Judging from surveys and polls, some degree of flexibility is here to stay, creating opportunities for both businesses and not-for-profits like Îlots d’été to cater to people when they’re not working from the office.

A few stats on the state of WFH:

In Australia,  61% of polled working professionals in a Hays survey believed a hybrid working model was the most productive, and 47% of employers were open to retaining WFH as part of their workplace mix (source: Financial Review).

A recent analysis by the UK’s Office for National Statistics reported that of those who are currently homeworking, 85% wanted to use a hybrid approach in future. “When asked about homeworking, working adults stated work-life balance was the greatest positive, while challenges of collaboration were the greatest negative.” Meanwhile, as reported by the Guardian, the UK government is considering legislation that would give employees the right to work from home.

In the US, Conference Board surveyed HR managers and found: “79% of the mostly large businesses say 10% or more of their employees will be able to work remotely at least three days a week a year after the pandemic subsides. That compares with 26% of firms that permitted staffers to primarily work from home before the health crisis” (source: USA Today).

Thank you for reading!

With a hybrid working model coming into effect for the majority of businesses, people are returning, albeit less than 5 days a week, to the office. Naturally, employers are looking at ways to transform their environments to suit new demands.

Research tells us that the newly evolved workplace will see a 22% decrease in individual workstations in favour of social spaces and areas designed for collaboration and group learning. (knoll)

Despite mixed reviews on the success of at home workstations and the stresses of juggling family commitments, most employees are keen to retain the option to work from home for at least some of the week. So, what does that split look like and how will it affect the design of our office spaces?

At the start of the pandemic many saw flourishing productivity results and began questioning the role of the office at all. If we can do everything the same or better in our own environment, then why retain costly offices with workstations of a past economic landscape?

In early 2020, the working world as we know it seemingly changed overnight when the global Covid-19 pandemic forced daily life into lockdown.
This meant the majority of workers swapped their bustling office environment for a home workstation, or in some cases, a kitchen table.

After a tumultuous 18 months, the novelty of working from home and what quickly became ‘the new normal’ has worn off and people are looking at planning what, or where, is next.

Initial excitement and freedom from the commute have been replaced with loneliness and the battling of distractions at home. With restrictions lifting and the number of fully vaccinated people rapidly increasing businesses are looking at what the future of the office space holds and how they can adapt to a very different working landscape.

The Creative Retail Awards recognise and reward excellence in retail.

The awards are judged by a panel of industry experts and leaders. Entries span a number of disciplines, including store design, Visual Merchandising, inspired technology, Omni-channel innovations, bar and restaurant design, shopfitting and much more.

Winners will be announced on the 14th October 2021.⁠⁠

You can check out the shortlisting here

At the time of writing the Beacon project with The Bristol Loaf has been publicised by 9 leading industry media outlets.

The bakery and café operator is expanding once more with the opening of a third venue in the city of Bristol.

The new indoor and outdoor ground-floor offer, with over 100 covers in total, will serve day-to-night fare and will also boast a new, specialist wine bar by sister brand Native Vine.

We’ve provided links to some of the coverage below which covers project information:

• Archilovers

• Archello

• Interior Contracting & Design Spec

• Design Insider

• Premier Construction

 

Lower-Impact Localism

Smart brands from tech to fashion are focusing on store designs using local materials (including biomaterials and newly certified for construction) and craftsmanship that lower their carbon footprint, alongside communicating a more region-specific identity. The strategy chimes with the pandemic-spurred renaissance affection for locality, promising extra traction.

Local waste gets a luxury treatment by Bally. Bally Haus features bespoke visual merchandising and display pieces including footwear rises, bookends and fixtures repurposed from local plastic waste (high-density polyethylene and polypropylene plastic, found in bottles or packaging).

 

Radical Reuse: No-Waste Spaces

Progressive retailers are fuelling their circularity mission by rethinking their formats via innovative recycled or repurposed materials. Key examples include fashion offcuts in furnishings, carbon-emission-extracting tiles, energy-sealing architectural ‘envelopes’, and turning overlooked organic waste (think egg and tamarind shell) into fixtures.

Nike Gives Products a Spatial Second Life: Nike’s Innovation House flagship in Paris uses Nike Grind – a material made from its Reuse-A-Shoe programme, where footwear from any brand can be donated and transformed into new materials (bolstered by surplus manufacturing materials) – in the store’s walls and floors. Over 85,000kg of sustainable materials feature in the design and display fixtures, while a partnership with Spanish multinational electric utility company Iberdrola means it’s partly fuelled by a clean energy wind complex in Spain.

 

Eco-Activating the Flagship Façade

Store façades are becoming powerful agents of change, capable of actively redressing environmental damage. Innovative surface treatments such as CO2-absorbent panels and green exterior living walls that can tackle urban overheating are prime examples, with eco-tech pioneers including German climate-focused materials science start-up Made of Air driving the charge.

Comfort Hotel Solna Provides Hospitality Industry Learnings: Billed as Scandinavia’s first zero-energy (self-sufficient) hotel is the 11-storey Comfort Hotel Solna on the outskirts of Stockholm uses recycled aluminium façades from repurposed building systems by Norwegian sustainable industrial/building systems company Hydro and features 2500 sq. m of solar panels on the roof. Boasting the most solar cells in the world for a hotel in relation to its size, its architects, Swedish practice White Arkitekter say it “provides enough electricity for an electric car to drive more than 40 laps around the earth.”

 

360° Superstore Super-Innovators

A new wave of supersized formats (supermarkets, shopping malls) are promoting eco-positive change by becoming eco-destinations in their own right, weaving their sustainability credentials into a wide range of retail, operational and service-based touchpoints. Lidl’s Zero store in Holland and Ikea’s forthcoming Copenhagen flagship are particularly noteworthy.

