From the Tropics to Winter Wonderlands: Second Home is redefining the workplace

2018-01-23T14:29:00-05:00

“We always want people to think ‘What’s that?’ and be drawn inside our buildings,” says Rohan Silva, the 37-year-old co-founder of Second Home, provider of “unique workspaces and cultural venues for entrepreneurs and innovators”. The company opened its first space in Spitalfields, east London, in 2014 and now boasts users ranging from tiny tech startups to the likes of Volkswagen and auditing giant KPMG.

A winter wonderland, a tropic landscape, a colorful explosion of swirling surfaces and walls of color enveloping even the smallest of spaces— one could say that I was describing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's film sets and yet, this could become the description of the modern day office environment if Second Home, a provider of “unique workspaces and cultural venues for entrepreneurs and innovators,” has its way.

Second Home, Holland Park. Photograph: Iwan Baan

One of Second Home's most potent and provocative concepts is how they produce an atmosphere of collaboration within their spaces. While one would normally associate co-working office spaces with tech companies and internet startups, Second Home has controlled and influenced the sectors that are allowed to inhabit its spaces. As clarified by Second Home “If we just let the market ride, Second Home would be full of tech companies, but we’ve only allowed 10%. The services essential for startups, like lawyers, accountants and...

Curatorial team announced for the British Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale

2015-10-23T04:19:00-04:00

The British Council announced today the winning proposal for the British Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennial of Architecture: Home Economics, a project authored by the architecture writers Shumi Bose and Jack Self alongside the architect and planner Finn Williams.

According to the curatorial team, Home Economics will address "the frontline of British architecture: the family home." The team plans to divide the British Pavilion into a series of 1:1 immersive domestic spaces, designed by a "multidisciplinary team of architects, artist, designers and developers."

In their proposal, the team writes, "The exhibition will ask urgent questions about the future of housing. Social and technological changes are collapsing the patterns of domestic life - but the design of the home hasn't caught up. Can the house ever escape its economic status as an asset? Should our homes still be considered private spaces? How do new types of families and households produce new spatial needs? What are the m...

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From the Tropics to Winter Wonderlands: Second Home is redefining the workplace

Curatorial team announced for the British Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale