A Place to Think

Where am I physically? Where am I mentally; as a designer what skills and techniques have I got and how will I use these skills to design a pavilion that explores the idea of a place to think.

Thinking in the city, when my campus learning is taken away from me, when companies are all encouraging working from home schemes. What is the future for office working and how will this project open up ideas for inspiring public spaces for meeting, thinking, reflecting and interacting?

‘A place to think’ engages with this idea and strives to inspire the design of places which welcome back the interaction of people. It is somewhere, not only for people to visit, but somewhere where they can escape the four walls of their home, where they might be working.

I want my Pavilion design to allow the thoughtfulness of the viewer to wander as you move through the space. There is a narrative of the space which I want to be the fundamental recipe for the design. This will follow three key statements; I want to see the crowd; I want to get away from the crowd and I want to inspire the crowd.

I want the natural surroundings of Hyde park to be a hugely influential part of my design, I don’t want my structure to take anything away from the greenery, instead I want it to give something back. All my work is drawn by hand

The questions that surround post-pandemic work life are – how will it change, how will people re-balance their own work/ home life and will companies encourage working from home indefinitely? The coronavirus has been a seismic health event on many levels, so to move forward without recognising the potential for change and adaptation would be naive.

This is what the future of the ‘workplace’ design could be like:

1. The future of office space is simply to have less ‘office’ and to bridge the gap between work life and personal life making work environments more multipurpose spaces.

2. The workplace may no longer be a single location but instead be an ecosystem of a variety of locations.

3. Providing support through convenience, functionality and wellbeing will be a vital part in a company’s agenda to adapt to this new way of working.

4. ‘Inspiring destinations’ that may encourage cultural connection, learning and innovation.