< PreviousFirst look commercialinteriordesign.com September 2021 30 Research and design took three years... The mansion's infi nity pool Want to show someone the world? Bring them to Dubai. Long a melting point of global cultures, the emirate's portfolio of ambitious developments now includes The World. The collection of manmade islands, lying 4km from the shores of Dubai, are shaped into the continents of the world when seen from above. Among this artifi cial archipelago, The Heart of Europe, which contains six islands, aims to create an unrivalled holiday and second home destination. So far the Sweden island is the only complete project and by far the most bombastic. Covering 43,758 sq m, Sweden is home to 10 beachfront properties, which includes nine palaces and a mansion. The latter is four times the size of the others and is described by its creators as "both a curated sanctuary and a sophisticated playground." Kleindienst Group – established more than 30 years ago in Austria and Hungary and operating in Dubai since 2003 – is behind the project and its own interior designers and architects worked across the Sweden island, where construction sites took six months to prepare. Josef Kleindienst, chairman of the group, has previously said of the project: "We do more than luxury; we do the impossible." True to this word, the island looks like something straight out of a Hollywood movie. To get to the front door of the Palace, you walk through a man–made jungle. The trail contains 60 exotic plants, including giant banana leaf trees and bent palm trees. Design brief Normalising the unexpected is very much in the design DNA of The Heart of Europe. Bringing the best of Sweden to Dubai needed to go way beyond simply snow and nature. Researching and designing the island's luxurious property portfolio took three years and included a number of trips to Sweden and meeting with furniture supplier, Bentley Home. Specifi cally, the design brief mandated that it should 'bring the best of Europe First look 31 September 2021 commercialinteriordesign.com The dragon looks out over the sea View from a bedroom to Dubai in Maldives-like settings'. Josef Kleindienst drew on treasured childhood memories of European experiences with food and festivals and sought to recreate the highlights for visitors to enjoy. Inspired by seafaring Swedish Vikings, the glass roof of the six-fl oor mansion resembles the inverted hull of a Viking boat topped with a dragon head looking fi ercely over the blue Arabian Gulf. This fantasy fi gure is the work of local 3D printing fi rm, 3D Generation. Step out here for your own 360 panoramic views of the sea or the Dubai skyline. More motifs of Viking life are found around the mansion's infi nity pool, where horse fi gurines dance around two fi re fountains that elegantly combine the natural forces of fl ickering fl ames and fl owing water. Sweden is known for its healthy lifestyle and so one fl oor of the mansion is devoted to wellness and self-care. Guests can follow a Swedish fi tness journey through a gym and yoga studio. In Scandinavia and certainly in Sweden, the sauna represents a culture whereby heated rooms or buildings provide guests with a way to relax and sweat, in addition to promoting various health benefi ts. Naturally this 'chill zone' includes an ensuite massage room with its own giant sauna. Cooling down afterwards is taken care of in a suitably extravagant fashion – the studio has its own snowroom, complete with a blizzard of swirling snowfl akes. Overarching it all is Inside the snow roomFirst look commercialinteriordesign.com September 2021 32 a ceiling of Northern Lights, recreating the dancing lights of the aurora seen in the far north of Sweden, now found in Dubai just a 20-minute speedboat trip from Jumeirah Fishing Harbour. Completing the mansion is a sophisticated and elegant selection of furniture from Bentley Home, which also designed the massage room on the recreation fl oor. Sustainability The Heart of Europe project draws inspiration from the Vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and ruler of Dubai, an advocate of innovation and sustainable development. (HH has previously been quoted as saying: "Sustainable development involves activating all pillars of the economy. To achieve this, it is important to create a conducive environment that focuses on knowledge, science and research.") As well as seeking to set trends in tourism and development, the Sweden Beach Palace exemplifi es The Heart of Europe mandate for placing sustainability front and centre. Each palace is immersed in a sustainable forest that took four years to cultivate, from seeding to planting. The glass roof with outdoor terrace Inside the mansion Hammocks hang in the sustainable jungleFirst look 33 