Elementary geometry

The task of designing Bureau, in the Design District of Greenwich in south-east London, challenged the architect Roz Barr with a succession of uncertainties. The least of these problems could be put down to the constantly changing groups of freelancers, start-ups and young entrepreneurs in the creative industries for whom the Bureau workspaces had to be created. A substantial degree of flexibility was needed all the same, with a supple organization and outfitting of microstudios, meeting rooms, soundproof video conference suites and lounges, as well as hot-desking facilities which could be rented out long as needed. Bureau – such was the resolve of Barr and the Design District director, Helen Arvanitakis – would testify to a vision of the office of the future, and would cope with the varied configurations of people working in an office.

A more serious complication was due to two separate buildings sharing the same name, Bureau. They constituted the core of the Design District but they were not yet built when the assignment was issued and they existed only on paper. The physical and spatial manifestation of the two buildings could only be guessed at. As for interior design, it presented a shaky basis for a fruitful dialogue. Not only did Bureau not exist yet, but the whole Design District was in the throes of development.

Barr’s answer to all those ambiguities is as elementary as it is effective. If you have nothing but uncertainties to deal with, what could you do better than create a world entirely of your own? Only a personal universe, sustained by a personal language, can survive if everything is vague and changeable. Together with her autonomous architectural language, Barr proved capable of bringing about an immediate unity between the two buildings. One of them, designed by the architects HNNA, has a frivolous, undulating façade, while the other, designed by Architecture 00, is hard and angular. But once you walk around them, it will be obvious that the buildings belong together like brother and sister, thanks to Barr’s vision. Apart from the distinct colour schemes conceived for the different interiors, what you encounter in one building is no different from the other.

As to the interior design, furniture and detailing, Barr bases her choices on a few principles that constitute both the vocabulary and grammar of her architectural language. The simple geometry of the circle and the square provides a consummate answer to mutability and uncertainty, as it were, as well as being an effective eye-catcher. The circle and square motifs bob up everywhere, in the abundantly long curtains for enclosing workplaces, in the niches that offer space for a bench or a drinking fountain, in the armatures of her self-designed lamps, in the selection of seats, armchairs and side tables, in the signage, and in the large blocks of colour painted on the raw concrete of the wall and ceiling. And it works perfectly: without overassertion, the elementary geometry manifests itself in each of the buildings as a calm, dependable companion.

It may not be immediately obvious, but Barr utilizes inexpensive prefab building materials for the furnishing of Bureau. With galvanized steel profiles, perforated metal plates and corrugated fibreglass/cement panels, she has provided all floor levels with modular walls that facilitate flexible partitions between office rooms.

Surprisingly, these features leave no impression of any kind of arte povera, of flaunting with frugality. On the contrary, they are all excellently proportioned, precisely constructed and devised in full detail, coming across as sophisticated rather than cheap. A specific quality lies in Barr’s architectural approach. With a study of fine arts in her background, she has a passion for materials and how people can make things with them.