Commercial

There is a vigorous discussion on the future of work – what we will do, how and where we will do it. The cubicle office was discredited in favor of the open plan. Then open plan critics cried that we need more privacy. Currently MESH is behind the “micro-urban” model, where the workplace offers a varied topography of scales, sounds, light, and work modalities. The Quatrefoil table can occupy a large meeting room or an open space. It is intended for a small group – a team within a larger company or a startup or an ad hoc collaboration. The geometry enables the group to meet together around a table or to pivot away to work independently or to break out into smaller groups. Personal materials may be kept on the arms, leaving the center area free for collaborative materials. We imagine a projection from the ceiling down onto the center surface, which could be interactive as conceived by Potion (potiondesign.com).

Our entry for the 13,000m² Science Island Kaunas competition negotiates between its grounding in the park and its science and innovation programming. The building’s form is as simple as its program and content are complex: its kernel is the suspended gallery space, activated by rear video projection onto glass panels, which can also be retracted to create a full free plan. To each gallery (for learning, absorbing) we attach a lab (for making, experimenting), while a rooftop planetarium invites visitors to panoramic views of the city before stepping into the immersive dome. The extensive ground-floor public space uses cut-away corners to invite visitors in seamlessly from the park outside, while the four programmed pavilions at this floor exert cones of influence into the landscape outside.

This was a winning competition design. The building is currently under construction

Instead of trying to accommodate different programs into one single volume, the building is divided into different blocks that express the programs that they host: 1. studios, 2. public programs, 3. studio support, and 4. office space.

The different blocks also break down the scale of the building; adapt to setback regulations and propose a different typology for a tower, rather than the traditional tower + base.

Our architect-developer team won a competition at one of the blocks in Gangdong gu high tech industrial complex, Seoul, Korea.

Millennium Financial Center, Hanoi is the project to propose a new business district standards which has commercial and public functions altogether in the area of 10ha. We made the proposal with the joint venture of Vietnam and Korean companies.