Culture

March 14, 2018

The factory that welcomes bees

There’s an air of excitement buzzing through the Interface factory in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. We’ve recently installed hives to house 20,000 bees, transforming a wasteland at the rear of the factory into a small bee-friendly nature reserve. There are around 5,500 known beehives in Northern Ireland – but the bee population has dwindled in recent…

November 14, 2016

Inspired by the Art of Hand-crafting

Even when craftspeople are working to a pattern, hand spun or woven textiles are one-of-a-kind items – small variations make each one unique. Saori weaving, created by Misao Jo in 1968, celebrates this idea of random beauty. Unlike other hand-weaving techniques, Saori is completely freestyle with no rules, restrictions, or samples to follow, and where…

September 9, 2016

Top Trends for the Future of Workspaces

These are the big trends we’re seeing regarding the future of workspaces. 1. Co-Working A proliferation of co-working venues with sophisticated and comprehensive amenities previously only found in high-end corporate fitouts. Internationally renowned British designer, Tom Dixon, has recently designed Interchange, a purpose-built co-working space in Camden, London – three shiny glass and metal buildings…

August 29, 2016

The Future of Business: Redesigning for Resilience

Having just finished interviewing senior executives from a range of organisations for a Global Leadership study, and I am struck by the consistency in perspectives even though the organisations are quite different. Every CEO I have interviewed ranks their number one challenge today as dealing with the pace and scale of change now upon us.…

May 22, 2016

Artful Restoration

Last October, during the first weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, artist and social activist Theaster Gates pulled back the curtain on his latest endeavour: the Stony Island Arts Bank. The highly trumpeted project entailed the conversion of a derelict bank building on the city’s South Side into a public cultural venue, brimming with galleries,…

October 7, 2014

What Workers Want From Their Office Space

Our recent Human Spaces study into the impact of the work environment on employee well-being asked more than 3,600 office workers what mattered most to them about their workspace. One of the questions we asked respondents was “What was the top natural element that European office workers would want on their modern office wish list?”…