Studio BV
FIELD NATION, MINNEAPOLIS
The rich storytelling skills of Studio BV founder Betsy Vohs are on full display in one of her firm’s earliest completed projects. The job entailed designing the first office of a tech company, with a mandate that the new digs embody its business—providing a digital marketplace to connect corporations with technology gig workers—in physical form. “Field Nation’s work is rooted in coding and developing a software platform,” Vohs notes. “The client couldn’t describe it easily to outsiders; it was all technical jargon.” So, the designer decided to tell the story without words. One confident, bold, and simple move defines the space: A network of orange conduit, designed in close collaboration with electricians, proved to be the ideal visual metaphor for showing what Field Nation does. The conduit system starts in the elevator lobby and then morphs and twists over and around the office, guiding the way through different zones and creating screening elements and enclosures for partial privacy in the open work space. It is at once wall pattern, sculpture, canopy, divider, and even light fixture (various pipes cleverly terminate in already wired pendants).
PROJECT TEAM BETSY VOHS; COURTNEY LEHMANN KEY CONSULTANTS FRASER-MORRIS ELECTRIC CO.; GARDNER BUILDERS PHOTOGRAPHY COREY GAFFER
studio-b-v.com; @studio____bv 68 INTERIOR DESIGN
“The conduit is a shape-shifter that helps connect people throughout the space,” Vohs explains. “It makes concrete the ideals of the company and showcases the power of design.”