Launching with London Design District at the Greenwich Peninsula this month, Bureau is the capital's newest workspace offering. Balanced between office architecture and members’ club, Bureau has landed to provide post-pandemic respite to the city’s tired creative workforce – a step away from both traditional office space and working-from-home set-ups, and a clearly defined concept that stands apart from co-working space peers.
With interiors designed by architect Roz Barr, this creative club is the latest evolution in its genre – a ‘hybrid third space’, combining the freedom and flexibility of home working, with the focused structure, support, and sociability provided by the office environment, its creators explain.
Barr’s ideas on what constitutes the perfect modern workspace were already in development, as the architect gathered notes from past, pre-pandemic projects, such as Selfridges’ creative studios. But with Bureau and the pandemic, everything sped up. The architect told us back in February, when we previewed Bureau’s space: ‘With Selfridges it wasn’t about fitting in desks for everyone, it was about creating a studio culture, pin-up areas, places for informal meetings, places you could take your laptop and work in peace. There were freelancers coming in and out, working on particular projects. All that experience fed into Bureau.’
The space is also conceived as an elegant, sophisticated environment that mixes pale tones and natural materials – bold colours exist but are refined and measured, while attention to detail and a craft led approach ensure quality of design. Both hotdesking and fixed desk options are available, placing flexibility at the heart of the concept. Meanwhile, measures are taken to ensure Covid safety and avoid overcrowding – this is, after all, a project developed almost in its entirety during a pandemic.
Bureau is set in an HNNA-designed building a few steps away from the North Greenwich station, and right in the heart of London’s newest, and vibrant, creative hub – the Design District, consisting of 16 buildings for work and play. The club is a key piece in the puzzle for the District, which promises to become a playground for creatives, offering opportunities to work, connect and cross-polinate.
‘We want Bureau to be the Design District in microcosm – somewhere that nurtures a diverse and dynamic creative community, giving freelancers a space to grow their businesses, connect across disciplines, build networks and advance their careers,’ says the Design District’s director Helen Arvanitakis.
Bureau hosts Design District Creates
In that spirit, and kicking open its doors to non-members too, Bureau is about to host a design-debate extravaganza: part of the inaugural Design District Creates series of events and curated by the District and Wallpaper’s very own contributing editor Nick Compton. Launching on 15 September and lasting for a month, there is no better excuse to visit this fast-evolving part of London.
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