When Lincoln-based advertising agency Archrival approached BVH to redesign their existing downtown studio, we took it upon ourselves to infuse our client’s personality and ethos into our own design process. As a firm comprised largely of Millennials–Archrival’s key target demographic–BVH saw this as an opportunity to engage our design culture and young professionals in a design competition to seek out the best idea.
Eleven 20-something designers, from interns to licensed architects, were selected to form four design teams. The goal: reimagine Archrival’s design studio within their newly enlarged space, and push their creative solution to its illogical extreme. Armed with a creative brief supplied by Archrival’s team, it was the groups’ challenge to ask the deeper questions:
How can we position our client to grow and mature while retaining their youthfulness> How can we use their physical space to celebrate what made their old home so great - their people?
The winning solution, dubbed the Wunderkammer, references the centuries-old “Cabinet of Curiosities.” The youthful and creative nature of Archrival’s studio has led to the accumulation of a number of personal artifacts–trophies, artwork, nerf guns, luchador masks, a sombrero, etc.–which represent their individuality and collective culture. Rather than leave these items unorganized throughout the space, they become the driving force behind the space itself. Displayed in multi-compartmented cabinets and vitrines, arranged to inspire wonder and stimulate creative thought, the wunderkammer celebrates Archrival’s unique culture by curating the studio with their own personal objects. Workstations organically emerge from the wood box grids. Red vinyl-wrapped jam spaces locate themselves around the perimeter, facilitating chance encounters and creating a dense overlaying of people, allowing creative energy to permeate the studio. Curating opportunities for open, semi-open and enclosed work spaces, the design accommodates a myriad of different working styles and personalities.
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