Young Architects Forum hosts hackathon to design coworking space Benjamin’s Desk expansion

One team at the Design Charrette event. Photo courtesy of Benjamin’s Desk.

By Katie Cohen

Only a few months after its October launch, Rittenhouse Square coworking space Benjamin’s Desk is ready to expand. The space recently partnered with the Young Architects Forum to hold a “Design Charrette,” essentially a hackathon for architects, to help brainstorm ideas for the expansion to the floor directly above the current space.

Here’s a brief recap of the event from the Benjamin’s Desk blog:

We were extremely fortunate to have 12 architects and creatives join us from all backgrounds ranging from sustainable design to interior architecture. The event began with Founder and CEO of Benjamin’s Desk, Mike Maher, taking all attendees up to the 8^th floor to see the space they would be designing.

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The attendees then had roughly two hours to break into 3 teams, sketch their ideas using pencil and paper, SketchUp, or other design programs. Each team gave their presentation to the group, and we were extremely impressed. Every team brought something different to the space, used different materials and designed unique layouts that catered to our coworking model. Every team took home an award. The award for Best Overall presentation went to Team #1 which consisted of members: Ian Leibovici, co-owner of Paperweight Design Studios in Philadelphia, Steve Seminelli, intern architect at JDavis Architects and Shila Griffith, Designer at Peter Zimmerman Architects.

Check out the winners of “Best Overall” here.

Read more on Flying Kite here.