HOK Crafts A Breathtaking Nature-Inspired Headquarters In Ontario

Eighty years ago, Albert Savage, a cofounder of Co-operators—a Canadian insurance and financial-services cooperative—described the endeavor as “an acorn that will grow into one of the greatest oak trees of the cooperative movement.” This idea stuck with the HOK team responsible for the interiors at the company’s new headquarters, a state-of-the-art facility in Guelph, Ontario, which brings together all its operations and over 1,200 employees under one roof. The quote influenced many of the visual cues and material selections for the project, which aimed to reflect the principles of the cooperative movement in the workspaces. The words are even inscribed on a prominent wall as a literal reminder.

“Co-operators’s values, culture, and mission are different from those of traditional organizations, and that really inspired us,” says Caitlin Turner, senior principal and director of design, interiors, at the Toronto studio of HOK, which, with its 26 offices across three continents and expertise in workplace and sustainability, ranks sixth among the Interior Design Top 100 Giants, up from seven last year. HOK has been carbon neutral since 2022, a distinction it shares with Co-operators, which achieved that status in 2020 and saw this move as an opportunity to embrace even more ambitious environmental goals. By pursuing zero-carbon, WELL Platinum, and LEED Gold certifications, the headquarters would become “the first of its kind in Canada,” says Shawn Fitzgerald, vice president of real estate and workplace at Co-operators. “The vision was to be a catalyst for sustainable construction and design.”

HOK Infuses Nature Into Co-Operators’s HQ

Set within a campus of meadow gardens, walking trails, and outdoor exercise stations, the three-story, 225,000-square-foot building features an atrium  around which the spaces are organized—many embodying the “acorn-to-oak” metaphor. On the ground floor, curved, walnut-paneled walls physically represent the tree’s roots. Nearby, a hallway displays a series of framed historical advertisements as a timeline symbolizing the company’s organic growth. And on the top floor, the ceiling of a collaborative area, clad in rippling stainless-steel panels and dotted with circular recessed downlights, recreates the dappled effect of a leafy canopy.

A key client directive was to celebrate Co-operators’s six decades in the city of Guelph, which is located in south­western Ontario. “We really wanted to maintain our presence within this community that we absolutely love and ensure that we continue this long history,” Fitzgerald notes. Thus, the context informs several elements, such as a pitched steel-and-wood frame—modeled after one of Canada’s oldest surviving covered bridges—that shelters a focused-work area beneath a skylight on the third floor, as well as a vibrant custom rug in the lobby, its swirling multicolor pattern based on an aerial topographic view of the city.

Vibrant Patterns Help Create An Engaging Workplace

Several pieces of lore from the company’s past were also translated into visual form. For instance, felt panels emblazoned with tractor-tire tracks across some meeting-room walls nod to the founding meeting with farmers, while recurring imagery of apples and wheat serves as a reminder that co-op members once used those crops as payment. “These are moments in the rich history of the cooperative movement, which is really about supporting the people who are part of the organization,” Turner observes. Co-operators’s distinctive chevron logo, applied throughout as a wayfinding tool, reaches its apotheosis in the library, where it is replicated using 3,000 plants in a green wall measuring more than 34 feet wide and 17 tall.

As a social and cultural hub for the company, the layout of the headquarters encourages what Turner describes as “serendipitous collisions” between employees from different departments. On the ground floor, the coffee shop features soft banquette seating and an adjacent nook with a suspended fireplace, creating a cozy setting for conversations over lattes. In the balcony library immediately above, long custom walnut tables—lit by the atrium skylight during the day and by integrated desk lamps at night—serve as magnets for collaborative work. Connecting the library to the top level, a cantilevered steel staircase with warm wood treads provides another site for chance encounters while also serving as a striking sculptural focal point in the atrium. “It’s a path of travel,” Turner continues, “but also a beacon of place where people come to congregate and socialize.” 

Lush Greenery Sparks Collaboration in This Dynamic Office

Employee health and wellness, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, was another primary driver. Circulation through the building is intentionally conceived to promote activity, ensuring that, along with the outdoor trails and an on-site gym, staffers can easily meet their daily exercise goals. Workspaces designed for neurodiverse individuals feature specially tailored flexible lighting, quiet areas, muted colors, and sensory-friendly textures—just some of the many accessibility and inclusion elements that go beyond standard code requirements.

Co-operators aims to achieve full net-zero status by 2040, and this building represents a significant milestone on that path. It prioritizes environmental targets by specifying Canadian-made, low-carbon materials, intelligent LED lighting, automatic-tinting windows, and furniture made of sustainable materials. Any successful headquarters reflects the company it houses in multiple ways—showcasing its past achievements, present values and culture, and future vision to both employees and visitors. This one fondly looks back and boldly dreams forward, as the growth of the Co-operators “oak tree” continues, benefitting both people and planet. 

