Co-working spaces are evolving, and designers are going to increasing lengths to integrate homey comforts and rituals into what was once a warren of badly lit cubicles.
The latest iteration to catch our eye is Kindred, this time self-styled more extravagantly as a creative community space. London-based architecture firm Studioshaw has retrofitted the 18th-century, Grade II-listed Bradmore House in Hammersmith into a modern three-storey complex where a 7,500 sq ft plan houses a co-working space, bar, restaurant, and private rooms on the top floor for yoga, meditation and more mundane meetings.
The original bones of the building – not least the restoration of the tall Georgian windows, a listed panel room that came from the Geffrye Museum in 2001, period panels and cornices, and beautifully aged timber – feature strongly in the interior design. Collectively, these form a handsome backdrop for the light modern interventions of brass details, furniture by Hay, and a sculptural kinetic chandelier comprising 70 long brass stems in perpetual movement like fluttering autumn leaves. Amidst such aesthetic distractions, we wonder that anyone gets any work done. §
