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18
jan
2018
Bertrand Leseigneur
4 minutes

A/D/O BMW

The MINI brand (part of the BMW group) has financed the conversion of a warehouse in the Greenpoint district of Brooklyn into a venue combining collaborative and creative workspaces for designers, a restaurant and a store selling designer items. The venue is meant to be impressive architecturally, among other things with its beautiful glass structure overlooking the roofs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. Its name: A/D/O for Amalgamated Drawing Service.

Concept

Designers also have their collaborative workspace! In any event that is the ambition of the MINI brand, with the opening of its A/D/0 space in January 2017.

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A/D/O’s CEO Nathan Pinsley says “our goal is to be a catalyst for new and relevant work. Significant design requires interaction and stimulation, and we have built a venue entirely with that in mind.”

The venue’s sole ambition is to be a place where designers will be able to conceive objects or tools that will revolutionize the world like… the Mini! And recall that this model was a smaller car requiring less petrol, which at the time made a break with the past and established models.

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With a floor area of 2,000 square metres, designers and the public can meet and share their ideas, among other things with a very rich calendar of events revolving around art, fashion and obviously design.

The venue is structured around a restaurant open to the public, a central open space where anyone can come and work freely, and magnificent outdoor terraces, all decorated by local artists. Only part and full-time designers and creators pay rent at least ($600 per month). The venue is thus conducive to meetings and talks between designers or people interested in web design or in the design of physical objects.

Behind the building there is a studio and a workshop with 24 places for enabling designers to progress swiftly from innovation to prototyping, with tools like workbenches for woodwork or 3D printers. The space also houses Urban-X, a start-up accelerator. It aims to transform the city into a service platform.

Why visit the store

View New York and Brooklyn through the “Periscope Kaleidoscope”

One of the most remarkable creations in the venue is a prism-like protuberance on the roof. All its facets reflect light in the space below and offer visitors fragmented views of the buildings of Brooklyn and Manhattan simultaneously, like the kaleidoscope of your childhood.

Visit the store

Come and discover a selection of gadgets, items and furniture selected by A/D/O partner architects and designers but also objects created by A/D/O member designers. From music to light, including terraced gardens, the store offers a broad range of products each more magnificent than the other.

 

Work calmly

One of the huge advantages of A/D/O is that you can come and work at any time of day… free of charge for the general public. The atmosphere there is studious and you can work in an environment of simple and inspiring design.

Reserve your own desk

You can also reserve your own office in the Urban-X space. When you become a member of A/D/O you enjoy many benefits, including the provision of tools with which you can produce your own creations such as 3D printer.

Your concepts you imagine will then become reality, with a controlled budget. Office rentals start from $600 per month. Another benefit is that you can sell your products in the store. You will also feature prominently in the A/D/O blog and newsletter.

 

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Cultivate your mind, interact

A/D/O is also and above all a place for exhibitions, interaction and culture. Every week there are conferences on design for the public and for A/D/O members. The ideal way of developing relations between art, design and business.

The concept in video

The concept in Photos

Bertrand Leseigneur
Based in New York, Bertrand is the Innovation Retail correspondent of the Echangeur in the USA, he decodes the latest American concept stores !!
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