See How This Office By HOK Embraces Sustainability

Explore An Office With A Focus On Health + Wellness

HOK: KRISTINA KAMENAR; HAYLEY LAVIGNE; PIA GREEN; KIMIA MOSTAFAEI; CRYSTAL VONG. NEO ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. SHOUFANY CUSTOM WOODWORKING: MILLWORK. HH ANGUS & ASSOCIATES: LIGHTING CONSULTANT; MEP. DORLAN ENGINEERING: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER. COOPER CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT JUNIPER DESIGN GROUP: DESK LAMPS (LIBRARY), PICTURE LIGHTS (GALLERY). SVEND NIELSEN: CUSTOM TABLES (LIBRARY), CUSTOM SHELVING (CAFETERIA), CUSTOM PERGOLA (BRIDGE). HAY: SECTIONALS (LIBRARY), SIDE CHAIRS (ATRIUM), SOFA (OPEN OFFICE). HERMAN MILLER: SIDE CHAIRS, LOUNGE CHAIRS (LIBRARY), TABLES, CIRCULAR SOFAS (ATRIUM), LOUNGE CHAIR (LOUNGE), SIDE TABLE (OPEN OFFICE), MODULAR SEATING (BRIDGE), BARSTOOLS, TABLE LAMPS (CANOPY). MUUTO: SIDE TABLES (LIBRARY), COFFEE TABLES (LOUNGE, OPEN OFFICE). CREATIVE MATTERS: CUSTOM RUG (RECEPTION). ELLISON STUDIOS: COFFEE TABLES. KEILHAUER: SOFAS (RECEPTION), BENCH (FITNESS CENTER). GLOBAL FURNITURE GROUP: BANQUETTE (COFFEE SHOP). PUNT MOBLES: WOOD CHAIRS. ARMSTRONG: WOOD CEILING. JUNO: TRACK LIGHTING. TEKNION: TABLE (COFFEE SHOP), MODULAR FRAMEWORK (OPEN OFFICE), GLASS PARTITIONING (CANOPY). MAXXIT: PANELING (COFFEE SHOP), CEILING PANELS (CANOPY). CF + D: FIREPLACE (FIRE NOOK). GUS MODERN: SIDE TABLE. RH CONTRACT: PICTURE LIGHTS. RUGGABLE: RUGS (FIRE NOOK, LOUNGE). GEIGER: WINGBACK CHAIR (FIRE NOOK), CANE CHAIRS (ATRIUM), LOUNGE CHAIRS (BRIDGE). MOMENTUM TEXTILES & WALLCOVERING: ACOUSTIC FELT (ATRIUM). KIMBALL INTERNATIONAL: BANQUETTE (ATRIUM), BOOTH SEATING (CAFETERIA). KOROSEAL: WOOD-VENEER WALLCOVERING (GALLERY, LOUNGE). STUFF BY ANDREW NEYER: SCONCES (CAFETERIA). DECO TILE: TERRAZZO FLOORING. AREA ENVIRONMENTS: BOOTH WALLCOVERING. STUDIO TK: LOUNGE CHAIRS, SIDE TABLES (CAFETERIA), SOFAS (LOUNGE), BARSTOOLS (OPEN OFFICE). SPEC FURN­ITURE: BOOTH TABLES (CAFETERIA), COUNTER TABLES (CANOPY). PABLO DESIGN: PENDANT FIXTURE (LOUNGE). EUROPTIMUM: CUSTOM LOGO (LOUNGE), CUSTOM SIGNAGE (FITNESS CENTER), CUSTOM WALL­COVERING (CAFETERIA). HOLLIS+MORRIS: LINEAR PENDANT FIXTURES (ATRIUM). LOLL DESIGNS: ROCKING CHAIRS (OPEN OFFICE). NANIMARQUINA: RUG. BUZZISPACE: LARGE PENDANT FIXTURES (BRIDGE). THROUGHOUT NYDREE FLOORING: WOOD FLOORING. SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY: PAINT.

Inside A Playful Coworking Space In Germany

We all know by now that the world of work has undergone a seismic shift. However, there is still much debate about how future workplaces will look and how they’ll accommodate the evolving habits and needs of new generations of users. Architects and designers are currently in a significant phase of experimentation, striving to determine the next iteration of the “office”—if it can even still be called that—and how these spaces might entice workers away from their homes.

In Laatzen, an industrial area on the outskirts of Hanover, Germany, Ippolito Fleitz Group has taken the experimental approach to an extreme in an effort to redefine this spatial category. The firm’s interiors for Brainhouse247, a coworking brand, have transformed a five-level 1970’s building—formerly a nondescript administrative center for Siemens—into 215,000 square feet of lively, playful environments that provide facilities, flexibility, and fun as compelling incentives for members to show up. “Why are people coming back to the office?” asks Peter Ippolito, an Interior Design Hall of Fame member along with comanaging partner, Gunther Fleitz. “The simple answer is because they want to, not because they have to.”

Ippolito Fleitz Group Builds A Creative Coworking Wonderland

Available to both individuals and corporate employees, Brainhouse247 membership offers round-the-clock access to a diverse range of meeting rooms, lounge and relaxation zones, communal breakout spaces, and food and beverage areas—all designed with an unconventional approach. The concept goes well beyond the beer taps and phone booths of 2010’s coworking startups, one that’s much more refined than the foosball tables and slides of the same decade’s tech-campus wonderland.

Along with more traditional open desk setups, there are specialized facilities for podcasting, photography, 3-D printing, and more, plus a mix of unorthodox places for quiet contemplation or letting off steam, depending on one’s mood.  “We have a room where you don’t see anything because it’s all foggy, offering a moment of quiet,” Ippolito reports. “We even have a room where you can go in and just scream.”

How This Coworking Space Invites Play

In essence, Brainhouse247 is conceived as a landscape of discovery. Each level (four aboveground and one below) features a distinct visual identity but is intentionally left unnamed to encourage users to assign their own monikers, aiding memory and orientation—or so the hope goes. While the top three floors all include a central “marketplace” as a nexus where members can grab coffee, socialize, and relax, each floor has a unique layout and scenario created for it.

On level two, for instance, the “playground” is where collaborative work can take place around circular picnic tables or in pink-upholstered diner-style booths, while on the floor above, presentations can be viewed from brightly hued, stadium-style bleachers mounted on wheels for flexibility. “Everything is agile and mobile,” Fleitz explains. For focused tasks, there are custom cylindrical oak pods, which he refers to as “bird’s nests,” raised a couple of feet off the ground and accessed via short orange ladders. Another option for private calls or concentrated work is a series of color-saturated nooks, created by opening up former exhaust shafts and outfitting them with comfortable sofas and intimate pendant lighting.

