Ideal Live/Work Space: Fuzzco
This week we ask Helen Rice and Josh Nissenboim, founders of digital agency Fuzzco to come up with their perfect live/work space. Their current one in Charleston, SC is pretty cool (above and below) so I was interested to see what these two would come up with. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Our ideal office would be located in the heart of San Charlestoniscork, an imaginary combination of our three favorite cities. It would exist in an area both accessible to the surrounding city but also have ways to remain intensely private and secluded.
We imagine an open format environment where spaces defy simple definitions. A lounge may be a workspace, a workspace may be the kitchen, with transitions allowing a change of environment for a shift in mood or to find a different perspective – mixing the feeling of home with work.
Above: HUB offices in Madrid.
We like natural materials, straight lines, hard angles and textures to accompany a more spare, minimal space. There is always room for antique and found objects to set off old from new. Here are some places that are inspiring to us:
Below, the HUB Offices in Madrid are a huge inspiration. We love the raw, open feel of the space.
We love textures. The cracking plaster juxtaposed with the smooth white ceiling gives the room so much character and interest. Concentrated groupings of things give an otherwise sterile room a place of warmth and vitality.
Every little detail matters. These door handles by Valentin Garal are so beautiful.
The Storefront for Art and Architecture (below) is incredible. It’s like an egg- the shell is this clean, neutral facade and there are cracks that pivot to reveal the very colorful, textural interior- like the yolk of an egg. Surprises like this are so playful and unexpected. We love things like hidden doors, rooms and anything that represents exploration or discovery.
Sometimes organized clutter is necessary to promote creativity- you might see something that jogs a memory or makes you think about something else differently. Well curated wall displays can do a lot for a spare space- giving the room interest while not mucking up the living/working space.
It would be amazing to have several different rooms with completely different feels to help people develop concepts- some rooms could be light and airy and others rich and dark- maybe some rooms are completely conceptual- like a tree house, enormous couch fort, room that exists underwater, or a rooftop with expansive views…
We love the chalkboards in Makr’s space. They compliment the handmade nature of their business.
This stairway represents the perfect transition from a naturally lit space to something darker and warmly lit. We’d need a large meeting area where people can quickly brainstorm, create and build off of each other’s ideas. Whatever happens in the space needs to be easily accessible and not complicated to maintain. The space would ideally be naturally lit. Any artificial lighting would give off a warm glow – radio bulbs or edison bulbs are great for this purpose. We love the concept of room within a room like you find in the VCU Brand Center in Richmond, VA.
We are really inspired by The High Line project. We love the sculpted walk ways, juxtaposition of natural and built environments and especially how they made use of the old rail with the lounge chairs on tracks. So cool.
This is a great example of a transitional indoor/outdoor space. We’d love to develop something that feels like a fort- something you may have imagined when you were a kid but better.
Incorporating life into a space is important. We would have an edible garden that was on a drip irrigation timer. A water feature with fish and turtles. Our fantasy space would have friendly animals ranging from wild to domestic. Chickens for daily fresh eggs. Bears to hang out with. Cheetahs to race. Monkeys to compare thumbs to. We are only partially joking. And we love to make up games. Something like these colorful posts could be the basis of a myriad of games or places to hang out.
We imagine making sand castles and climbing trees here. We love the feel of outdoor rooms.
The workspace would be huge and multifaceted with everything we need to work happily and functionally including a full kitchen, shower, a room where people can escape to stretch or rest or read and other obvious necessities like private bathrooms, dining areas, lounge areas, etc. It would also include a shop where we could make things: tools for working with wood, foam, cloth and more.
The clean, airy feel of the office below is so refreshing. The rooms feel like a blank canvas. Nothing distracting to inhibit one’s process. The red stools are a strong statement in an otherwise neutral space and provide such nice energy. Natural, somewhat masculine materials with hard edges paired with round furniture shapes and pops of color provide nice compliments to each other.
We’d love to be able to easily transform a room to make it bigger or smaller, to bring in more or less light or to make it more public or private – moveable walls, large sliding doors and similar elements would work well.
At the end of the day we need to be highly organized which means we need lots of storage space. The more we integrate storage in necessary structural elements the better to save space. All told, we love our current space. We were able to incorporate a lot of elements described here like warm, natural materials, a variety of textures, a combination of natural and warm lighting, hidden doors, full kitchen and an outdoor patio. See photos here.
Very inspiring collection of concepts and images! Thanks for sharing.