Small but mighty: five compact office spaces

Black Kite’s industrial-inspired studio by Bureau de Change

In East London, Bureau de Change Architects curated a range of different settings for production company Black Kite’s new studio space. Essential to the brief was the inclusion of production and visual effects suites, isolated from external sources of light and sound.

Devising a spatial strategy conceptualised around the heritage of the site’s industrial past as an Engineers and Iron Foundry, the floorplan comprises a series of intersecting cylinder forms, or ‘volumes’, based on traditional iron kilns. The existing columns within the grid system lay the foundations for the concept’s creation. Each cylinder contains a rectangular ‘void’, enclosing the production suites in a controlled private environment.

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Photography: Gilbert McCarragher

Berlin’s flex workspace Denizen House by Modiste Studio

“Third place” concept Denizen House, comprising a co-working space, open lounge, café and wellness studio over 450 sq m, acts a versatile community venue within Berlin’s bohemian district, Kreuzberg. Due to its location within the evolving neighbourhood – long famed as a diverse, cultural hub – Modiste Studio fused the ambience of contemporary ‘grandeur’ with a Kreuzberg community living room when designing the main community space facing the street.

Denizen collaborated with Vitra to create bespoke furniture to facilitate individual and collaborative working, including wooden partitions lined with acoustic panelling which define areas for solo focus. Translucent curtains surround the wellness studio for yoga, meditation, ensuring privacy while letting in a beneficial abundance of natural light.

Photography: Mathilde Karrèr

Sella’s sleek NYC office for Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners

London-based studio Sella employs a manifesto of connectivity and culture at its design for Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners’ NYC office – reimagining the workplace as an all-embracing social hub. Set across 3000 sq ft within the Oda New York Architects-designed 10 Jay Street building – flanked by the Manhattan Bridge – the interiors were conceived as a reaction to evolving working practices identified by the pandemic.

Pushing at the boundaries of established office norms, the scheme places emphasis on flexible and interchangeable meeting rooms; on a merging between workspace and membership cultures; and on the flow of the environment, to encourage in-person interaction. With breakout spaces drawing from the studio’s hospitality portfolio, the space embodies Sella’s signature design language: a playful use of curves, consistent colour story and the layering of materials.

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Photography: Sean Davidson

Black Barn, a shared space for Studio Space and Studio REDD

Dutch firms Studio Space Architecten and Studio REDD created a harmonious shared office space in the Netherlands surrounding wildlife and nature. Named ‘Black Barn’, the interiors are defined by a large black timber cabinet which divides the building lengthways, separating the workspace from the staircase and facility areas as well as providing space for bookshelves, storage, kitchen units and doors. 

Contained across two levels, the ground floor comprises a large workspace with simple black desks sitting under long, thin lights. A meeting room opens onto a paved terrace through sliding glass doors. The floor above features additional workspace with a long dormer window looking out onto nature. For socialising, the kitchen holds a large wooden table for shared meals while elsewhere, a more casual seating area has been fitted below the barn’s pitched roof.  The building’s exterior is clad in black-stained timber and has been orientated to overlook a nearby river. The envelope of the building contains a series of nesting boxes for birds and planters for greenery. 

Photography: Koen Van Damme

Related Argent’s London HQ by Basha-Franklin

As mixed-use developer Related Argent’s workforce grew from 50 to 160 since 2012, the addition of desks merely led to a loss of amenities at its Granary Square HQ. Views across the space were blocked and demand for meeting rooms was steadily outweighing supply, creating a two-storey, 14,000 sq ft environment that felt cramped and unproductive. Keen to meet its teams’ vastly altered expectations of 2020’s return to work, the firm commissioned Basha-Franklin to develop a space fit for changed working habits, that’s also good for the planet.

The design retained, reused and repurposed around 80% of the materials in the existing space, introducing biophilia, opening up views and sight lines by removing some internal walls and rooms, improving the natural light, increasing the variety of spaces and creating the sort of welcoming environment that would entice staff back into the office.

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Photography: Ed Reeves