Bold Colors + Comfortable Seating Enhance Productivity

Members wishing to stay active while they work can utilize dedicated “walk ’n’ talk” areas or organize powwows with colleagues that incorporate sessions on monkey bars, gymnastic rings, and other exercise equipment. “What we’ve learned from completing a lot of projects in the corporate world is that you can’t ever be innovative enough,” Ippolito observes. “Let’s put it this way, the most unconventional formats we offer are typically used the most.”

The raw bones of the original concrete structure and service ductwork, along with existing features like drywall and tiling, have been left exposed in many instances, creating an intentionally unfinished appearance that alludes to the constant flux of work habits. Colorful heating/cooling ceiling panels were installed in several work areas to improve the building’s energy efficiency, while also helping with acoustics. Bold color is applied fervently throughout, imbuing joy and lightheartedness. From forests of vertical textile ribbons suspended above pillowy lounge chairs and soft ottomans to an area dedicated to playing board games in niches between arched spruce partitions, there’s a palpable emphasis on buoyancy and pleasure around every corner.

To further enliven the interiors, street art–style graphics featuring a cast of deftly sketched characters festoon many walls, enhancing the patchwork effect created by the many layered elements. “We love collage because it allows the user to develop their own story,” Ippolito notes. “They see what they want to see, and they connect it with their own memories.” The facility will eventually include restaurants, a fitness center, and maker workshops, among other ame­nities on the ground floor, offering members everything they might need under one roof, if they choose. Choice is a fundamental principle of the project, emphasizing IFG’s contention that the future of work ultimately revolves around freedom—however that may manifest aesthetically.

Swing Through Brainhouse247’s Transformation By Ippolito Fleitz Group

IPPOLITO FLEITZ GROUP: LENA GRZIB; NADINE BATZ; ERKIN SAGIR; MANU DANKHED; KERRY PLIENINGER; NEELE KELINGARN; KATJA HEINEMANN; ARSEN ALIVERDIIEV; JUAN MANUEL DE AYARRA DEL OLMO; TIM LESSMANN; TIMO FLOTT; ROGER GASPERLIN; CHRISTIAN KIRSCHENMANN; JOHANNES HANEBUTH. AG LICHT: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. SUPER 8 STUDIO: GRAPHICS CONSULTANT. LINDNER: CUSTOM FURNITURE, INSTALLATIONS.

OBJECT CARPET: CARPET (TRANSITION SPACE, PRIVATE DESKS). PEDRALI: SOFA, ARMCHAIRS (PRIVATE DESKS). KÖNIG + NEURATH: DESKS. ARPER: ACOUSTIC DESK PANELS. NAIN TRADING: RUG. WÄSTBERG: DESK LAMPS (PRIVATE DESKS), LARGE PENDANT FIXTURE (PLAYGROUND). MARAZZI: PORCE­LAIN FLOOR TILE (PRIVATE DESKS, URBAN SQUARE). VITRA: MESH TASK CHAIRS (PRIVATE DESKS, CONFERENCE ROOM). BLÅ STATION: OTTOMANS (BLEACHERS, URBAN SQUARE). FATBOY: LOUNGE CHAIRS (URBAN SQUARE). NEMO LIGHTING: VERTICAL PENDANT FIXTURES. BRUNNER: STEEL CHAIRS (URBAN SQUARE), TABLE (CON­FERENCE ROOM). FLURSTÜCK: CARPET (PLAYGROUND). EQUIPE CERÁMICAS: WALL TILES. MUUTO: SOFA (NOOK). &TRADITION: PENDANT FIXTURE.

Unwind In The Latest Green Oasis At Singapore Changi Airport

In surveys, frequent global travelers consistently pick Changi Airport in Singapore as their favorite aviation hub. Even those who have never visited the four-terminal complex are often familiar with images of its central multipurpose building, dubbed the Jewel, where a tiered indoor rainforest surrounds a circular waterfall cascading through an oculus in the donut-shaped glass ceiling 130 feet above. It’s a spectacular tribute to the island nation’s “Garden City” nickname.

Other parts of the airport, however, had some catching up to do with the showstopping Jewel. A competition to renovate and expand Terminal 2, which was built in 1993 and last updated in 2003, sought to bring the aging facility up to par with its iconic neighbor. Paris-based practice Boiffils Architectures won the contest, despite having no experience in airport design. But the firm’s expertise in the hospitality sector led it to approach the project from a customer-experience perspective, which is what sold its scheme to the jury.

Transforming Terminal 2 Into A Biophilic Haven

Boiffils’s proposal for the 1.3-million-square-foot, three-level interior avoided the common practice of treating an airline terminal like a factory outfitted with utilitarian materials for high-traffic durability and cold, reflective surfaces that can be dazzling and disorienting under bright spotlights. Instead, the firm selected products with warm, textured finishes that soften the spaces, and introduced vegetation and mineral-evoking elements to create a relaxing, enjoyable environment for those embarking on what can often be a stressful process. “The aim was to make a very blurred boundary between architecture and landscape,” says managing partner, creative director, and principal architect Basile Boiffils, who, in 2004, launched the architecture department of the design studio his parents founded 20 years before. “We wanted to bring in sensuality with the materials, so that they really humanize the experience, almost romanticize it.”

Throughout the terminal, walls feature precast stucco panels with striations that suggest “cutting through layers of soil,” Boiffils observes. Bands of lush foliage emerge between these layers as if breaking out of the substrate. Carpet patterns in the check-in area mimic ocean-wave formations and land topography as seen from high in the air, while the beige solid surfacing of the organically shaped service desks is enlivened with metallic flecks. The same material appears in the earth-toned restrooms, where wavy, reeded-glass paneling, backed with illuminated prints of tropical plants, conjure the illusion of verdant depths.

