Dwell’s Top 10 Offices of 2017
With digs like these, you wouldn't be able to wait to get to work.
It's probably safe to say that we've evolved beyond the typical 9-to-5 grind— telecommuting, coworking spaces, and progressive offices that facilitate community and creativity are coming into vogue, replacing the humdrum cubicle. This year, we featured plenty of inspiring workspaces, from fluid live/work set-ups to backyard studios. Keep scrolling to see the top 10 examples that resonated with our readers.
10. The Zoersel House
Designed in 1969 with the Bauhaus movement as inspiration, the Zoersel House was a prototype meant to be duplicated across the surrounding residential landscape. Resembling the infamous Villa Savoye through its formal articulation, central core, and industrial materials, the residence is formed by a steel skeleton in a perfect grid of nine squares, two stories tall. A modern work space now fills the originally vacant space on the ground level.
Squarespace is known for its bold and iconic brand, and for helping the masses build sleek, professional websites. Like the restrained, minimalist vibe that their brand conveys, the company's office spaces are equally stark and striking.
A cramped home in Catalonia gets a dramatic makeover that highlights its best historic details. Narrow plots pose some very specific challenges for urban architects, and in old cities like Sabadell in Catalonia, Spain, it is a frequent concern. Working with architect Manu Pàges, Barcelona-based design firm The Hall Studio turn a cramped single-family home into a bright, loft-like space with plenty of multipurpose areas.
A dynamic warehouse conversion in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, allows two creative businesses to share a boardroom and break area in a homey, Art Deco-inspired space. Once a manufacturing hub, Cremorne in Melbourne’s inner-city has seen an influx of start-ups and creative companies setting up shop, giving new life to the area's factories, warehouses, and Victorian cottages.
Airbnb is all about local—and that's just what they've done with their brand new Parisian office space. In collaboration with architectural design practice STUDIOS Architecture, Airbnb's new Paris digs embrace the company's "Belong Anywhere" ethos by turning what was once a corporate office space into a functional workspace that resembles a cozy Parisian attic loft.
After a two-year hunt for the perfect office space, digital agency Mobelux found a new home for their growing company in an unlikely building—a historic U.S. Post Office in Richmond, Virginia. In 2015, Mobelux co-founders Jeff Rock and Garrett Ross purchased the 12,000-square-foot post office from the U.S. Department of the Interior and started transforming the building into a contemporary office, while also embracing its charming architectural details and historic narrative.
In a former foundry that was most recently home to Vice Media, a new members-only co-working space opens up for business, featuring stunning interiors designed by The New Design Project. Located in Williamsburg, at the epicenter of Brooklyn’s creative hub, The New Work Project is a design-led, private workspace for individuals and businesses in the creative industries—supporting freelancers, "solopreneurs," and teams from various creative genres. Members are able to work from lounge areas, assigned gallery desks, or private studios, and have access to high workstations, breakout areas, and conference rooms.
Nestled in the backyard of a Toronto home, this architect’s self-designed work studio is an experiment gone right. Oliver Dang, architect and founder of Six Five Four A, typically works from home, but his rambunctious toddler made him recognize a need for more space with fewer distractions. Instead of immediately turning to office rentals, however, Oliver wanted to see how the numbers would stack up if he were to build his own workplace.
In an attempt to beat the winter blues and improve his work/life balance, Australian architect Andrew Maynard combines his home with his office in a sun-drenched Victorian terrace with bright bursts of yellow. In 2016, architect Andrew Maynard of Austin Maynard Architects (AMA) decided to transform the way he and his team live and work. At the end of winter, Maynard visited a doctor about his increasing levels of stress and anxiety. The doctor’s suggestion was that he get more vitamin D to improve his mental health. Maynard decided to radically renovate his dark, Victorian-style terrace house in Melbourne, and flood it with therapeutic sunshine.
A skillful configuration of restrained materials and natural light lets a gallery, studio, and residence merge inside one compelling shell. Kouichi Kimura, the founder of FORM/Kouichi Kimura Architects based in the Japanese prefecture of Shiga, wrapped the upper floor of this building in sheets of galvanized steel in order to reflect light and intensify its street presence.
To see more of our Top 10 lists, click here.
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Workplace & Office