In their most recent design competition, Bee Breeders partnered with Urban Zoo Coworking to seek a signature style for Urban Zoo’s coworking spaces. Viewed as a prototype to be adapted to each new venue, these interior designs needed to be customizable for various users. Common inhabitants of Urban Zoo Coworking’s spaces include freelancers, start-ups, and small businesses who need a workspace to meet their different creative needs.
Urban Zoo Coworking was looking for a design that differentiated itself from traditional offices and represented the creativity and collaboration taking place within their spaces. Jurors analyzed the versatility and adaptability of the entries as well as the quality of the coworking spaces and designers’ efforts to create a distinct and recognizable branded interior.
See below for the top three winners:
1st Prize Winner
The Menagerie by Studio Mas took home the top prize with their energetic, collaborative space. Marianne Ventre and Anthony Spennato designed a scheme that the jury described as “modern and coherent...eye catching, inviting, and incredibly stylised.” Jurors felt the project complemented the idea of an “urban zoo” and that the clear, understandable concept could be easily replicated in any type of space with the potential to become a signature interior brand.
2nd Prize Winner
Cornerstore’s Rachel Fay and Liv Green won second place for their project, WILD. Taking a “kit of parts” approach, the design allows users to customize their workspaces to accommodate either individual or collaborative work. This project, too, took inspiration from a zoo concept in its approach to different levels of enclosure and openness. WILD was selected as runner-up for the ingenuity of its highly-functional grid system and its potential to become a part of the Urban Zoo Coworking brand.
3rd Prize Winner
Third place in the competition went to Darya Khrenova, Ekaterina Zakharova, and Ilyas Belyaev of Apex Project Bureau. Their entry, called Habitat, is a more conventional, straightforward design that allows users a respite from hectic everyday life. Different zones, termed settlements, nests, and jungles, are constructed by arrangements of modular units. The jury appreciated this zoning system, as well as the selection of modular furniture and overall level of detail in the concept.