Design Details Include Wayfinding Paths and Green Walls 

In another passenger stress-reducing tactic, Boiffils has ensured that the step-by-step process of navigating the terminal is as visually clear and straightforward as possible. Travelers entering the departure hall are immediately directed to the automated check-in kiosks and baggage-drop stations, which are arranged like strings of islands in the open space, rather than the typical solid banks of counters that would block the view beyond. The next area, the central immigration hall, is accessed through a portal in the Wonderfall, a 45-foot-tall digital-display wall, conceived by multimedia studio Moment Factory, on which an image of cascading water plays continuously. Mesmeric and soothing, the LED installation is visible from every angle in the departure hall, drawing passengers toward it with the power of a natural phenomenon.

Nature also permeates several double-height spaces in the form of columnlike vertical gardens. Devised in collaboration with botanist Patrick Blanc, a pioneer of the green wall concept, these vegetation-covered steel structures either rise from the floor or descend from ceilings clad in digital panels displaying real-time external weather conditions. “There’s not a single fake plant,” says Boiffils, whose team painstakingly created an irrigation system and optimized lighting conditions to ensure the greenery thrives. These areas are equipped with surround-sound systems that play recordings of local bird and wildlife calls, carefully synchronized with the visual displays to further enhance the immersive, naturalistic atmosphere.

While the balance between technology and nature is weighted significantly to disguise the former and highlight the latter, this effect is achieved through the use of advanced materials and fabrication methods. In the departure hall, for example, the ceiling is hung with deep aluminum fins incorporating complex double curvature, necessitating that each be individually designed using parametric software. Deployed in sweeping bands, these graceful champagne-color elements not only provide a sense of direction overhead but also conceal mechanical services and access infrastructure. Similarly, the sculpted check-in kiosks below were carved using a five-axis CNC machine. And, of course, the falling water and changing skies are all courtesy of giant vertical and horizontal digital screens.

“Another thing we’re proud of is that we brought craft into the airport,” Boiffils notes. “A lot of the design was only possible through the work of skilled craftspeople.” The human hand is evident in such touches as the stucco wall panels, each unique, or the custom mouth-blown glass pendant fixtures, which hang like giant raindrops amidst a forest of vertical-garden columns near the departure hall entry and elsewhere. They, too, help extend Singapore’s signature lush environment into the airport and, as the architect concludes, “bring back the pleasure of traveling.”

Take A Nature Walk Through Changi Airport’s Terminal 2

BOIFFILS ARCHITECTURES: HENRI BOIFFILS; JACQUELINE BOIFFILS; SANDRA BLANVILLE; LAETITIA BERNOUIS; ARDA BEYLERYAN; MONIR KARIMI; SUNG JU KWAK; NICOLAS DELESALLE; VICTOIRE BONNIOL; LAURA FOLLIN. RSP ARCHITECTS PLANNERS & ENGINEERS: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. PATRICK BLANC: BOTANICAL CONSULTANT. GENESIS NINE ONE: LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT. PH.A CONCEPTEURS LUMIÈRE & DESIGN: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. MOMENT FACTORY: MULTIMEDIA CONSULTANT. J. ROGER PRESTON: MEP. C.C.M. GROUP: MILLWORK. TAKENAKA CORPORATION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR.

FROM FRONT JC DECAUX: LED BILLBOARDS (DEPARTURE HALL). ARPER: MODULAR SEATING (DEPARTURE HALL, ARRIVAL HALL), ARMCHAIRS, OTTOMANS (ARRIVAL HALL). LASVIT: CUSTOM PENDANT FIXTURES (DEPARTURE HALL). THROUGHOUT S.O.E. STUC & STAFF: CUSTOM STUCCO PANELS. SG-BOGEN: ALUMINUM CEILING PANELS, BAFFLES. ERCO; IGUZZINI; LUMENPULSE: DOWN­LIGHTS. ROYAL THAI: CUSTOM CARPET. COSENTINO: STONE FLOORING. KRION: SOLID SURFACING. PORCELANOSA: FLOOR TILE.

Guillaume Bottazzi Unveils An Artful Lighting Collection

The Reward For Navigating This Pink Maze in Dubai? Coffee!

Have you ever stood in line at a café, perplexed about what to order? This common conundrum formed the concept for I Really Don’t Know, an interactive maze in Dubai by Kidz, an experiential architecture studio based in Belgrade, Serbia, with the motto: “Let’s create something amazing together and unleash your inner child.”

That it did. The temporary installation, created for the brick-and-mortar I Really Don’t Know coffee shop in Abu Dhabi, UAE, popped-up in the Dubai Design District last January. To reach the order counter, visitors first had to navigate a puzzle of pink partitions labeled with prompts, which forced decisions that determined their journey. “Wanna eat?” directed to a cozy space with seating; “Wanna play?” led to an adventure that began via a slide down into a ball pool.

Along the route, cutouts in the partitions offered glimpses into other areas, as well as out to the waterfront. Each space had a different aesthetic, such as the Hide and Seek zone with obstacles and a swinging bench that oscillated through a gap in the walls. The final stop was the coffee shop proper, where guests who had eventually ordered could sit on ottomans made from expanded clay blocks, topped with cushions attached using construction ties. The 1,300-square-foot project was built in a week over the New Year holiday and offered a playful and art-driven experience for all ages.

Unwind in the Chase Sapphire Lounge at LaGuardia Airport

Let’s face it, air travel is more stressful than ever. Packed terminals, long security lines, and chaotic scenes are causing major disruption and inducing dread ahead of our trips. A shining light in this seemingly dark time for aviation is the revamped LaGuardia Airport, New York City’s once-reviled domestic hub that has undergone an $8 billion overhaul and become the talk of the town for the right reasons instead. That’s especially true in Terminal B, which has received a state-of-the-art revamp by HOK and WSP Design. It’s there that Chase Sapphire credit-card holders have access to a newly opened flagship lounge by Corgan and ICRAVE, a Journey Studio, that promises to remove as many airport pain points as possible, whether for individual business travelers or a family en route to Disney World. 

