HEX(I)FINITY

AADRL | Patrik Schumacher Studio

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

In the eighteenth-century dedicated office buildings emerged as an urban space, and since then the typology has seen many iterations and evolutions. Today, the office space enters a new era that aims to create an equilibrium between required privacy and productivity to achieve maximum efficiency. Based on the research, the team proposes that the contemporary office space must present a dynamic ecosystem rather than a static monoculture. To address the growing need of start-up company in the UK, we proposed a dynamic office space in Stoke Newington, London with multiple research outcomes. Hex(i)nfinity is an incubator co-working office building that aims to facilitate the experimental ideas of start-ups. As a starting point, the proposal utilised furniture, the smallest unit of architecture, as a ‘furniture-field-function’ structure that has a decisive role in affecting basic human behaviour. Utilising phenomenology and the Gestalt grouping principle, the furniture family achieves kinetic features and multiple usage. Together, the combination and grouping of the furniture forms a swarm that constitutes an initial field on which start-ups can be employed. The field has the potential to grow into an infinite capacity for company expansion or a particular event. The architecture that results from this research is a 3-dimensional interlaced floor plate system that retains the capability to form an infinite field, by manipulating the position of the plates in the vertical plane. Inspired by the erosion of waves and crowd simulation, the disposition of the floor plates provides the community with a pedestrian- friendly space at the ground floor. The entire system, of furniture inter- connected within the fields, allows for a dynamism that addresses the ever-changing needs of the London’s start-up culture.

PROJECT VIDEO