Explorers, impresarios and a trio of co-work icons
By Tom Howells
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Urban workspace culture is big business these days – but the rise and rise of co-working and shared studio setups has also meant a sea of drab, glass-panelled homogeneity. Not so with Workspace, the prosaically named but progressively attuned company whose sites are home to more than 4,000 business in London. Its enclaves are free to personalise – a move, explains Cherry Tian, the head of marketing, that allows tenants to make a space “truly their own, to reflect the way they work, their identity, their culture”.
At LDF24, the company is throwing open the doors of three of its headline hubs for an exhibition within each. At Bankside’s Metal Box Factory – three former industrial and warehouse buildings with a gigantic, airy central atrium – the Icelandic artist Kristjana S Williams presents a 3D installation exploring 21 female explorers through history. It’s a “geometric journey from land to sea”, with a verdant artwork paying homage to the women who upended gender conventions and documented the botanical world at a time when the world of discovery was overwhelmingly parochial. “These women really defied the norms and expectations of their age and pursued their passion for nature and adventure,” says Tian. “It's a female empowerment piece.”
Over in Shoreditch, The Frames sees a host of creatives – studio HANDS, Akmaral Khassen and studio LOUD among them – delve into the magic of everyday objects (furniture, paintings, prints et al), exploring the way they transform our spaces. Meanwhile, the multidisciplinary design practices blurck and Dasein lab have taken up at Islington’s Leroy House (which echos the white Gault stone of St Paul's church opposite), fashioning screwless, flatpack chairs from reclaimed London scaffolding planks and Delhi stone in a collaborative urban initiative dubbed Tulā.
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It’s an highly engaging triumvirate – a bevy of intriguing art and design from a global panoply of creatives – and a fine way to immerse oneself in Workspace’s world. “Design is a key principle for Workspace, both in our buildings and our creative customers,” says Tian. “It’s great to be able to celebrate them and the wider London design community.”
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