The Wallpaper* Workspace: our vision for modern office design

For us, the work / life conundrum is less about balance than it is about blur and a happy communion of the personal and the professional. Many of us are lucky enough to enjoy working lives that fulfil essential needs, feed our curiosity, challenge, engage and ignite, and sustain our passions (however much torrential e-mails threaten to dampen our spirits). We know creative professionals love and live their work, so, with Howick Place in London as our host, we imagined a new environment that recognises and rewards this commitment of time and energy.

We briefed architect Adam Khan to rethink the modern office and he came up with 'Octopus', a timber installation. For the creation, Khan collaborated with sculptor Adam Kershaw and used American hardwoods, tulipwood and maple. The space includes an internal garden designed by Dominic McCartney at The CounterCulture Garden Company, with plants supplied by The Chelsea Gardener.

Howick Place, developed by Doughty Hanson & Co and Terrace Hill, is a key part of Victoria's £2bn renaissance, offering just over 143,000 sq ft of Grade A office space and 23 luxury residential apartments. Inspired by a central London area that has become home to the likes of Tom Ford and Jimmy Choo, the designer Marc Newson and The Telegraph newspaper, it is a stylish, light-filled environment that has been designed to be good for business in general and the creative industries in particular.

These workspaces are not about stealth domesticity, nor just a rejection of Taylorist banks of workstations, but are at once lounge and library, private space and public space.

We briefed architect Adam Khan to rethink the modern office and he came up with 'Octopus', a timber installation, collaborating with sculptor Adam Kershaw on the creation. Leading international trade association for the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) - a company that works with more than 25 different species and is ultimate specialist for wood advice - supplied us with the timber for the installation. Watch AHEC's making-of video to see the construction of the Wallpaper* Workspace unfold, and hear some of the installation's key creators and contributors talk about the vision behind our ultimate workspace