The look of the future is changing. Throughout the last few decades, we’ve been convinced that simple living in stark minimalism would be the defining trend for the future of technology and business. But an unexpected style-shift is occurring in offices, showrooms, and design studios worldwide.
Gone are the days when clear, bright surfaces dominated the look of progressive tech businesses such as Apple. Looking at modern day businesses like Google shows something completely different. Gone are the sterile rooms and uniform desk spaces. It’s all about colors and textures in an environment of comfortability and stimulation. And it’s beginning to catch on.
We’ve already seen what designers can do with salvaged wood. Some of the hippest offices today seem to prefer this type of aesthetic and texture of raw, unfinished materials. The pursuit of this type of DIY-look is causing a trending usage of a most unusual piece of decor: wooden shipping pallets.
In Brooklyn, New York, a collaborative workspace of creative professionals (known as Studiomates) has a brand new meeting room slash recreational area that sits atop a small collection of upcycled shipping pallets. But it wouldn’t be proper upcycling without the prerequisite amount of effort: not just the floor has gotten the upcycled pallet treatment, the wall itself has become a colorful plant-adorned, wooden collage of repurposed planks.
On the subject of wooden walls, this particular construct is located at the headquarters of the London-based creative agency PD3.
By upcycling wooden pallets, they’ve attempted to clearly define their meeting area with a barrier that aims to be both artsy and rustic. Whether they’ve succeeded in evoking such a style is up for debate, however; it is at least somewhat reminiscent of someone’s upended porch.
The line between rustic and messy is a fine one, especially with a material as brazen as raw wooden shipping pallets. It requires some finesse.
The ‘Coyote Logistics’ headquarters in Chicago encompasses a whopping 165,000 square foot, with a 4,000 square foot recreational area for office employees. An area that’s informally known as the “Coyote Den”. Plenty of time and effort was spent making this communal bar look as inviting and relaxing as possible.
How did they achieve this? With the help of planks upcycled from wooden pallets that (finished and sanded) are stacked and stuck to all surfaces. A great example of upcycling done right, and a bold step towards sustainable wood paneling.
Originally published at thesquirrelz.com on December 29, 2015.