IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 32

One of the newest collaborative workspaces in the Bay Area
has all the bells and whistles you'd expect of a white-hot
startup. It's a 37,000 square foot, 24/7 facility that's part
co-working office, part demo space and part tech wonder. With
3,000 feet of pop-up activation space, it's ideal for millennial
draws like fashion shows and hackathons. Touch screens are
everywhere, and an impressive 30-foot digital wall broadcasts
everything from TED-esque talks to consumers beta-testing
tenants' products before they're launched publicly.
It's also a prime setup for everyone working onsite. When
they're not fine-tuning their next blockbuster app, colleagues
can grab a catnap between meetings in one of the library's
sleep nooks. At lunchtime, co-workers can challenge one
another to a match on the Bocce ball court or climb the
bouldering wall. It's a highly curated experience from top
to bottom, with a name to match: Bespoke.
But this up-and-comer isn't located in a tech mecca like
Mountain View or Cupertino: it's in downtown San Francisco.
Oh, and did we mention it's in a shopping mall?
Long maligned as generic temples to consumerism, shopping
malls are becoming a new frontier for inventive design.
The social critic James Kunstler has disparaged the mall as
a private space masquerading as a public space, which is
perhaps not far from the truth. The modern mall blurs all
the lines with a host of cradle-to-grave amenities beyond
traditional retail-think offices, medical centers, residences,
green space and even schools.
Bespoke is one of the first concerted efforts to perfect this mix
of industry, art and commerce. It's a concept a decade in the
making at the retail behemoth Westfield Corporation, and one
that's come to fruition under its experimental arm Westfield
Labs. The lab was founded three years ago to understand how
malls might better serve the consumer, influence culture and
still turn a profit.
Fiscally, it makes more sense for malls to fill square footage
with retailers, forcing many designers to put an emphasis on
efficiency over community. But Steve Dumas, Westfield Labs'
VP of Retail Experience Design, says that the most successful
developers in the future will prioritize a well-designed social
space. "The mall has become the town square," he says. "You
have to treat it as public space and enhance how people enjoy
the space."
To that end, Dumas and his team created a series of oases
at Bespoke. Comfortable couches, hanging garden areas over
seating groups, and recreation spaces encourage people to
linger with one another. "Whether you're part of a private
shopping party or at communal tables working together,
there's a sense of connectedness," Dumas says.
Indeed, the modern mall is all about the shared experience:
Bowling alleys, luxury car test-drives and skating rinks are
de rigueur in modern shopping centers. They are even starting
to have some of the same cultural cachet as libraries or performance halls, with the quarterly returns that arts institutions
could never deliver.

32

TOP

Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert for Volt Berlin
BOTTOM

Bespoke Interior - Central Lounge courtesy Westfield Corporation



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015

IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015
Contents
From IIDA
Behind the Issue
Contributors
Viewpoints
The Innovation Insurrection
Lens Flare
The Once and Future King of Commerce
Point/Counterpoint
All Around the World
Inspiration
Colophon
Design Buzz
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Cover2
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 1
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Contents
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 3
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 4
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - From IIDA
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Behind the Issue
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 7
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Contributors
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 9
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Viewpoints
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 11
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - The Innovation Insurrection
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 13
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 14
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 15
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 16
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 17
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 18
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 19
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Lens Flare
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 21
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 22
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 23
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 24
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 25
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 26
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 27
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 28
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 29
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - The Once and Future King of Commerce
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 31
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 32
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 33
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 34
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 35
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 36
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 37
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 38
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 39
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Point/Counterpoint
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 41
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 42
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 43
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 44
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 45
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - All Around the World
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 47
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 48
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 49
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 50
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 51
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Inspiration
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 53
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - 54
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Colophon
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Design Buzz
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Cover3
IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2015 - Cover4
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