The Kennel is a workplace redux for a tech VC fund company based in Palo Alto. K9 ventures, created itself on a canine analogy, “A start-up’s best friend”. The client has a tech background himself. His firm, K9 works exclusively with startups in the “seed stage” through investing and incubation.

The design brief was specific. It required a creative incubation space, a variation from the more typical “creative office” uses in vogue. The shell had to embrace the churn of varying and disparate teams like a dorm. Inhabitants would stay for short, intense periods. One team was picked straight out of a Stanford dorm. The space was required to be barebones in order to encourage incubated graduates to leave. Nobody should feel comfortable enough to stay for long.

To reflect this bootstrap philosophy, we were instructed that any single detail or design element deemed frivolous or redundant to this goal would be ruthlessly cut out. In addition, the lowest possible budget for such a space typically came to 80 $/sf. As a design challenge, it was reduced to 20 $/sf. The client wanted to test the design process itself as they would treat an incubating start-up. The impossibly low budget was therefore a design goal to test against.

PROGRAM AND BACKGROUND
Two existing warehouse structures are proposed to be individually sliced into 4 quadrants each, connected and split by a ‘Breezeway’ opening with a glazed canopy structure overhead. The design process, currently in DD, is exploring options for utilizing environmentally sustainable strategies such as solar panels, natural ventilation as well as sustainable finishes and recycled materials to conform to LEED standards.

DESIGN STRATEGY
The owner can choose from a wide spectrum of potential tenant layout plans without compromising on the overall design consistency of the shell build-out.