September 2021 commercialinteriordesign.com No fungicides and pesticides are used in tending the plants and water comes from an underground irrigation system that disperses desalinated recycled water. The buyers The island seeks to attract ultra-high net worth individuals seeking a premium holiday home. As per the developers, interest has already come from GCC and Middle East nationals as well as Saudi Arabia's royal family. It's also been reported that international football clubs are interested in the palaces' private beach access and landscaped gardens. Each unit takes one year to build, depending on the client's customisation requirements and handover date. Meet the team BENTLEY HOME: Furniture 3D GENERATION: Dragon head PSE CONTRACTING: Construction FAKHY CONSULTING: Feasibility studies & architectural plans KLEINDIENST: Interior design & architecture Main island Located on the main Europe island is under–construction Portofi no Hotel, which is only available to people with kids. On the same island are the Marbella, London and Cote D'azur resorts. A place to party, Cote D'azur will have four boutique hotels, recreating the spirit of Monaco, Nice, Cannes and St Tropez. Star of many a YouTube video, the Floating Seahorse villas are also part of the project. To be found near Honeymoon Island (fi ttingly shaped like a heart), there will eventually be 131 partly-submerged villas. If anyone has a spare €20,325,000 to spend (this is Europe, remember), then the villa is theirs. Furniture supplied by Bentley HomeSpecial Report commercialinteriordesign.com September 2021 34 SPECIAL REPORT B-Hive 11 by Studio BipolarSpecial Report 35 September 2021 commercialinteriordesign.com CLOCKING BACK ON Emerging norms for offi ce design and fi t-out in the post-pandemic world PAGE 36 Herman Miller on the reinvention of the offi ce and changing workplace trends in workspace furniture and design PAGE 38 What's the buzz around co-working spaces? India's Studio Bipolar seeks to add colour and fun to fl exible offi ces PAGE 40 Why the cubicle is dead and what this supplier is proposing instead, plus the home/offi ce crossover impacting interiors Im ag es : A nm ol W ah i OFFICES commercialinteriordesign.com September 2021 36 Special Report OPINION T he COVID-19 pandemic accelerated workplace trends that had been slowly germinating for years. Chief among them as we look to the future is the reality that distributed work is here to stay. Through the early weeks of the pandemic, organisations and employees alike struggled with the sudden shift to remote work. But a year after the initial lockdowns, business leaders have warmed to the idea that their people could stay productive away from the offi ce – at least for part of the week. Up to 70 percent of organisations are planning for at least some portion of their workforce continuing to work from home. Research from Harvard Business School confi rms this, with more than 81 percent of offi ce workers saying that they do not see themselves returning to the post-COVID offi ce fi ve days a week. Several approaches to distributed work have emerged, from the 'binary strategy' (in which organisations view employees as either offi ce workers or remote workers) to the 'remote-fi rst strategy' (in which working from home becomes every employee's primary mode). The fastest–-rowing approach — and the one we feel has the potential to help most organisations thrive in this new reality — is one in which most employees exercise IM A G ES : CHI -SHOU WA N G autonomy in choosing from a broad array of options both within and beyond the offi ce for where they'll work on a given day. This so-called 'hybrid strategy' presents organisations with an opportunity to holistically address the needs of a highly diverse workforce with a focus on equity of experience. This means considering the needs of remote team members as well as their colleagues in the offi ce. A myriad of factors can affect an individual's From forced acceptance to strategic advantage How a hybrid work strategy promotes inclusivity and equity of experience by Herman Miller We see an opportunity to reinvent the offi ce... productivity and engagement — everything from work styles, location of colleagues, and project deadlines to home offi ce conditions, parenting responsibilities, and physical/ sensory needs. And these factors are not fi xed; they can change from day to day or week to week. By trusting employees to make choices based on their daily tasks and preferences — with support whether they choose to come into the offi ce or work from home — organisations can reshape the offi ce into a sought-after destination for those social and cultural connections that cannot be recreated virtually. Even before the pandemic, offi ces were struggling to