Silversquare Central: Brussels Coworking Space Designed by 12 Architects & Artists, Curated by Maniera.

Over the years, Maniera has developed a reputation for pushing beyond the natural comfort zone. If you’re unacquainted, the Brussels-based gallery commissions architects and artists to develop furniture and objects for use, offering them a welcome opportunity to take an excursion beyond their usual practice. Run by Kwinten Lavigne and Amaryllis Jacobs, the creative curator couple have forged their own formidable and decidedly unique path through the collectible design market over the years.

For their latest endeavour, things kick up a notch with their biggest project so far. Designing the interiors of Silversquare Central, a new 6,000sqm co-working office in the heart of Brussels. The gallery recruited twelve architects and artists to deconstruct the theme of a co-working space through their own artistic language.

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Silversquare Central is housed in the former Shell headquarters, a Modernist building from 1934 designed by architects Alexis Dumont and Marcel Van Goethem—the duo most known for the former Citroën-dealership that was transformed into Kanal Pompidou in 2018. The intervention reinterpreted the space while preserving the beauty of the original architecture.

The original shell was stripped, with technical elements left bare. A new concrete central staircase was added to improve the connection between all floors. A massive-scale project for the couple, they collaborated with Doorzon Interieurarchitecten for the general layout, and the Brussels and Milan-based Piovenefabi for the restaurant.

At 6,000sqm, there’s a lot of ground to cover, but the team rise to the challenge. Colourful and unconventional pieces made mostly from standard building materials enter into a natural dialogue with the industrial backdrop. The gallery took the opportunity to work with old friends while also bringing on board emerging talent.

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The furniture collection developed for Silversquare Central on view at the gallery.

The furniture collection developed for Silversquare Central on view at the gallery.

From frequent collaborator, Christopher Hefti‘s green curtain inspired by lockdown walks in the Swiss forest and Piovenefabi’s curvy red sofa with hints of elegant 1930s charm utilised throughout the interior, to fresh faces like Ghent-based Felt and their Fauteuil chair formed by industrial translucent glass fibre panels and lambswool to another Ghent-based architect Maxime Prananto’s debut of an Autocrat Table consisting of twelve identical, folded sheets of steel—the overwhelming sense is how well these eclectic objects of design pair with each other.

A reflection of the true creative freedom that Maniera tackles every venture with, the furniture collection developed for Silversquare Central is currently on view at the gallery until May 22nd.

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[Images courtesy of MANIERA. Photography by Jeroen Verrecht.]