STORIES
Design it yourself – DIY @ Niche this November
There’s certainly no shortage of reasons to visit or work at ICD Brookfield Place, from the sweeping summer garden and exclusive member’s club to the plethora of shops and fine dining restaurants in the immediate vicinity. But one of the best reasons of all is Niche.
Niche is the vibrant cultural hub of our building; a community space for young professionals, entrepreneurs and creatives alike to work, socialise and connect. We believe strongly that the success of an office space lies in its ability to foster a strong sense of community, and Niche helps us achieve exactly that at ICD Brookfield Place. The hybrid work environment – designed by Roar Studio – has been carefully designed to encourage and embrace collaboration, while the endlessly customisable space makes it ideal for everything from motivational talks to yoga sessions.
Pallavi Dean, founder and creative director of Roar, elaborates: “We created a flexible space that could morph to suit the activity, easily converting from a co-working space with shared long tables to individual work on stand-up desks, from a closed meeting room to a group collaboration. But as soon as you clear away the tables, you have an open space for a meditation class, yoga workshop or social activity – promoting wellness was a key part of the brief. And to accommodate talks and presentations, we designed a fold-out amphitheatre where people can watch and learn.”
To make the most of this incredible space, every month we use Niche to host workshops and events centered around a different theme. In October we focused on all things mental health, featuring everything from wellness talks for Mental Health Awareness Day to relaxing sound therapy sessions.
This month, we’re going in a slightly different direction and celebrating all things design and craft...and we’re calling it DIY @ Niche.
With DIY @ Niche, we want to inspire the ICDBP community to unleash their inner creative spirit. That might mean brushing up on your art skills, taking a design-led approach to a work project, or learning a new craft entirely. How you choose to embrace DIY @ Niche is up to you, but with a range of design-led events throughout November that shine a light on local creative businesses and practitioners, it’s safe to say you won’t be short of inspiration.
Here are some of the highlights to look forward to…
Woods Bagot: Lessons from the Workplace Future – Monday November 8th @ 6-7pm
Global architecture studio Woods Bagot joins us to present their vision of the new normal, where workplaces play a more active role in the local community and work harder than ever to enhance the employee experience. There’s also sure to be invaluable insights from the firm’s own lived experiences in helping businesses transition back to the workplace following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jaffat El Aqlam 8 Fold Zine Workshop – Tuesday 9th November @ 6.30 - 8pm
Interested in the world of zines? This is the workshop for you. As well as an introduction to the vast, sprawling world of zines, participants are encouraged to bring old books, magazines, journal entries and anything else that might help to design a great-looking zine that you can take home at the end of the night!
Fun Robotics 3D Printing & Modeling Workshop – Tuesday 16th November @ 6 - 8pm
With so much yet-to-be-discovered potential in the world of 3D printing, now’s the perfect time to learn about it first-hand. Participants to this workshop will get to grips with the famous Fusion 360 design software by Autodesk, explore all the features it has to offer and learn to design a specific 3D model that can be printed on-site. Who knows what you might create?
Sense Studio: Art For All Workshop – Monday 22nd November @ 6 - 7pm
London-based architects Sense Studio join us for a workshop split into three parts: Art as Chaos, Art as Culture and Art as Catharsis. Each part will explore the myriad ways in which art can encourage conversation, debate and expression, and will help us understand how imagination and creativity can be a vehicle for joy. For those interested in the more philosophical side of art, this one is not to be missed.
Of course that isn’t everything on offer – you can head to our Niche page to see the full listing of events we’ve got planned, and throughout the whole of November we’ll be living and breathing the DIY @ Niche mindset here at ICD Brookfield Place.
Whether it’s through art, design, music or crafts, we can’t wait to see our community get creative – and who knows, it might just lead to your next big idea...
