Thomas Heatherwick and Ab Rogers to speak at virtual Workplace Wellbeing by Design conference

Dezeen promotion: Workplace Wellbeing by Design is a week-long online event taking place during this year's London Design Festival, which explores the complex relationship between design and wellbeing in the workplace.

The event, which will take place from 14 to 18 September 2020, includes talks by leaders in the architecture and design industry, including Thomas Heatherwick, Ab Rogers and HOK senior director of WorkPlace, Kay Sargent.

Thomas Heatherwick will be speaking at the Workplace Wellbeing by Design event

These creatives will be joined by more corporate figures such as Bruce Daisley, who developed Twitter for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Cees van der Spek – communications director for EDGE – and workplace theorist Jeremy Myerson.

Other speakers include biometrician Nikita Mikhailov, who will discuss new data-driven biometric techniques for employers and employees, as well as Maaind founder Martin Dinov, who will outline how AI can be harnessed for workplace wellbeing.

Ab Rogers will be speaking at the event about his Maggie's Centre design

Over the course of five days, five 75-minute sessions will explore the issues of workplace design from a range of viewpoints including technology and diversity, as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Each session will be hosted by author and design commentator Aidan Walker and will be split into three sections: a keynote, a practical case study and a Q&A session.

Maggie's chief executive Laura Lee will explain the organisation's architectural philosophy

Day one – the Well Workplace – will begin with a talk between Rogers and Heatherwick about their work for Maggie's Centres.

While the two architects discuss how they have tried to use the built environment to influence the psychology of its inhabitants, Maggie's chief executive Laura Lee will explain the organisation's architectural philosophy.

Bruce Daisley will also be speaking at the event

Day two, led by Dinov, will focus on the smart workplace and the impact of technologies like AI on wellbeing. EDGE's van der Spek will also uncover the ideas behind the brief for the firm's existing project in Amsterdam and its new one at London Bridge.

"People have been talking about – and designing for – psychological diversity, as well as the individual's control over their physical environment for a generation now," said Walker.

"Sensor technology has given a whole new meaning to the smart building and the impact of artificial intelligence is just around the corner," he continued. "It's time to take stock and Covid-19 has added currency and urgency to the discussion."

Speakers will also discuss the impact of office design on mental and physical health

Day three – the Human/Humane Workplace – will be led by Swann, whose book The Human Workplace explores interior and behavioural design.

Swann will be joined by architect Giuseppe Boscherini, Mikhailov and director of Chapmanbdsp design consultancy Ian Duncombe to discuss "psychosocially supportive design".

Day four, led by HOK's Sargent, will concentrate on creativity, productivity and diversity in discussions with Ricoh's workplace services director Simone Fenton-Jarvis and MoreySmith principal Linda Morey Burrows.

Real estate company CBRE's Kate Davies and Art Acumen CEO Catherine Thomas will also join the talk.

Workplace theorist Jeremy Myerson will be part of a discussion about the future of work

Day five considers the future of work, led with a keynote by Myerson from the Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art and the Worktech Academy.

This will be followed by a discussion with Mike O'Neill, former director of global research at Haworth, Guy Smith, founder of COSU and former design director of WeWork, and Frances Gain, associate of strategy at M. Moser Associates.

The conference has been organised by the creators of the MAD World Summit with Dezeen as the media partner.

Registration is £25 for all five sessions, with profits donated to cancer support charity Maggie's.

For the full agenda, visit the event's website.

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The Olive Houses are off-grid retreats hidden in Mallorca's mountains

Craggy boulders jut through walls in these off-grid guesthouses that architecture studio Mar Plus Ask has built in Mallorca, Spain, for creatives in need of a quiet escape.

Tucked away high up in Mallorca's Tramuntana mountains, The Olive Houses are run year-round by Mar Plus Ask as a silent refuge where solo architects, writers and artists can stay free from interruption.

The pair of houses are enclosed by a dense grove of thousand-year-old olive trees, which at points is interrupted by huge boulders resembling "natural monumental sculptures".

Keen to leave this rugged terrain largely untouched, Mar Plus Ask set about designing two modest structures – one that accommodates sleeping quarters, the other cooking facilities – that look like homes in the surrounding landscape.

"Our first reaction was that only if we could come up with something that would add something in a respectful and beautiful way, would we ever consider building," explained the studio, which is led by Mar Vicens and Ask Anker Aistrup.

"However, it was calming that the functions we were looking to build wouldn't be much different than those of the existing structures found in the area."

One of the houses is partially embedded into an existing stone terrace, which the studio hopes will help the structure keep cool during the warm summer months.

A sliding teakwood door can be pushed back to reveal a grand arched entrance. Inside, the house has a series of smooth, sloping surfaces similar to those seen within a cave.

The walls, floor and ceiling have been exclusively rendered in blush-pink stucco, as the studio felt the colour was complementary to the pale green shade seen on the underside of an olive tree leaf.

A corner of the house has been built around a craggy boulder that the studio left in situ, illuminated by a skylight directly above.

"To us, the stone became a piece of art – suddenly the house was more about sculpting its backdrop and being its lightbox," explained the studio.

Just beside the boulder, an overhead shower has been fitted, while a single bed lies on the other side of the house. Outside there's also a large sink, the basin of which is formed from rock.

Mar Plus Ask created the second house by renovating a dilapidated shed on site that was once used to store tools.

Surfaces throughout are instead covered in deep-purple stucco, a hue that the studio thought was more akin to the dark, glossy topside of an olive leaf.

The structure was initially deemed too narrow to hold cooking facilities but the studio ended up carving a wide opening into one of its 60-centimetre-thick walls, which is able to accommodate a chunky prep counter and a sink.

Guests will also have access to two gas burners and a wood-fire oven – water, like that used to service the shower and sink in the first house, is sourced from a nearby spring. This house also includes a toilet.

Mar Plus Ask was established in 2015 and works between offices in Copenhagen, Berlin, Mallorca and Valencia.

The studio's Olive Houses project isn't the only place where creatives can go to clear their heads. Back in 2016, Andrea Zittel launched Wagon Station Encampment – a campsite near Joshua Tree Park, California, where artists and writers are allowed to play out their "desert fantasy".

The site includes 10 sleeping pods, a communal outdoor kitchen and open-air showers.

Photography is by Piet Albert Goethals.

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Extraset is a new Swiss foundry bringing together four leading type designers under one name

The new foundry sees Alex Dujet of Futur Neue, Xavier Erni of Neo Neo, Roger Gaillard of Cecile Roger and David Mamie of Todeschini Mamie formalise a long-standing collaboration.

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Ava DuVernay presents Say My Name, two art exhibitions honouring influential figures and moments in Black history

Curated by Khalil Akar for Signature African Art gallery, the two shows in London and LA aim to connect African artists with diasporic histories in Europe and America.

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Secret 7” unveils 2020 artworks by Jeremy Deller, Lubaina Himid, Michel Gondry and lots more

For the first time, fans can view all 700 sleeves online ahead of the auction, which will also be entirely virtual this year.

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