consistently support people and their work. For many organisations, the physical offi ce didn't keep pace: it was often generic and too densely planned, while deprioritising remote work. However, when given a choice, many employees had already begun working from home, coworking spaces, cafés, or elsewhere. As we look to the future, we see an opportunity to reorient the offi ce so that workers feel less anchored to it and more buoyed by it, as facilities focus on hosting experiences that the isolation of the pandemic robbed from us all. What can organisations do to make their spaces Photo credits: Herman Miller37 September 2021 commercialinteriordesign.com Special Report A worker in a modern offi ce It took a virus to change the offi ce landscape overnight... more desirable as on-demand destinations for employees newly empowered to work anywhere? From data provided by more than 19,000 users of Herman Miller's WFH Ergonomic Assessment tool3 and other sources, we have identifi ed three core experiences that the offi ce is uniquely positioned to support. At Herman Miller, we're focused on helping customers evolve existing environments with products and settings specifi cally designed with these experiences in mind: 1. Community socialisation While most of us have found virtual ways to maintain a sense of connection to our closest friends and family over the past year, our 'weak ties' were largely lost. This outer circle of acquaintances — whether that's the building concierge who is on a fi rst–name basis with everyone, or the coworker from another department with whom you like to make small talk — is vital to an individual's social health Building these relationships is also critical for establishing and maintaining culture — and helping people feel a sense of purpose and belonging. By providing areas that encourage people to interact with their extended networks, your offi ce can help reestablish these connections. 2. Team collaboration In the prevailing model of workplace design, individual workstations are owned or assigned, and group spaces are shared. But organisations looking to seed spontaneous socialisation and concerted collaboration need to fl ip this to more of a neighbourhood model. In this model, team space is owned, while individual spaces are shared within it. When workplaces practice 'neighbourhooding' in this way, they better accommodate longer– term collaboration while also creating opportunities for those spur–of–the– moment chats that cannot be scheduled via videoconference. 3. Individual focus The past year has stressed our homes in many ways, with spare bedrooms called into duty as classrooms, gyms, offi ces, or all the above. And for those of us without a room to spare, the realities of children, roommates, or extended family have made it diffi cult to even fi nd a corner to work in — let alone actually fi nding focus. For these individuals, a return to the physical offi ce can provide a respite for concentration and focused work, given the right setup. New expectations From fl oorplate fl exibility to user adaptability, returning offi ce workers will bring new expectations for user control to the workplace. Technology has been reshaping work for decades, but it took a virus to change the offi ce landscape overnight. In the early months of the pandemic, many organisations focused on adapting their spaces to provide safer work environments and limit the spread of COVID-19. However, organisations are now turning their attention to broader perspectives on employee well-being. Our view is that to be effective, this shift must emphasise adaptability in a deeper sense. In the past, a workplace setting was considered 'fl exible' if it could be reconfi gured for different uses by a facilities or maintenance team. As organisations plan their return-to-work strategies, however, the power to adapt a space needs to rest with the people working within it. Change is always expected whenever any workplace moves from construction to post- occupancy. That said, it has never been tougher for organisations to plan for these changes than now, as employees return from this prolonged experience of working from home. We believe that shifting investments toward furnishings and tools that fi t into existing fl oorplates can optimise space to embrace change. These kinds of adaptable solutions will meet rising expectations for autonomy, choice, and user control. To fi nd out more, search 'the future of work' at www.hermanmiller.com/en_eur.Special Report commercialinteriordesign.com September 2021 38 CASE STUDY: B-HIVE 11 CO-WORKING SPACE IN NEW DELHI BY W hat's the buzz about co-working? B-Hive 11 is a coworking space fabricated around the concept of establishing an inspirational and motivating environment for young