Meet the KKT Architects Team: Coworking Space category winners with their innovative ‘The Archipelago’ submission.
Sarah Gould, Owner
Francis Wilmore, Director of Design
Shannon Darnell, Interior Design Lead
Kate Cofer, Business Engagement Lead
Jim Boulware, Principal
To celebrate their win, we asked the KKT team more about their work and the competition:
WDM: Since the pandemic what have you been up to / what are you working on?
KKT Architects: We’ve been working remotely and discovering new ways to interact and collaborate with our team and clients. Our team has been busy helping schools, non-profits, healthcare providers, and our corporate clients to quickly adapt to meet the current challenges, while simultaneously taking this opportunity to update their spaces for the future.
WDM: What did you enjoy most about the competition process?
KKT Architects: The creative process without restraints. It’s easy to let the realities of a budget or a client’s program lead to a design solution. This competition gave us an opportunity to reverse our thinking by starting through the lens of exploring whatever fun and absurd ideas we came up with before working back towards addressing the technical details of how the concept could actually work to meet the challenges we are facing.
WDM: It’s been a little while since you submitted, how have your ideas evolved since you submitted them?
KKT Architects: When we submitted the idea, it felt a bit far-fetched to think about a vacation or working from the beach while we all sat in lock-down. As restrictions have eased and we’ve increasingly seen how well people are able to work remote, our design continues to move from fanciful to believable. In the short-term, we have started to think more and more about the design of exterior spaces within our current projects. As we look toward the future, we look to answer the question of, “if we can all work from, why would we go into the office?”. How many people would have thought of their office as a “retreat” before the pandemic? Now, there are many of us that would love to be able to use our workspace as an escape for a little while. We truly think there will be a further blurring of the line between work and leisure space that will define the next generation of workspace design.
Check out their full submission:
The Archipelago is a series of private islands for cooperative outdoor working housed under and easily constructed cabana. Coworkers doff their business attire and are sanitized before entering the island chain. The concept’s plan is laid out with three island rings of workspaces that are sized based on the idea of a 6′ social distance bubble. The islands are designed to accommodate furniture that is specifically designed to arrange coworkers at proper 6’ increments. The islands range in size to accommodate two to six people and are physically separated by canals in lieu of the typical distancing stickers placed on a floor. The islands can either be used as an open office space or personal controls allow spaces to be subdivided using water curtains. The water curtains can also be used to subdivide a chain of islands for larger events. The design meets both the immediate challenge for safe coworking space, while also remaining a functional, attractive space for future remote workers.
Click on an image to see it full size.
Comments from the jury:
This is brilliant. I love outdoor meetings! I can understand exactly what they’re going for and I think this is right on the money. I wish I had outdoor space in my global portfolio to build outdoor meeting rooms. This is amazing!
I really like the fact that it’s got a mix of indoor/outdoor space but it has all of the safety aspects. I love the water curtains that contain or create the space. There’s ways for people to interact, you come in and you’re basically sanitized coming into the space and once you are in there, you’re kind of in this own self-contained environment with the meeting spaces.
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