NewZealand architectural firm Studio106 has recently reduced its urban95-m2 (1,022-ft2) office space to a tiny 9 m2 (97 ft2) workingmobile unit. With help from local business Retro Events,Studio106's director Dion Gosling and interior designer KerriCunliffe converted a retro caravan into a mobile office space,complete with cardboard desks and portable furniture.
Theidea to create a mobile office space on wheels came to the team ofarchitects and designers after enjoying a long Southern Hemispheresummer and the need to make a decision on their upcoming office rentalreview. The portable office concept enables the team to not only enjoy theoutdoors for longer, but also travel and work directly on differentproject sites.
Gizmagrecently got the chance to interview Studio106's director Dion Gosling and interior designer Kerri Cunliffe about their "Gone Mobile" experience. Here's what they hadto say:
"Thecaravan just sort of came along as a solution to how we could getmobile and 'chase' the good weather around and explore the concept ofa mobile office. Simply relocating to asmaller space by the sea side just wasn't as appealing as somethingon wheels – it really spoke to the exploration and freedom of summerroad trips that we had all just enjoyed over the break. The caravanfelt like an extension of the summer holiday whilst sneaking workinto the mix. The inside was 9 m2, which was a significant reductionfrom our 95-m2 office in the city. But it didn't feel that smalldue to the ability to open up one side of the caravan and extend theoffice out."
Working alongside localbusinesses, Studio106 managed to keep its costs to a minimum, all thewhile completing the conversion in approximately seven days. The finalresult was a clean and fresh mobile office complete with aretractable wall, cardboard desks, outdoorfurniture, computers and essential office equipment.
"The bones of thecaravan were great so this made the task a little easier," the team says. "We employed the age old architecturemotto 'less is more' and stripped the interior back, introducing aninterior ceiling feature, soft furnishings and crucial officeequipment. It was a great opportunity to review what we really needto work effectively – desk, chairs and computer were obvious, butbooks, our library, printers and other items were reduced."
The overall layout anddesign of the mobile office included a couple of "break-out"zones. The first is the inclusion of a flexible stand-up desk,offering the possibility to work or have meetings outdoors or in theshade of a nearby tree. The second zone is made up of a smallwhiteboard table and a few stools, allowing for a more permanentoutdoor working zone, ideal for larger meetings, lunches orgatherings. Bringing some of thecreativity from its previous office, the caravan includes a uniqueand handmade paper ceiling installation.
"Our favorite featureis the ceiling feature. We hadpreviously created an installation for the wall of our studio. Forthis we collected a weeks worth of dis-used paper and scrunched it upto form a bit of feature. We repeated this process for the ceiling ofthe caravan. The result turned out great – it was lightweight, funand creative. The effect gave us a more refined color pallet and afeature to brighten the interior."
Overall weight,mobility and security were the biggest concerns for the studio, as itwas necessary to keep the office and all its equipment in a securelocation overnight. Therefore the team decided to outfit thecaravan with lightweight and portable furniture, allowing them toeasily pack down and tow the caravan to a secure location after workeach night.
"Everything thatwent into the caravan went through a bit of a screening process. Our desks in the office, althoughlovely, were far too heavy to tow and set up each day. We insteadpartnered with Refold, who have developed these fantastic cardboarddesks which solved so many of our problems we had come up against.They were light and flexible – we could take them outside during theday, move them around and then pack them down at the end of eachday."
While the Studio106team may have left behind many luxuries of its previous large urbanoffice space, the new tiny mobile space meant they could noweasily work on site and directly with their clients.
"Being on thesite opened up new insight into the site. We ended up chatting tolots of local users and gained real learnings into what they enjoyedabout the site or what they wanted to see change."
"Small spaces area great challenge and we love this" add Gosling and Cunliffe."We work on many 70s town house alternations, which are smallspaces on often tight sites. As we did with the caravan we seek tosolve challenges that are associated with small, tight spaces withpoetic solutions. Solutions that go beyond meeting functionalrequirements and add a touch of fun or beauty to them. We think thereis often a danger that people fall into when renovation or designinga small space, in that they provide a functional solution. With thecaravan we wanted to tick off all the functional requirements whilstalso creating a fun and enjoyable atmosphere."
The "Gone Mobile"office experience has given Studio106 great insight into what itmeans to live and work in small spaces and the added bonus of beingable to engage with the local community andbusinesses. The architectural studio plans to continue itsexploration and development of small, creative and mobile conepts,including participating in Auckland's PARK{ing} day later thisyear.
Source: Studio106 Architects
