YOUTH - Colony Co-work. Strict Budget. Considered Design.

YOUTH is a design studio based in Manchester. They continually challenge both the creative industry and themselves.

They believe the role of design is more significant than simply making spaces look good. They create outcomes that find the balance between life and style, culture, and commerce.

With an approach based around collaboration, their output is honest - raw and real, yet highly refined and considered. Driven by a team of unconventional thinkers whose youthful grit and conceptual rigour is met with a commitment to design detail and delivery.

We are chatting to them about their project for COLONY, a network of co-working spaces in Manchester - full of freelancers, creatives of all sorts, start-ups, and entrepreneurs. This second offering in Piccadilly is designed to encourage opportunities for collaboration.

YOUTH co-founder Ollie Collinge: "The scheme was designed to a strict budget, but in many ways, this worked well for us, a perfect opportunity for the YOUTH brand of raw refinement. Clever use of standard sheet sizes helped keep costs down while defining our materiality. What we did with it, though, was nothing stock standard.

"Our implementation and detailing turned raw sheet materials into intricate pieces of architecture. Taking inspiration from the office water cooler, where everyone gathers to have a chat (gossip)and network (flirt). Much of the space planning was designed around the 'Social' — a lounge and bar where co-workers share tea, coffee, fruit, and (possibly more importantly) beers on a Friday.

"The challenge for this project was to create a variety of work settings within one environment while adhering to the budget. We aimed to create spaces that allowed the residents to define their own space and preference for working.

"Particularly now, in a post-Coronavirus world, it'll be interesting to see how the individual desk spaces are utilised and explored, with the focus shifting from the communal spaces into these more intimate areas."

Our implementation and detailing turned raw sheet materials into intricate pieces of architecture - YOUTH co-founder Ollie Collinge.

Discover more about YOUTH.