millennials. Certainly, data shows that the generation born between 1981 and 1996 are in need of a boost. A global survey of millennials by Deloitte in 2021 reports that, in general, they are still, first and foremost, worried about the health of their families and their financial futures. Concerns about jobs and job security caused an a year–on increase in stress for nearly four in 10 millennials (37 percent) and just 32 percent of Gen Zs surveyed – Gen Z being the demographic cohort succeeding millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Research from global staffing firm Robert Half revealed that 34 percent of people currently working from home would rather quit their job than come back to the office full-time. Instead, millennials are turning to co-working spaces. Business title Quartz reports that as of August 2021, the average office occupancy rate across the 10 largest US cities was 34 percent, according to data from Kastle Systems, a property management company that tracks access-card swipes from 2,600 buildings and 41,000 buildings across 47 states. The remote workforce is also expected to grow permanently, which means workers will be looking for more options when they want to escape the home office. In designing B-Hive, India-based studio Studio Bipolar space sought to create a space accentuating a lively, spirited, and refreshing atmosphere where co-working is infused with colour and fun. Hotdesking hive Bright and soft colours amalgamate with extensive artworks throughout the 418 sq m area, characterising a vivid and open offi ce setting set in Nehru Place, a large commercial, fi nancial, and business centre in New Delhi, India. One of the essential features of B-Hive is the functional embodiment of artifi cial light to enhance the aesthetics of space, despite There's a lot of art work Artifi cial lighting amplifi es the overall surrounding the presence of abundant natural light. The play of contemporary artifi cial lighting fi xtures amplifi es the overall surroundings while complementing the copious artworks present. The design intent of this project is to bring together elements that stimulate an innovative workspace and profoundly balance the work-life. The main area, also called the hotdesking space of B-Hive, hosts uniformly arranged rows of desks, segregated by half-height partitions. Plants embrace these half-height dividers and help manifest a nurturing, sensory, and semi-private atmosphere for their employees. Here, the design composition combines with natural and rational forms; furniture and fl ooring patterns Special Report 39 September 2021 commercialinteriordesign.com Y STUDIO BIPOLAR paradigm of elaborately interwoven components like the birdcage chandeliers and the faux-plant ceiling. A statement wall painted with murals juxtaposes with eccentric prints and artwork, elating and accumulating dashes of colour and vibrancy to the room. Situated towards the left end of the principal coworking area is the long hallway, edged with private cabins on either side. These intimate cabins constitute glass partitions, ornamented with geometric frostings in shades of yellow to maintain privacy whilst not making the spaces feel confi ned at the same time. Space to socialise The long hallway fi nally leads to a communal area that includes the pantry and restrooms. Constructed with a nuanced approach, also lies an exquisite courtyard nestled between the two buildings. The design aesthetics of both the pantry and the washrooms intertwine with the overall narration followed in the offi ce. A brightly lit, expansive space perfect for networking and socialising, the pantry contains a wall-to-wall mural. The women's bathroom consists of a whimsical and quirky wall–art of a cat, with mirrors as sunglasses for the cats' eyes. Overall, the design scheme of the B-Hive coworking space by principal architects Sanjana Mathur and Ujjwal Sagar echoes the colourful and rejuvenating qualities of the youth today. Loftnets create a space for staff in warm wood blend with novel lighting fi xtures, an open HVAC system running along with a shade of bright yellow, and walls that narrate words of encouragement. Eccentric prints The two meeting rooms, located towards the right end of the hotdesking area, display diverse interior styles, forming a luxurious space with pops of pastels. The fi rst meeting place envelops a mint–coloured wall with bohemian art and mirrors and is merged with brown leather chairs, providing a contrasting, corporate character to space. A chevron ceiling in raw wood with two contemporarily designed chandeliers adorn the room, adding to its unique elements. The second conference room is an exemplary Encouraging messages The bathroom's quirky cat feature Bright yellow chairs & woven shadesNext >