Green Pea, The Pack-Away Retail Park: Turin’s eco-friendly Green Pea shopping mall (opened in 2020) has been built only with recyclable materials such as steel, iron and glass, and can be completely dismantled. The 10,500 sq m building is coated with Airlite paint, which reduces air pollution by 88% and kills 99.9% of bacteria.

Additionally, over 87% of its hot water is generated by a geothermal plant, and more than 88% of its thermic energy and almost 90% of the electric energy it uses for lighting comes from renewable photovoltaic sources.

 

Thank you for reading!

 

Cleverly Eco-Conscious

Manufacturers are enticing sustainability-minded pet owners with products crafted from natural materials in neutral tones – a firm move away from the brightly coloured plastics that long prevailed in the pet market.

 

Ban the Boring

Spearheaded by start-ups and independent makers, a fresh expressive mood is on the rise, catering to a new generation of pet owners. Whether products are inspired by art or simply intended for LOLs, they certainly stand out on social media feeds.

 

Active Animal Lifestyles

Pets have become humanised family members who increasingly live similar on-the-go lifestyles to their owners. Products that streamline travel and outdoor pursuits for globetrotting and intrepid pet parents continue to flourish – even during these Covid times.

 

Supporting Healthy & Happy Pets

With wellbeing and health firmly at the forefront of consumers’ minds, pet products are following suit. Savvy brands draw inspiration from the wider wellness market and highlight hygiene, comfort and relaxation as key areas for pet owners to address.

 

Elevating Interiors Appeal

Increased time spent indoors has forced consumers to re-evaluate the look of their pet products and seek out pieces that are a joy to live with. Designs draw cues from wider fashion and interior trends to better fit into the home.

This was followed by an interview with Chris Gwyther, who explains why adaptability and collaboration are key components of our studio’s work.

Read Chris’ interview below.

 

What is Phoenix Wharf, and what is your role within it?

Phoenix Wharf is a Bristol-based design agency specialising in interiors and branding for hospitality and retail. Our studio is an amalgamation of hospitality, retail, brand and exhibition design specialists – a breadth of expertise that gives us a competitive edge, enabling us to adapt design efficiencies from each industry. I am founder and creative director, and I oversee both the studio and all creative output.

We have a wide range of clients, from start-ups to established heritage brands. While we work with national brands and institutions such as SpaceNK or the National Trust, we also love to work with south-west businesses, or to take a local business to a national stage, as with our award-winning London cafe and workspace for Somerset dairy brand Yeo Valley.

 

How does the collaborative process with the client work on a project like the Bristol Loaf? How does the scope of your involvement vary from one project to another?

We see our job as interpreting and translating our client’s vision. Sometimes that vision needs questioning and refinement, and sometimes clients come to us with total clarity from the outset, as was the case with the Bristol Loaf.

We always start by meeting clients on-site and getting a real understanding of a space, the client and end-user needs. We then go through a series of spatial and sketch explorations to stress-test the brief and throw new ideas into the mix. Once we have an overarching concept, we undertake an iterative design process, engaging with clients little and often to make sure the final project is visually beautiful and commercially and operationally viable.

Our approach can be as varied as our clients. From a 3D perspective, this could be spatial exploration, 3D modelling and visualisation or detail design drawings. While on the brand side, this could include discovery workshops, brand identity creation or brand evolution and guidelines.

Bristol has a reputation as a highly creative and vibrant city. How much of a bearing does it have on the work you do?

Yes, having Bristol as a location definitely influences our work and approach. The city has a really vibrant creative scene with lots of like-minded individuals and a less frantic pace of life than other major cities. It’s both energetic and chilled out, which is a great combination, and it’s also a very sociable, outgoing city. Its diversity and reputation attracts a high calibre of creative, and we definitely benefit from that. The architecture and culture are also really interesting. There are many different lives and inspiring scenes here, from music to food to street art. It’s a dynamic and ever-changing canvas.

 

Rewinding the clock to before the pandemic, how was the bar and restaurant sector shaping up? What were the key directions and priorities for some of the projects you were working on?

Pre-pandemic, the hospitality sector was largely in two camps, with either larger chains expanding and creating high street monotony or independent eateries busy creating Instagrammable experiences.

We were often asked to create something a bit different and find the sweet spot between community and localisation on the one hand, and multifunctional spaces that could adapt and maximise their real estate value on the other. Client priorities were mainly to do with format exploration – making sure they didn’t have either too much space or too few customers.

 

Since then, how has the pandemic affected spaces like this in the short/medium term while restrictions are in place? And in the longer term, how do you feel your work has changed both technically and creatively – for example, in terms of planning and ‘new’ design best practice?

It’s hard to answer that with any certitude beyond the immediate era of social distancing, as the industry is still very much finding its feet again. Outside spaces have certainly become a key part of any offer, and kitchens have got used to innovating when it comes to takeaway and delivery – even at the highest end. How customers will feel and behave once things start to open up further is still unknown, but there will certainly be an appetite in more ways than one for hospitality and its ‘good times’ promises after so much social isolation.

We consider one of our key strengths to be flexible spatial planning, and the need for this will become an ever-greater priority in our clients’ minds. We are more conscious than ever, too, of materials and substrates and their values beyond aesthetics versus cost. Sustainability, ethical waste procedures and built-in antibacterial and antiviral attributes are really broadening the materials picture, which is great. The new parameters and challenges bring creative design back to the fore and that’s always good news.

 

Thank you for reading!