Clockwise Bremen, a co-working space for real estate investor Castelforge, is the first office of its kind to open in the historic Hanseatic city, a major cultural and economic hub of Northern Germany.
It is also a first for its authors, Soda – marking the London-based studio's inaugural scheme to be completed in the country. Founded by Russell Potter and Laura Sanjuan in 2022, Soda works across architecture, interiors, graphic design and branding, with projects ranging from the first permanent outlet for Chai Guys Bakehouse in Portobello Road, London, to the transformation of a former office block in Liverpool into 120 apartments.
Clockwise Bremen: inspired by its location
A warm and welcoming communal workspace for the city’s creatives and start-ups, Soda’s design takes its cues from Bremen’s location, on a sand dune on the River Weser. This unique geology inspired the workspace’s reception and café, with a desk and bar featuring layers of hand-applied plaster, and matching walls in corrugated plaster.
‘Our concept draws on the rich history of the surrounding agricultural land of Bremen and the River Weser,' explains Ryan Holland, director at Soda. ‘The reception desk and bar lounge encapsulate this through soft, curved forms made of natural clay plaster, providing an organic and grounded touchpoint for users as a natural gathering point.’
Natural textiles, house plants and colourful artwork add homely touches to the space, which features a ground-floor club area with banquette seating and booths, a coffee spot, and high chairs for quick and informal working.
‘Creating workspaces for multiple smaller companies allows us to weave our design concept more evenly across the whole building, as there is no need to provide a generic space for a large anchor tenant,’ he continues. ‘We enjoyed using natural materials to engender warmth and personality, encouraging tenants away from the home office and into a more sociable environment.’
A key element of this project was adapting the 1980s building to its new use. ‘Working with existing buildings naturally has its challenges when uncovering the bones of the structure, but in this instance, it was the existing circulation that presented the main difficulty,’ says Holland. ‘We introduced a new “meandering” staircase to provide a clear, intuitive route through the floor plates, unifying the communal and tenant spaces and successfully bringing users together to encourage interaction and collaboration.’
The hung steel staircases leads to a variety of different types of workspaces and private areas, arranged in a staggered circular formation around the central core – a shape ‘allowing for push-pull moments to stop and pause that are punctuated with different types of furniture,’ say the architects, who have also stripped back to the precast concrete frame and left it exposed.
Building on the success of Clockwork Bremen, Soda is now working on another project with the same team, in an art deco-inspired tower in the centre of Brussels, and the architects are also looking forward to the opening of MYO King’s Cross this summer. ‘It's a scheme we have been working on for almost three years, featuring a mix of serviced offices, communal amenities, and a dedicated events space in a unique heritage site, which will be great to see in operation,’ concludes Holland.
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