

The ground floor is of 1,315.0 m2 and each standard floor of approximately 942.0 m2. The shape has three differently-oriented squares brought together by a central core.

BASF Corporate Offices, image courtesy BASF

BASF’s corporate office project consists of the ground floor and 6 levels, the second floor will be for leasing and the first floor will be developed in the future. The design program for the other floors includes spaces such as a lobby, open and private offices, meeting rooms, a dining room, rooms for informal or casual meetings, an auditorium, support areas and sites. A requirement of the client was to achieve LEED certification, so the design must had to incorporate maximum parameters of energy efficiency and sustainability.

On the ground floor there is a showroom for the display of the company’s own products with the facilities to project images of the different products on screens.

BASF Corporate Offices, image courtesy BASF

Also located on this floor is the reception area which has a staple with a stone finish and the BASF logo on the back wall. With its waiting area and turnstiles with scanners giving access to users, it will service the entire building.

Restrooms are divided into two parts, one for the meeting rooms and the other for the dining area, executive dining room and showroom. They will have everything to serve the needs of the customer with water-saving equipment which will help consumption. As this equipment has its own water treatment plant for used water, it will have a second use generating water for the air conditioning.

There is a public space with meeting rooms, two of which will have a movable wall making it possible to use the space in a different manner. The small rooms have audio-visual equipment and a wall mounted screen and the large rooms have projectors and electric screens. The executive dining room on this floor has three separate rooms with movable walls that can be made into one when the space is needed. The general dining room serves 100 people in two shifts, and this space will have a shared use, as an auditorium as it also has projectors and screens on columns. It features an audio cabin and store for tables and chairs, the latter being in the same space as the kitchen which has on-site food preparation.

It has an office area and a space for medical services, a lactation room and an ATM.

The pedestrian entrance to the building has ramps allowing access to disabled persons in wheelchairs. The smoking area is in the same area, designed to have lower visual impact, so only the floor finish changes.

There are bicycle racks in this floor's parking lot, and there are showers for bicycle users on basement 1 with others to be found in the roof gym. The racks and the garbage can for separation and recycling are requirements of the building certification.

BASF Corporate Offices, image courtesy BASF

The floors second to the sixth could be called standard floors, whose three wings are comprised of open areas, except for the sixth floor where the presence of the chairman's office results in more private offices.

These floors have a closed printing room with extraction as well as a stationery storage cabinet, enclosed phone booths consisting of a seat and a telephone line for private telephone conversations between two or more people. These floors also have meeting rooms, mainly for 4 to 8 people, which will be equipped according to need and size with projectors and screens.

There is also a janitor's room in the emergency stairwell, for storage and cleaning facilities.

A distinguishing feature of these floors is the informal meeting space, strategically located to serve coffee and water, so that people to gather casually and watch presentations run from a laptop set on a table. The screen is wall-mounted or suspended from the ceiling as appropriate.

BASF Corporate Offices, image courtesy BASF

Each informal meeting space is decorated with a different theme, in order to bring something special to each floor.

Low partitions between the workstations allow us to create a sense of spaciousness. Unlike the ground floor where the ceilings are either smooth or in a grid, these floors have shim plates and a center soffit grid, creating more movement and depth as you can see the slab behind.

On the sixth floor, the directors' area has a smooth drywall ceiling with recessed linear luminaries with louvers; these fixtures will have different intensities and scenarios.

The elevator lobby will have a smooth ceiling and a light box along its length to round off each wing of the building.

The lighting designer's proposal for the open areas is to have randomly suspended luminaires at two heights, adding a touch of versatility as this form of lighting provides for greater uniformity of lighting throughout the space.

The air conditioning works with Fan & Coils which enables us to make as much use as possible of the ceiling space, and thereby to give a greater sense of space to each location.

+ Project facts

BASF CORPORATE OFFICES
Insurgentes Sur Avenue, Mexico City

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN: SPACE
Juan Carlos Baumgartner
Gabriel Téllez Galindo

DESIGN TEAM:
Humberto Soto
Enrique Martínez
Elena Schneider

LIGHTING: LUA
PROJECT DATE: April – December 2012
CONSTRUCTOR: GIA
FURNISHINGS: Steelcase
AREA: 5,000 m2

PHOTOGRAPHY: BASF Courtesy

+ All images courtesy SPACE

The Woven Collection - Deviant, image courtesy timothyjohn

The initial Woven Series project was launched in November 2010; an experiment focused on hand weaving and wrapping techniques. The project was extensively covered by international publications and the Deviant clock was showcased at the Su Nero Nero exhibition in Italy in late 2011. Inspired by the overall reaction, the Woven Collection was born.

The Woven Collection - Exhibitionist, image courtesy timothyjohn

The collection is comprised of five limited edition works: the Traditionalist vase, the Optimist and Pessimist pendant lights, the Exhibitionist table and the Deviant clock. Each piece pays tribute to a traditional form with focus on scale and material weaving technique. There is a strong element of contradiction evident in combining an organically woven felt textile with high gloss and elegant components. Despite these conflicting qualities and spirited embellishments, a simplicity of form is retained.

The Woven Collection - Optimist + Pessimist, image courtesy timothyjohn

The Woven Collection - Traditionalist, image courtesy timothyjohn

Our approach is entirely experimental, personal and with little conscious thought of global design trends. Throughout the creative process, we often doesn't realise what we're experiencing. Influenced by feeling and vivid imaginings, work developed in the studio 'just happens'. A hands-on exploration of a material or process of interest within our surroundings and limitations results in fascinating objects that evoke emotion and wonder.

+ Designer: timothyjohn | http://www.timothyjohn.net

+ All images courtesy timothyjohn