Trends involving remote workspaces have heightened since 2020. While businesses worldwide learned to adjust and create remote working spaces that work best for them, architectural designer and graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, Agnieszka Białek, proposes a workspace alternative that may invite polarizing responses. Her project, Enclaves on Vistula River, was influenced by the altered work environments due to Covid-19 and the transition to remote work.
Commenting on the potential for home remote workplace fatigue, Białek explains on her project website the proposed concept "becomes a comfortable place for online meetings or relaxing in the new reality of reduced touch. The design provides protection of personal space and privacy for potential users. In times of social distancing, the workspace "creates a unique comfort zone and sense of security." She claims each remote work module can be booked hourly for use during the day and night. Due to its floating nature, users need to use a kayak to transport themselves to each space. This method "maintains the ecological dimension of the project," explains Białek.
While this project is merely a conceptual idea to present a creative way to approach remote work, more and more design practices are exploring remote office designs. Her project's influence stemmed from water bubbles, floating water lilies, and their root systems. However, this work environment isn't for everyone. Accessibility issues pose a problem. Another is the transition from kayak to the floating modular structure. Anyone who has been on a kayak or attempted to ride a kayak understands that mounting and dismounting is not always a simple task. Then there's the task of transporting laptops and other electrical devices across the water. I gather this project isn't intended to be a perfect solution. Yet, at the end of the day, the project is an intriguing attempt to make the possibilities of remote workspaces exciting.
17 Comments
Hello, May I kindly ask you to change: Our Monolight Studio CEO: Agnieszka Białek (not Miałek). Thank you
Apologies for the misspelling! It's fixed now.
Thank you ! And also I was a first redactor. Could you write something about it :) ?
Hi there, I've updated the cover image credit to include your role as project redactor in the description.
How could anyone possibly work in a remote, floating workspace?
what places can't work expand into and totally corrupt our last places of leisure and rest?
Need room to social distance
Should we have the conversation about how we all shit and piss now or later?
Just squat in the water like you're a kiddo at the beach.
A good hurricane would blow that stuff from the Gulf Coast to Oklahoma.
Oh FFS. I'm pretty sure boats exist already. I need a break.
"the highest concentration of miserable pissed off architects are on the Archinect forum."
no. it's important to critique bad ideas when you see them. this is just another example of architecture using an in-vogue topic, without critically engaging it on other social or political levels, in order to push aesthetic/form-based "ideas." this isn't to single anyone out though- it's incredibly common.
Why is it so bad, because it floats or the round corners? This works on social and political levels because of its context in my opinion. The idea to use the river is just smart, can be hard to find space to do this in old monumental Krakow, so why not use the river?
I had a nightmare once, about my teeth falling out and floating away in a river.
In your dream, were you trying to floss out a number of tiny young professionals when the teeth came loose?
^ I agree with both randomized and square.
I argue to my skeptical, sometimes dismissive planner friends that a crucial function of architects is to dream dreams and see visions-- to envision all kinds of possibilities. Many will range from untenable to downright ridiculous, and that's fine. Because sometimes one of the many concepts churned out will be good and helpful wheat among all the silly chaff that gets generated. Even the duds can spur other ideas and useful debate.
Now this doesn't exempt concepts from scrutiny and comment. That's part two of the process and, as we know, often draws the daggers of snark from some. So be it.
And as often is the case on the Forum, my critique is more about the uncritical, PR-sensibility of the posting than the work itself. That headline just begs for "yes, they're called boats" memes.
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