Officially named the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club, the nearly 22,000-square-foot project is the third in this network of members-only spaces to open after Boston and Hong Kong, and provides a unique cardholder perk for New Yorkers and those passing through. To craft an exclusive hospitality experience for these customers, the clients—JPMorgan Chase and Airport Dimensions—tapped leaders in two sectors: airport specialist Corgan and customer-experience expert ICRAVE—#6 and #70, respectively, among Interior Design’s top 100 Giants. “Chase came to us with the brief to reinvent the airport lounge,” ICRAVE creative director David Taglione begins, “a new benchmark within the U.S. market.” Also ranked 10th on the Hospitality Giants list, ICRAVE was up to the task.

The designated two-level site, located within the bowels of the airport, proved a considerable challenge. With low, 8-foot ceilings and no windows, the teams had to get creative with spatial moves and innovative lighting systems across the envelope. “The lack of windows took us outside the realm of the airport altogether, and really freed us up to do something incredibly fresh,” Taglione reveals. Together with Corgan, their considerations revolved around questions such as: “How do you de-stress guests? How do you give them the experience of feeling like they’re in a whole other world, and not the daily grind of traveling?” according to Ginger Gee DiFurio, vice president and aviation studio design director at Corgan, which is also 7th amid the 100 Sustainability Giants. 

The de-stress process begins upon arrival, when guests are greeted by agents, then guided through a low corridor before emerging into a bright double-height volume—a sequence that exaggerates the feeling of compression and then opens up, explains Taglione. The void the firms carved through the thick central floor plate offers an impression of spaciousness, and introduces curvaceous shapes around wire mesh–covered, softly illuminated mezzanine balconies that are echoed across the ceiling as layered coves. 

Organic treelike forms on both levels are wrapped in undulating walnut-veneer panels to disguise structural columns and pipework, and rise to meet mirrored panels that create the illusion of continuing growth through the ceilings. Timber is a recurring material, adding to the high-end, inviting vibe through such applications as paneling of oak veneer or rift-cut white-oak tambour and wood-effect porcelain floor tiles laid in a herringbone pattern. 

At the center of the lounge, a large circular bar is conceived as a beacon and a place to gather. It’s fitted with bespoke brass taps, exquisitely tailored stools, and a quartzite countertop, and crowned with halo-like rings, evoking a “chandelier, or an amazing piece of jewelry,” Leanne Fremar, JPMorgan Chase chief brand officer, suggests. “It’s the very first thing people look for, a helpful wayfinding element,” Gee DiFurio adds. 

Guests are encouraged to use the different areas as they desire, whether joining Zoom calls in cossetted booths, dining or having a drink, or kicking back on luxe seating by the likes of Francesco Favaretto, Monica Förster, and Nendo before their flights. Some spaces are more intimate, like the areas demarcated by glass partitions around the perimeter of the lounge. These include a family room and adjoining playroom to keep children entertained, while tweens and teens can find a retro-style arcade with a jukebox, pinball machine, and shuffleboard hidden beyond an unassuming photo booth. 

A staircase sweeps up to the mezzanine, past a mix of live and faux plants cascading over the balconies, to a quieter space for reading and relaxation. From this level, also reachable via elevator, guests can access a trio of resort-inspired private suites offering such spa-like details as tiled baths, generous vanities, and rain showers “as if they were in a five-star hotel,” Fremar describes. The suites offer “everything you need to get ready for your destination,” she adds, noting that these facilities must be pre-booked in advance. 

Each Sapphire Lounge is conceived to reflect its location, so the LaGuardia project takes influences from the city’s iconic entertainment venues, “with Madison Square Garden on one end of the spectrum and the Boom Boom Room at the other,” Fremar explains, the leather ceiling and sexy lighting in the private suites channeling the latter. Several well-known Manhattan spots were tapped as collaborators on food and beverage menus—West Village bistro Joseph Leonard, cocktail bar Apotheke, Joe Coffee—while regionally inspired artwork includes a mural of Polaroids taken all around the city by a commissioned local photographer. 

The space is devoid of any blatant branding—there’s intentionally only hints of Chase’s signature blue. Instead, warm illumination, natural materials, and soft furnishings create a calming environment to unwind, regroup, and make merry ahead of an onward journey.

Inside The Chase Sapphire Lounge At LaGuardia Airport

CORGAN: BRENT KELLEY; SHELLY NICHOLS; FARHAD MODY; GREG VESSELS; TONY GIARD; SHANE FYE; ASHLEY LAPPE; MATTHEW SHAYO; GABRIEL NG.

ICRAVE, A JOURNEY STUDIO: NICOLE RAVASINI; KAMALA HUTAURUK; DEBRA CHAN; CLAUDIA DE LEON; EMILY EVANS; ANDREW DELGADO; ADAM MURPHY.

GOLDSTICK STUDIO: LIGHTING DESIGNER. 

CARVART; DANZER: WOOD­ WORK. 

TEXSTON: PLASTERWORK. 

RIGIDIZED METALS: METALWORK. 

BLONDIE’S TREEHOUSE: INTERIOR LANDSCAPING. 

ARORA ENGINEERS: MEP. 

TURNER CONSTRUCTION: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT BERNHARDT DESIGN: SWIVEL CHAIRS (MEZZANINE), DINING CHAIRS (BAR), SIDE TABLES (SUITE). 

MARTIN BRATTRUD: CUSTOM SOFA (MAIN SEATING AREA), CUSTOM OTTOMANS (RESTROOM). 

