We caught up with KKT Architects, the winners of the 2022 Next Work Environment Competition to see where they are now!
The team submitted their ‘Work from the Cloud’ idea featuring a hybrid co-working space that floats you into your vacation. Replacing the chaos and wasted time on travel, Cloud Service 1 offers a variety of work environments and amenities aimed at providing a slow transition into the weekend. “Float into your next vacation” blew away the jurors in 2022.
WDM: What has happened with the project since the competition?
KKT Architects: I was trying to leave the country for the week and travel to Europe for the first time since the pandemic. The trip was a great reminder of why we developed our “Work from the Cloud” concept in the first place! The theme of being able to work from anywhere, and the expectation that you should work from anywhere still looms large as a lingering effect of the pandemic. While I was able to escape, for the most part, there were hints of the office calling every time I reconnected to Wi-Fi and saw my missed calls, texts, and growing email inbox.
WDM: If the idea has evolved, what were the changes and why?
KKT Architects: After being selected as a winner for our “Covid Cabana” as a safe alternative for working vacationing and remotely in 2020, and then winning again with the idea of floating in and out of vacation, perhaps we’ll use this year’s competition to further explore ideas around disconnecting from the office and mental wellbeing. The competitions are always a great opportunity to take a step back from our day-to-day work and understand broader concepts about the workspace that we can then reinterpret back into our tangible designs. Undoubtedly, the largest trend we’ve seen in the past year or so has been around the return to work, and specifically, giving people reasons and resources that they may not have in their home office to encourage them to return to the workplace.
WDM: Has the team working on it grown? What are you working on now?
KKT Architects: The team that worked on our concept remains tightly knit at the office and has been eagerly awaiting this year’s competition. In fact, a few of the team members have actually been working on a coworking space here, in Tulsa, since the submission.
You can check out their full 2022 submission here.
Feeling inspired?
Submissions for the 2023 Next Work Environment Competition are open now!
Special thanks to our 2023 Innovative Brand Partners:
