Forget every workplace strategy you’ve ever come across – all that employees really want is to stay in bed all day. Let’s give them what they want… Casper HQ by New York-based Float Studio sure does – and we’re hugely jealous.
Imagine a workplace where you’re not only allowed, but encouraged to keep your butt in bed alllllllll day. U.S. mattress company Casper now occupy a new NYC headquarters where employees can have meetings or take naps on beds provided at the office. They are literally living the dream.
Designed by local firm Float Studio, the designers were charged with kitting out the new two-storey office space in New York’s famed Flatiron District. In a recent interview, Float noted how they, “drew a lot of inspiration from some of the line drawings used in the NY subway campaigns. We liked the tone-on-tone blues used in the illustrations and used that as a direction for the palette and materials.”
Studio partner Nina Etnier further explains that in their concept for Casper, they really wanted to incorporate the brand’s focus on sleep into the design, so used colours to make the main level resemble the morning and the upper floor suggest night.
This approach was accomplished in a number of ways. On entering the offices for example, the glossy purple desk and the blue-stained oak partition behind it are consistent with the pale palette on this level.
Being somewhat of legacy piece of architecture, Float needed to embrace the existing structure of the space. This was a particular challenge for the “Town Hall” area, which prior to the redesign had been a set of small rooms, which blocked natural light from reaching the larger section.
“The reception and town hall required the most reworking,” Etnier said. “We needed to open it up to provide enough space for the entire team to congregate as a whole.”
The designers saved resources elsewhere by exposing the ceilings and leaving much of the brickwork revealed. This also brightened the interior and contributed to the morning-like quality of the main floor.
But while preservation was one of the goals, designing for growth was another.
“A company’s culture that previously felt intimate can spiral out after the company experiences rapid growth,” said Etnier. “The Town Hall is a place to draw the increasingly divergent teams together.”
Two lounges along the external wall complete the Town Hall area. They open out onto the floor without interruption, allowing light from the windows to reach the rest of the office.
The studio placed the third blue volume within the main open workspace, behind a brick wall to the right of the reception. Inside, three beds offer places for employees to conduct informal meetings or catch up on their sleep.
The entire design is – quite literally – a dream land, and we would love to see the agile concept adopt this element of ‘rest’ and even ‘sleep’ into its repertoire.
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
Living Edge definitely has the edge when it comes to supplying furniture for the education sector. With a plethora of brands and collections at their fingertips, Living Edge provides the perfect solution for any learning environment.
The workplace has changed – and it will continue to evolve. With dynamism at the heart of clients’ requirements, architects and designers at leading practices such as Elenberg Fraser are using and recommending Herman Miller’s OE1 products for the future workplace.
Bidding farewell to mundane and uninspired office spaces, colour has transformed our workplaces into layered and engaging environments. So we sit down with Karina Simpson, Hot Black’s Workplace Lead, to talk about the influence colour has on the workspace landscape through the prism of Herman Miller’s progressive colour philosophy.
Reece Group’s new offices in Melbourne, aptly named The Works, carve out a very future-forward vision for working life. Take the tour with Indesign and Jan Henderson.
The idea that the only way is forward isn’t new but it feels particularly current when it comes to the evolution of the commercial workplace. Here, Bradhly Le takes stock of the significant transformation this typography has been going through – and points to adaptable design as one of the essential vehicles for this dynamic shift.
How does Domenic Alvaro oversee a project from start to finish? Timothy Alouani-Roby met with the Woods Bagot director and global design leader to find out why editors make the best architects and architects the best editors.
With a concept that is at once strikingly new and yet familiar, Lifesize Plans offers a different angle on design. Whether it’s in the process or finished product, projecting plans at real-life scale for people to walk through is an idea with potentially far-reaching consequences.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Functional and concise, the designs of Noom are an exercise in craft and artisanship. Composed of simple geometric shapes, each piece is made in the designers’ Ukraine workshop.
Announcing the 2023 Jury for Gaggenau’s Kitchen of the Year.
A Japanese restaurant experience like no other: Kelly Ross has delved into Japanese folklore to respond to the incredible cuisine of hatted chef Nobuyuki Ura.
From innovative architectural material solutions, to colourful works seeking solutions for the future, and playful metaphors for the issues of today. We deep dive into the creatives starting new conversations around sustainability.