Next time I hear someone whinge about how hard it is to design a good-looking workspace on a budget, I’ll personally bitch-slap them across the face, tell them to stop talking shit and instantly point them towards this post. This is a promise. People, can we all please agree right now that workspaces don’t need to be ugly, predictable, corporate or boring as bat-shit? I hope we can stop producing boring or try-hard office interiors from now on. Can we please do that? Ok, that probably won’t happen any time soon, but in the meantime let’s take a look at this little gem – Joint Café & Workspace in Bangkok, Thailand designed by a local design practice 56thStudio.

Bec Brittain is a Brooklyn-based lighting designer who draws upon a varied professional and educational background of architecture, philosophy, and product design. Brittain studied industrial design at Parsons, earned a BA in philosophy from New York University, followed by an architecture degree from The Architectural Association in London. Her work experience is as varied as her education. Brittain was a Lead Designer at an architecture firm, later shifting focus to design luxury door hardware. She is currently Design Director at Lindsey Adelman Studio while also building her own practice in product design.

Colombo and Serboli Architecture have transformed a neglected and previously poorly planned interior into an attractive holiday home. The apartment is located on the sixth floor of an art nouveau building in Barcelona, Spain. The space had to be completely replanned and all existing partition were demolished. Faced with a tight budget, clever solutions were required to create an attractive, contemporary holiday atmosphere.

This beautifully simple, compact summer house in Hamra, Sweden was designed by architecture studio DinellJohansson. The client initially asked for an existing barn to be converted into a summer house. Instead, DinellJohansson designed them a barn-like home. Don’t you love it when architects don’t just listen to their client’s brief, but rather go on to create something even better. I love that shit! The house is a simple rectangular structure with single open space, focusing on sustainability and minimisation of waste. Unique furniture and joinery assembled from remaining or reused building material and clever use of space make this house one of a kind.

Japan-born London-based young womenswear designer Natsumi Zama holds a BA Honours in Fashion Design and Technology from London College of Fashion. Since graduating in 2009 Zama has launched her own fashion label while working as a freelancer machinist. Her most recent collection entitled “2→3” (two to three) is a series of garments that explore how material can be transformed from it’s two dimensional form to a three dimensional object. Each garment, when laid flat, looks as though it is mounted on a large expanse of square fabric, but when worn on the body this backdrop transforms into sweeping folds that dress the figure in pleats and fluted shapes.

Sitting at the peak of a hill in the Moroccan mountain ranges, Villa E rises up from the landscape, like a form extruded from the earth. The locally sourced Oika stone walling reads like an extension of the landscape. From the road in the valley, only the tiniest window openings pierce through the structure, veiling the life that occurs inside. Hidden within is a private mountain retreat by Studio KO. With studio bases in both Paris and Morocco, Villa E represents the convergence of ideas from both design cultures. Studio KO weave together the contemporary minimalism of Paris with the earthy textures of the Moroccan aesthetic.