A creative collective needed a home — not an office. The challenge was designing a 3000-square-foot workspace that could hold fifteen people, a materials library, a prototyping zone, and a communal kitchen, all without feeling like a conventional office. We turned to biophilic design for the answer.
Living green walls frame the entrance and the main meeting area, softening the industrial shell and improving air quality. A grid of skylights was opened up to pull natural light deep into the floor plate, reducing dependence on artificial lighting throughout the day.
We let nature lead. Desks are arranged around existing structural columns rather than in rigid rows. Green walls act as spatial dividers — separating the quiet zone from the collaboration zone without walls. The material palette is raw: exposed concrete, reclaimed timber, and blackened steel.
Two living green walls, an indoor planter system with hardy species, skylights aligned to circadian rhythms, and a water feature near the entrance that masks city noise. Plants aren't decoration here — they're infrastructure.
Ten weeks of build, and the collective moved into a space that feels more like a greenhouse than an office. Productivity metrics improved. People stay longer. The plants are thriving. The space won a local design award for biophilic workplace design in its first year.