For SPACEBASE, a first meeting is less about organizing requirements and more about drawing out, together, the ideas that haven't yet been put into words. We start by understanding why this project began and what context surrounds it. SPACEBASE sees the first design proposal not as a mockup made to be shown, but as the first structure that becomes the reference point for every design and decision that follows. What SPACEBASE listens for most carefully in early meetings is not taste or references, but the questions that exist before them. This piece lays out what kinds of questions a space where you feel a brand's philosophy, or an office that resembles its users, actually begins from. We look at the threads of questions SPACEBASE returns to during client interviews, and the role those questions play in the design process.

Why We Don't Talk Much About Design at the First Meeting

In a SPACEBASE first meeting, questions come up far more often than concrete talk about design. Discussions of color, style, and references are deliberately set aside for later.

SPACEBASE defines the first design proposal not as the stage for showing mockups, but as the stage for building the structure that becomes the reference point for every design and decision that follows. We believe that if this structure isn't solid, the forms and details that come later are bound to waver easily.

That's why what we ask about most carefully in early meetings is the context in which this space came to be. We first try to understand why this space became necessary now, and the circumstances out of which the project began. We believe a space where you feel a brand's philosophy, a space that resembles its users, is possible only when this context is understood precisely.

A Question We Always Ask ①

"Why, and why now, did this space come to be created?"

The first question is one that pins down where the project started.

SPACEBASE doesn't begin designing on a request to "renew the space" alone. Instead, we first ask why you want to create or change this space now, and what changes have occurred in your organization, your business, or the way you work. Through this, we distinguish whether the project is a simple improvement of the environment, or a situation in which the organization and the way work is done have shifted, and the space is being asked to play a new role. This distinction becomes an important criterion for deciding the structure and function of the space later on. For SPACEBASE, a space is always an outcome, and a cause always exists before it. This question is a starting point for seeing a space not as a "result" but as a "means of solving a problem."

A Question We Always Ask ②

"How do the people who use this space spend their day?"

The second question is one for understanding how the space is actually used.

SPACEBASE looks less at roles on the org chart or official work processes, and more at how people actually spend their day. We check specifically where they linger for long stretches, how movement happens, and in which spaces formal work and informal conversation take place.

When we were creating the work space for Toss in the past, the SPACEBASE team even stayed in the actual office for more than an hour, experiencing the flow of the day firsthand. A short stay can't tell you everything, but even that amount of time let us understand the organization's work culture and the problems of the space in a more dimensional way.

What we want to confirm through this question is not information about how people "should" work, but about how they actually "do" work. Design values set on the basis of human behavior produce floor plans that aren't easily discarded over time. Conversely, when this information is lacking, the likelihood rises of spaces that go unused after completion, or of having to redo construction. This question is one for designing the structure of a space, first, on the basis of human behavior.

A Question We Always Ask ③

"What are the standards that go unspoken but must be kept?"

The last question is one for confirming the criteria that run through the entire project.

SPACEBASE tries to clearly distinguish what absolutely must be kept from what can be conceded. We look together at budget and schedule, the realistic constraints within an organization's culture, and even the priorities the client hasn't yet clearly recognized. Through this process, we establish the criteria for judging which choices point in the "right direction" across the whole project. The clearer these criteria are, the more naturally the first design proposal can carry through to the next stage without unnecessary revisions. This question is one for establishing decision-making criteria that won't waver during the design process.

Questions Have to Accumulate Before a Space That Resembles You Can Be Made

SPACEBASE defines the first design proposal as the " first visualization " that holds all of these questions and interpretations. We believe that only when enough thought and organizing comes first, before proposing a form, do color, material, and detail finally take on meaning. Posing the questions, interpreting them, proposing several options, and building, together, all the way through to choosing one of them. That is the role SPACEBASE takes on as a professional.

A space where you feel a brand's philosophy isn't completed by a designer's sensibility alone. Only when the process of understanding the user's context and establishing the criteria for choices together comes first does a space finally grow to resemble that organization. SPACEBASE always begins that from the questions of the first meeting.

*Photography by and courtesy of editor Ryu Jin

ㅡ

If you're thinking about a space that fits your organization, start a first conversation with SPACEBASE.

👉 Inquire about a project with the SPACEBASE team