Workplace Without Boundaries – London, UK

2018 – Competition

Delvendahl Martin was shortlisted to take part in a competition for Lendlease, for the design of a series of outdoor working components situated within the landscaped public realm of the International Quarter in Stratford, London. The brief was to design four components of varying size, ranging from individual reflection spaces for one, to collaboration pods, to a bookable event space for 20 people.

Our proposal creates a family of highly recognisable and eccentric objects of different sizes that complement the character of the new public spaces at the IQL. We have named the objects: The Stacks

The Stacks are designed to work both at an urban scale, as bold landmarks placed at strategic locations to demarcate routes and destinations, as well as from up close, becoming focal points that give emphasis to their immediate surroundings.

Through their compactness and vertical arrangement, they provide an intermediate condition between the horizontality of the landscape and the shear vertical aspect of the buildings’ façades. They are totem-like structures, a primordial accumulation of blocks, with echoes of a child’s game or an ancient civilisation’s place of worship.

Through their manifest instability, they project a sense of impermanence and become a playful counterpoint to the immovable nature of the larger structures that surround them. The ambition is for people to relate to their whimsical character, texture and colour; to sit, take shelter and work in them.

There are 4 types of Stacks, each corresponding to one of the components specified by the brief: outside office, collaborative, individual and amphitheatre.

 

Project Team

Stephanie Thum-Bonanno

Hohgun Choi

Jonathan Ramdeen