Runtime: 30 minutes | Jump to David Dewane interview at 7:20

This week, I'm entertaining the radical notion that our workplaces needn't be soul-crushing productivity prisons. Architect David Dewane joins me to unpack "eudaimonia" – that delightfully unwieldy Greek term that might just save us from the tyranny of open-plan mediocrity.

David's "Eudaimonia Machine" concept proposes something truly revolutionary: what if offices were designed for human flourishing rather than human filing?

Our conversation wanders through the fertile territories of flow states and architectural ethics while steadfastly avoiding PowerPoint-friendly platitudes.

I also take you through Milan Design Week's rare moments of restraint – including Ralph Lauren's impeccably calibrated Hamptons reverie and Swarovski's mobile crystalline garden. Both proof that "experiential" needn't mean "assaulting every sense simultaneously."

On a possibly quixotic note, I make the case for Universal Studios' Bedford development being something other than a conversation about tourism in fibreglass. The UK's immersive design sector might just get the incubator it didn't realize it needed.

The Gas Station this week spotlights:

- David Ogiste's deserved On Agency Award for his Nobody's Café studio (obsession does pay off)

- Benjamin Legourd's cinematic love letters to French craftsmanship

- Burberry's audacious desert mirage atop a Wuhan mall – a reminder that the brand's environmental dexterity consistently outshines its C-suite melodrama.

LINKS

David Dewane at Geniant

Connect with David on LinkedIn

David's Substack

Full unedited conversation available Wednesday on my Substack

This episode graciously supported by Manchester Fashion Week – where the next thing often looks nothing like the last, and neither do we.

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