FREDERICIA FURNITURE: OTTOMANS, SIDE TABLES, WHITE ARMCHAIR (MAIN SEATING AREA). 

DAVIS FURNITURE: GRAY CHAIRS. 

APPARATUS: SCONCES (RECEPTION), CEILING FIXTURES (SUITE). 

PARLA: STOOLS (BAR). 

FLORIM; SALVATORI: TILE (RESTROOM). 

TUOHY: SETTEE (SUITE). 

MINOTTI: CHAIRS. 

ULTRA FABRICS: CEIL­ING LEATHER. 

ROLL & HILL: CHANDELIER (SUITE RECEPTION). 

SHAW CONTRACT: CUSTOM CARPET (ARCADE). 

TURF: WALLCOVERING. 

THROUGHOUT BANKERWIRE: WIRE MESH. 

NEW YORK STONE; TERRAZZO & MARBLE SUPPLY: STONE FLOORING. 

FORMGLAS: COLUMN CLADDING. 

LOLOEY: CUSTOM AXMINSTER CARPET. 

MOHAWK GROUP: CARPET TILE. 

BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT. 

Get in Touch With Nature at Shanan Anji Deep Stream Hotel

Midway up the north slope of China’s Tianmu Mountain, hidden amongst the lush bamboo forest, the dramatic geometries of a complex of peach-hued buildings emerge from the greenery as if partially ruined, and reclaimed by nature over time. Yet the majority of Shanan Anji Deep Stream, a four-story boutique hotel, is brand new, courtesy of Fununit Design founder and design director Eason Zhu— a mechanical engineering graduate who recently pivoted to architecture and spent two years developing everything from the property’s floor plans to its artworks and visual identity, as his very first built project.

An approximate two-hour drive from Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing, this scenic rural area—referred to by the Chinese as “bamboo village”—is a popular destination for weekend getaways. Zhu and his client’s aim is to bestow full immersion in natural tranquility for those “living in the city, who work so hard and are so tired,” he begins. And where better to escape to than an uninterrupted green mountain landscape, which this 17-key hotel boasts as the highest property in the area and maximizes through the orientation of its spaces, while ensuring privacy and seclusion.

How the Design of Shanan Anji Deep Stream Hotel Invites Guests to Unwind

Upon arrival at the bottom of the site, guests are guided up a winding stairway through the tall bamboo—a journey intended “to slow people down,” Zhu notes— to the small compound of structures perched on the slope. Tea is provided while the new arrivals gaze out through giant picture windows of the reception area, located within an old building, dubbed Chi, that Zhu converted into a common space for guests to unwind. Also containing a bar and a lounge, the rough-troweled plaster interior offers a minimalist take on traditional Chinese architecture, and its chocolate brown color is contrasted by paler-toned furniture. “There’s a fireplace, low lighting, and everything is more natural, more relaxed,” Zhu describes.

Additional buildings were constructed on either side of the communal hub: one four-story block next door on the same axis and a separate two-story volume that’s angled to face a slightly different yet equally captivating view. Both contain two-level guest suites and are built using the rammed earth that gives the entire compound its distinctive peachy hue. “In recent years in China, a lot of white buildings have been built in the mountains,” Zhu explains, revealing that his decision to buck the trend came from a budgetary restriction; it was cheaper to construct the hotel using material excavated from the site. Existing stones were also repurposed, stacked to form exterior retaining walls to cut costs.

Design Details Include Heated Floors and Outdoor Baths

Although the purse strings were tight, Zhu splashed out on “details that guests really notice” like the bathroom fixtures and underfloor heating and placing indoor and outdoor bathing areas in prime spots for views. He also referenced the work of iconic international architects. At the angled building, named Xu, for instance, private outdoor hot tubs are positioned in front of parabolic openings, reminiscent of those that front Oscar Niemeyer’s Alvorada Palace in Brazil and E. Stewart Williams’s Coachella Valley Savings & Loan bank in California. Spanning between tall partitions that offer total privacy for each suite, the U-shape elements frame scenes of the mountain opposite, which can also be appreciated from both levels inside thanks to full-height glazing. 

In Yi, the other accommodation block, secluded ground-level terraces are tucked away at the back, so bedrooms in front enjoy the premium aspect. The goal in each room type was to make the natural surroundings take center stage, and all else is there to ensure a comfortable setting from which to look out, or a base from which to venture and explore. “When we conceived the hotel, we wanted guests to get lost in nature, so the design follows the less is more idea, while the views let guests forget their busy urban lives,” Zhu elaborates. 

Natural Light and Minimalist Furnishings Create Calm 

The suites feature lighter-colored troweled plaster than in the communal spaces, remaining bright and airy along with neutral-toned upholstery and sculptural furnishings—many of which are custom by Zhu. Circular skylights are another recurring motif throughout the 21,000-square-foot property, theatrically illuminating stairwells and providing snapshots of the sky above bathtubs. Natural light is manipulated via thin openings and curved surfaces in the corridors that connect the guest rooms, creating an effect that the architect likens to the “trancelike” experience of being inside Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà in Spain. 

The almost monastic quality that Zhu has created with his debut architectural opus is remarkably effective at promoting a slow and peaceful atmosphere across the site. His respectful nods to modernist landmarks are executed in earthy colors and textured materials for a warmer effect than many contemporary buildings possess. After their therapeutic breaks, Shanan guests descend the mountain and return to their bustling urban environs, hopefully with cleared minds and reinvigorated bodies, having been somewhat reclaimed by nature themselves. 

Walk Through Shanan Anji Deep Stream Hotel

FUNUNIT DESIGN: ZHU XIAOCHEN; ERHUAN CHAI; YEQING FENG; EILEEN CHEN; JIAJUN LI; APPLE WU; YITING DU; LIANGLIANG WENG; XIAOXIAN HU. 

