The Design – Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio
Interchange with a design by Tom Dixon have created a new co-working space for entrepreneurs, startups and creatives. It is situated in the heart of Stables Market, Camden the Atrium, Interchange’s flagship building offers a range of facilities across four floors, which includes 600 work stations (both within private offices and hot desking areas).
(Image property of Nomad Space)
“Interchange’s co-working and shared work space environment allows some of Camden Market to evolve beyond food, retail and tourism to provide space for other types of activities, lending even more diversity to the extraordinary mix of activity in this teeming mix of creatives.”
(Tom Dixon)
“The quickly changing nature of work space and the opportunities presented by this are interesting to us both from a product design and interior design perspective – wherever change happens designers get a chance to be relevant.”
(Tom Dixon)
(Image property of Tom Dixon)
Custom furniture has played a big part in the project, Tom Dixon design have developed two new desks and a new desk light as well as incorporating some of their beautiful existing products. The Atrium features 300 Tom Dixon Y chairs, new Wing-backs and the Bell table light that appears in all of the offices within the Triangle building.
(Image property of Tom Dixon)
(Image property of Dexigner)
(Image property of Dexigner)
“The Y chair balances the three most important requirements demanded of a contract chair: durability, a striking silhouette and an ergonomic form, is used extensively across the Atrium.”
(Tom Dixon)
(Image property of Tom Dixon)
“Ever adaptable, in Camden, the Wingback has become the ultimate co-working chair, providing comfort and privacy within an open plan space.”
(Tom Dixon)
“The Bell Table light, used throughout the office is a dome suspended over a dome formed of chrome plated pressed steel. Its hyper-polished, mirrored and reflective surface allows it to take the tone and characteristics of its surrounding area.”
(Tom Dixon)
(Image property of Office Loving)
(Image property of Furniture Comfort)
Atrium’s Camden Market location – where it joins existing Interchange hubs Triangle and Utopia, which also contains some contributions from Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio – was a key attraction for Tom Dixon Design. Camden Market’s history as a hub for commerce, transport and technology since the industrial revolution appealed to them also from a conceptual point of view, and its more recent past as a place for radical music, fashion and retail makes it an amazing backdrop for the fast moving and ever adapting world of start-ups and tech companies.
(Image property of Tom Dixon)
Information on Interchange…
In all, the Interchange buildings (including Triangle, Utopia and Atrium) add up 84,000 sq ft, with Atrium and Triangle’s interiors, lighting and furniture designed by Design Research Studio under the creative design direction of Tom Dixon, the acclaimed British designer whose previous work includes Shoreditch House and the Mondrian Hotel, London. The buildings and the internal spaces, designed by leading Architects Barr Gazetas, are focused on true community, working through expert curation of some complex floor plans. The unique design of the Atrium building features a central spiralling walkway, with interaction spaces and covered terraces, and includes vertical gardens.
(Image property of Real Business)
There are many Interchange tenants already confirmed to move into Atrium including creative businesses and startups. This includes Cisco Create (a division of Cisco focusing on new technologies); Fever Up, an event recommendation app; Satago, a fintech company; and Inpost, a delivery startup. Other current Interchange tenants include: Osper, a company specialising in mobile banking for young people; Doctify, a site which connects patients with healthcare professionals; and early-stage startup accelerator, IncuBus. In addition to the huge wealth of facilities and support on offer at Interchange, the Interchange tenants also have the unique opportunity to establish their own retail spaces within the iconic Camden Markets, which has over 28 million visitors per year, so there are a lot of growth and exposure opportunities for businesses through Interchange.
(Image property of Office Loving)
The Facilities
Interchange is way more than just an office: they have shower facilities, football tables, ping pong and a cafe, across a combined total of 84,000 sq foot space. There are panoramic views over London in addition to a four storey open plan Atrium making the buildings incredibly unique and inspiring workplace.
(Image property of Office Loving)
(Image property of Office Loving)
Why I chose Interchange – Tom Dixon as a Precedent for my FMP?
This is one of my favourite co-working spaces for design out of all of the co-working spaces that I have seen. The Tom Dixon Design Research Studio always produces elegant and sophisticated design, both with products and interiors, while taking every design element into consideration and delivering a wonderful result every time. In the interiors, furniture has carefully been selected to meet the “important requirements demanded of a contract chair: durability”. Every element of the design feels like a feature in itself. This space is almost the perfect precedent for the design of my co-working business and hospitality hub in the following ways:
Programme – The programme of Interchange is partly relevant to my design as Interchange is not just a work space with its informal and formal work spaces, it has other facilities including a cafe, leisure spaces and shower facilities as well as a range of relaxing break out spaces. Therefore, it is a multi use building. When designing my co-working business and hospitality hub, I want to allow for a multi use programme to include the work spaces, break out spaces, restaurant, bar, leisure etc.
Design – The overall design of Interchange is very modern, contemporary, elegant and sophisticated while still being vibrant and edgy. This is something that I would like to achieve in the design of my co-working business and hospitality hub.
Colour – The colour palette of Interchange is quite monochrome and a bit metallic in areas with very small accents of subdued colour. I am aiming for something quite monochrome and metallic within the design of my co-working business and hospitality hub, with possible very small accents of subdued colour.
Materials – The materials used within the design of Interchange have clearly been very carefully considered. From the classic Tom Dixon metals within things such as the light fittings in copper and polished chrome, to the leathers used on the comfortable seating, to the fabrics on the chairs, to the finish of the working surfaces and the wall surfaces, everything has been bought together to work together in complementing each element with the others. These all come together to look beautiful on the wooden floor. In the design of my co-working business and hospitality hub, this is what I would like to achieve with materials and this is the ideal precedent because I was already considering metals and metallic finishes and using some om Dixon light fittings. And also, I was planning on using leathers and fabrics that complement each other as well as elegant work surfaces and wooden flooring in some areas. I will look at different types of wood, leather, fabrics and metallic surfaces for my project.
Seating and Furniture – Interchange uses a mixture of different types of seating and furniture which gives people the opportunity to choose how and where they would like to work comfortably – relaxed informal or more formal. They also use a beautiful range of Tom Dixon chairs. I would really like to have different seating and furniture within the design of my co-working business and hospitality hub to allow users to choose whether they would like to work in a more formal or more informal space. Additionally, I really like the Tom Dixon Chairs – the Y Chair and the Wingback Chair. I have seen some of his work in another project within my precedents – Himitsu. I think these would combine really well with some Arne Jacobson chairs from Fritz Hansen and some comfortable office chairs.
More Information…
For more information on this project, please visit the links below:
https://www.tomdixon.net/story/post/camden-interchangce-co-working-office/