JULY COOPERATIVE: LANDSCAPE DESIGN. 

HANGZHOU DIANCHANG DECORATION DESIGN ENGINEERING CO.: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

HANSGROHE: SINK, TUB, SHOWER FITTINGS. KING KOIL: MATTRESSES. 

Still Young Brings the Outdoors in at Arc’teryx Beijing Flagship

Of all the world’s great cities, Vancouver has one of the closest connections to nature. Surrounded by dense forests, scenic waterways, and snow-capped mountains that offer access to miles of hiking trails and limitless space for wilderness pursuits, the western Canadian seaport is a fitting base for Arc’teryx, a high-performance brand for outdoor apparel and equipment. In contrast, Beijing’s endless urban sprawl might seem an odd location for one of the company’s stores. However, following China’s strict pandemic lockdowns, and spurred by the 2022 Winter Olympics hosted in the capital, the outdoor sports market has grown significantly across the country’s first-tier cities, and demand for suitable attire has kept pace.

More than simply selling clothes to both new fans and veteran enthusiasts of hiking, skiing, and rock climbing, the new Arc’teryx flagship in the trendy Sanlitun neighborhood aims at projecting the plein-air lifestyle of Canada’s Coast Mountains by translating the region’s adventure-driven attitude for Beijingers. “The store interior not only displays outdoor gear but also conveys a connection with nature,” says Eric Ch, founder of Still Young, the Shanghai-based studio assigned the project. Given the context, this decoding required a sizeable amount of imagination and a few reinvented tropes—skills the firm has honed creating a number of much-admired immersive commercial spaces. “To showcase Vancouver’s ambiance to a Chinese audience, we integrated British Columbia’s natural beauty and outdoor culture into the shop’s design, allowing customers to feel its unique essence through visual elements and material choices,” Ch continues, setting the scene.

For an Outdoor Clothing Brand, Nature Serves as Inspiration 

What’s the most recognizable symbol of nature? A tree. To Still Young, this seemed like a good place to start. The studio also wanted the interior to feel rooted (pun intended) in its location, so Ch and his team looked to arboreal interpretations by local artists to find forms that felt appropriate for the teeming metropolis. Working with these artists and a roster of skilled craftspeople, they built a fiber reinforced–plastic sculpture in the shape of an enormous, ancient tree trunk—a gnarled and twisted form that occupies the fully glazed street corner of the 9,500-square-foot, two-story store, engulfing a staircase before disappearing through the ceiling. Clearly visible from the street, the biomorphic structure gives passersby the impression that the emporium was built around a massive tree and not the other way around. This act of botanical reinterpretation, as Ch notes, “became the main source of inspiration, aiming to perfectly blend urban outdoor culture and art with the store environment.”

Biomorphic Forms and Natural Materials Add Visual Interest

Inside, where organic forms and natural-appearing materials proliferate, customers might well think they’re exploring a forest. Clad in glass fiber–reinforced concrete with a wood-effect finish, the walls and ceiling in a ground-floor room dedicated to professional apparel meld into a continuous freeform shell that gives the space the look and feel of a hollow carved into another tree. Similarly sculpted surfaces in the same material feature throughout the interior, defining grottolike fitting rooms or, finished with chalky plaster, creating an events space that resembles a rock cavern eroded by wind and water. Outfitted with sofa seating and state-of-the art audiovisual equipment, it could be a high-tech lounge from the stone age. Artificial-stone outcrops and low bleachers made from piles of what appear to be milled-timber logs are dotted throughout the open areas, creating islands for visual merchandising.

If the store interior embodies these convictions successfully, so too does the facade, which juxtaposes vast expanses of glass with slabs of FRP colored and textured to mimic striated mountain escarpments. But it’s another sculptural installation—a giant pine cone sitting on a platform in the glazed corner window as if it had just dropped from the tree above—that most succinctly captures the project’s multiple intentions and practices. While the 7-foot-tall conifer seed obviously pays homage to nature in a directly mimetic sense, it is also an artisanal object that evokes the realms of art, craft, and sustainability—the last because it’s made entirely of molded pulp from factory waste.

Walk Through the Arc’teryx Beijing Flagship

still young: dawn du; dada zhao; linda li; laura cai; mayi zhang; azel wang; ethan li; cc li; donald lin; ken tao; james xu; abel lu; asha li; douglas xu.

A Bold Model Office Designed to Lure Employees Back

What does the office of the future look like? Since the global upheaval of the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, the answer to this question is, frankly, still a little fuzzy. As companies in the West grapple with return-to-office policies, employees in China are fervently back at their desks, eager to regain the social and professional benefits that office life brings. However, there’s no denying that the world of work has changed significantly, and many, particularly from younger generations, require extra motivation to come in every day.

Chinese businesses are therefore increasingly hunting for facilities that will inspire employees of all ages, provide a sense of identity and belonging, and foster new ways of working for this decade and beyond. So that’s what Ippolito Fleitz Group has presented inside the show office at Max Zone Technology Park, a new research and development campus for tech companies on the outskirts of Shanghai. Similar to a model home in a residential complex, the show office demonstrates how prospective tenants might use the space and helps them to better envision occupying it. “You’re not selling the property, you’re selling a dream, a vision,” begins Peter Ippolito, who, with Gunter Fleitz, is cofounder of IFG, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and an Interior Design Hall of Fame member.

Explore This Show Office Designed to Spark New Workplace Visions

To entice innovative tenants, the 10,800-square-foot office needed to be bold and forward-thinking. IFG’s Shanghai team pushed and expanded the current notions of workplace to create a vibrant landscape that’s not only visually compelling but also attempts to answer our initially posed question. “We really like the word landscape, because it implies experience,” IFG project director Patrick Wu says. “It helps people meet each other, communicate, and start ideating together.”

How Behavioral Science Impacts Workplace Design

Designing for a fictional tenant, Ippolito, Wu, and team began by identifying the core functions of everyday work: concentration, communication, collaboration, and contemplation. They then assigned these functions to the office’s five levels, using each to guide the layouts and types of spaces provided. Without a real company’s predetermined visual identity to follow, the freedom to apply color in relation to the four “C”s was granted, as Wu explains: “If an area requires group meetings with more people involved, we use a warmer, energizing color. If it’s more for solitary heads-down functions, then the color is cooler.”

The studio’s “journey through how we work together,” as IFG puts it, starts, as you’d expect, in the lobby—a welcoming area that Wu describes as “an extroverted space.” A central circular orange element serves as both reception desk and seating, creating a continuous flow around its perimeter. Overhead, some 2,000 rods of varying heights form an undulating canopy across the ceiling, and a looping band of light traces the room’s circulation path from above. Also here is a standing-height surface for, say, responding quickly to an email on a laptop, as well as an introduction to the project’s ample live greenery.

Bold Hues and Spaces Designed for Chance Encounters

Rather than integrating too many tech-focused elements, which, Ippolito notes, “age quickly,” the project instead explores several ways to personalize the office experience—what IFG feels is key to driving progress. “A decade ago, the work would follow the space… Now it’s the other way around,” he continues. “I think a contemporary office follows the work.” The one of the future, it appears, will be shaped by its users.

Inside a Shanghai Model Office Designed by Ippolito Fleitz Group 

ippolito fleitz group: halil dogan; chen dong; leo luo; steven shangguan; frank wang; yu yan; aaron ye; dirk zschunke.

A Hip, New Restaurant Next to MoMA Offers Diners a Feast for the Eyes

2022 Best of Year Winner for Fine Dining

A successful restaurant in New York must be “yummy,” according to Lionel Ohayon. The designer isn’t simply referring to the food, however. Rather, it’s the entire experience that comes from carefully combining lighting, acoustics, materiality, layout, visual impact, and a sense of discovery, together compelling diners to return time and again. “What are yummy rooms?” he asks rhetorically. “They’re the enduring restaurants that have lasted forever, and people just know that they want to spend time in them. It’s so much to do with the entire package.”

That’s exactly what ICrave, where Ohayon is founder and CEO, intended for 53, an already buzzy Midtown restaurant developed by Altamarea Group and helmed by Singaporean chef Akmal Anuar. Its prime location is nestled at the base of Ateliers Jean Nouvel’s 53 West 53, a much-publicized residential tower that rises 82 stories into the Manhattan skyline as a series of carbon-gray shards, and accommodates part of the recent expansion of the adjoining Museum of Modern Art. The restaurant’s 11,000 square feet are divided across two spaces: the street-level bistro and the subterranean main dining room. Jean Nouvel’s angular beams enable wide column-free expanses, while allowing for the creation of a sequence of intimate dining areas “framed to feel like part of the building,” Ohayon notes. However, given the proximity to a world-famous contemporary art museum, the ICrave team decided to approach the project not as interior design, but as sculpture or a painting.

ICrave, in the words of Ohayon, is a studio of “big moves,” and, at 53, this manifests in some three dozen giant curving fins that span the full width of the restaurant. Emerging from the street-level ceiling, they cascade down in front of the bistro, swoop underneath it, and finally wrap around the ceiling plane of the main dining room. Each fin is edged in a bright stripe, the nine nearly neon colors lifted from the Nine-Dragon Wall reliefs found in Chinese imperial palaces. The hues also nod to the varied Asian cultures and cuisines represented in the menu and the modern art on display in the museum galleries nearby. (The restaurant will also feature a rotating selection of fine art in partnership with the Friedrich Petzel Gallery.)

Glossy black on one side and sepia-toned on the other, the fin installation has a lenticular quality when moving through the restaurant or walking by on the sidewalk. Ohayon describes it as both a loom and a veil, its colored threads drawing glances from passersby through the glazing and down to an aerial diorama of tables, banquettes, and chairs on ink-wash carpet, the latter three in subtle smokey grays that echo Nouvel’s steel construction. “With hospitality projects in New York, you’re creating a piece of the landscape of the city for the people who live in it and memories for those who visit,” the designer says.

The idea for the sculptural architectural gesture stemmed from the Chinese artistic principle of xieyi, which refers to works created with broad, expressive strokes, and it represents the chi, or energy, that flows through 53. In contrast, the principle of gongbi, that’s all about realism and fine detail, guided choices for the decor that ties the environment together. A keen eye will notice the colors from the fin edges replicated in the precious stones used as chopstick rests, for example.

This maturity, which comes from ICrave’s beginnings and long-standing experience in hospitality design, then its later expansion across more sectors, including healthcare, has enabled the studio to complete a restaurant interior that celebrates its cuisine without pastiche, understands and capitalizes on the importance of its context, and is ultimately just as yummy as the mango pudding on the menu.

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ICrave: michelle schrank; renee joosten; greg merkel; jane yi; amit dishon hoffman; bingjie duan; rudi pham; gisbel videla

anthony mrkic architect: architect of record

pentagram: graphics consultant

rosini engineering: mep

ferrante manufacturing company: woodwork

munnworks: custom furniture workshop

certified construction: general contractor

certified signs: custom signage (exterior)

demar leather: red seating upholstery (bistro)

Moooi: chan­de­liers (dining room)

Clipso: stretched bar fabric

arca: bar stone

potocco: stools, chairs

thinkglass: custom instal­lation (bar)

el torrent: custom sconces (dining room)

hemera: pendant fixtures

ultrasuede: wall covering

elements of architecture: mirror

design communications: custom fins

soundply: paneling

ambientec: table lamps

fort street studio: custom rugs

tiger leather: seating upholstery