Mangrove Garden by Lorene Faure and Kenny Kinugasa Tsui Transforms Corporate Workspace Design

How Award Winning Biophilic Design Integrates Nature and Hospitality to Create Engaging Workspaces for Global Financial Brands

What happens when a global financial institution decides the institution's Hong Kong headquarters should feel less like a tower of spreadsheets and more like a thriving coastal ecosystem? The answer spans 54,000 square feet, three storeys, and a rather ambitious vision involving tropical flora, mangrove-inspired structures, and the kind of design thinking that makes accountants pause mid-calculation to admire a ceiling. The following is the story of how workspace design has evolved from cubicle farms to living environments, and how one particular project in Hong Kong has become a reference point for corporations worldwide seeking to reimagine what an office can actually be.

The financial services sector has long operated in environments that prioritized function over feeling. Glass, steel, and neutral palettes dominated for decades, creating spaces that communicated stability and seriousness but rarely sparked joy or connection. Yet something shifted in recent years. Organizations began recognizing that organizational physical environments profoundly influence everything from talent attraction to collaborative output to brand perception. The question transformed from "How many desks can we fit?" to "How can our space embody who we are and what we value?"

Bean Buro, the cross-cultural architecture and interior design studio founded by Lorene Faure and Kenny Kinugasa Tsui, addressed the question of spatial identity with remarkable specificity for the studio's financial services client. The firm's response involved neither the predictable corporate minimalism nor the trendy ping-pong-table approach to workplace wellness. Instead, the designers looked to nature, specifically to the resilient, interconnected ecosystems of mangrove forests, and asked what would happen if mangrove ecosystem principles could inform the experience of coming to work in one of Asia's most dynamic financial centers.

The Strategic Imperative Behind Progressive Workspace Environments

Before examining the specific design solutions, understanding why major enterprises invest significantly in workplace transformation proves essential. Corporate real estate represents one of the largest operational expenditures for financial institutions, and increasingly, leadership teams view real estate investments through lenses beyond square-footage efficiency.

Employee experience has become a competitive differentiator. When talented professionals can choose from multiple employers, the quality of the work environment influences decisions in measurable ways. Organizations that create spaces supporting wellbeing, collaboration, and professional identity find themselves better positioned in talent markets. The physical workplace communicates organizational values more immediately than any mission statement ever could.

Brand expression through architecture and interior design offers another strategic dimension. Financial institutions operate in markets where trust, innovation, and stability all matter simultaneously. A workspace that feels progressive yet grounded, dynamic yet trustworthy, sends powerful signals to clients, partners, and employees alike. Every surface, material choice, and spatial arrangement contributes to an ongoing conversation about what the organization stands for.

The Hong Kong context adds particular significance. As a global financial hub, the city hosts headquarters and regional offices for institutions serving markets across Asia and beyond. Competition for prime locations and exceptional talent runs intense. Organizations seeking differentiation cannot rely solely on compensation packages or prestigious addresses. The workplace itself must work harder, creating experiences that foster connection, stimulate creativity, and demonstrate commitment to the people who show up each day.

The strategic backdrop outlined above illuminates why Bean Buro's approach to the Mangrove Garden project carried considerable importance. The design team was not merely decorating an office. The team was creating a physical manifestation of organizational aspiration, a space that would shape daily experiences for hundreds of professionals while projecting the institution's values to every visitor who walked through the workspace's doors.

Biophilic Design Principles and Their Application in Commercial Interiors

The term biophilic design describes an approach that integrates natural elements into built environments based on the fundamental human affinity for nature. Biophilic design is not about placing a few potted plants near the elevator. Proper biophilic implementation involves systematic incorporation of natural patterns, materials, light, vegetation, and spatial configurations that echo the environments in which human cognition and emotional wellbeing evolved.

Research across multiple disciplines has documented how exposure to natural elements in work settings correlates with reduced stress markers, improved cognitive function, enhanced mood, and increased satisfaction. Research findings have prompted organizations worldwide to reconsider how interior environments might support, rather than merely house, the workforce.

The mangrove ecosystem provided Bean Buro with a rich conceptual foundation. Mangroves represent remarkable natural systems where land meets water, where complex root structures create sheltered environments for diverse life forms, where resilience and adaptability characterize every element. Mangrove forests thrive in challenging conditions, filtering water, protecting coastlines, and nurturing biodiversity. As a metaphor for organizational life, mangroves suggest interconnection, protection, growth, and the capacity to flourish amid complexity.

Translating the mangrove conceptual foundation into physical space required careful attention to multiple design dimensions. Each of the three floors in the Mangrove Garden workspace features a central hub directly inspired by mangrove gardens. Tropical flora appears throughout hub zones, creating genuine encounters with living greenery rather than token acknowledgments of nature. Structural elements echo the distinctive forms of mangrove trees, with reaching branches and interconnected root systems suggesting both shelter and connection.

The central hubs function as anchors for the entire floor plate. Rather than relegating natural elements to perimeter planters or conference room corners, the design places vegetation and organic forms at the heart of daily activity. Employees moving through the space repeatedly encounter garden environments, experiencing the psychological benefits of biophilic exposure throughout workdays rather than only during designated breaks.

Material Selection and the Sustainability Commitment

The Mangrove Garden project demonstrates how sustainability principles can inform material selection without compromising aesthetic ambition or practical function. Bean Buro approached material selection with characteristic thoroughness, incorporating repurposed furnishings and bio-based finishes throughout the three-storey workspace.

Repurposed furnishings represent a particularly interesting strategy for large-scale commercial projects. Rather than specifying entirely new furniture systems, designers can incorporate existing pieces that retain functional value while carrying their own material history. The repurposing approach reduces demand for new manufacturing, diverts items from waste streams, and often introduces visual character that purely new selections cannot replicate. When executed thoughtfully, as in the Mangrove Garden project, repurposed elements integrate seamlessly with newly specified items, creating cohesive environments that happen to carry substantially lighter environmental footprints.

Bio-based finishes offer another avenue for responsible material selection. Bio-based products derive from renewable biological sources rather than petroleum-based chemicals, reducing both upstream extraction impacts and downstream concerns about indoor air quality. The specification of bio-based finishes throughout a 54,000-square-foot project represents significant commitment to sustainability principles, requiring coordination across numerous product categories and careful attention to performance requirements.

The design team describes the Bean Buro approach as focused on responsible material selection, a phrase that captures an important orientation. Rather than pursuing sustainability through a single dramatic gesture, the team embedded environmental awareness throughout countless decisions, from flooring materials to wall treatments to furniture specifications. The distributed approach often proves more effective than isolated green features, creating environments where sustainability operates as a foundational principle rather than a marketing afterthought.

For enterprises considering similar projects, the Bean Buro approach demonstrates that aspirational interior design and environmental responsibility need not compete. The Mangrove Garden workspace achieves remarkable visual impact and functional sophistication while maintaining genuine commitment to sustainable practices. The alignment of aesthetic and environmental goals represents an increasingly important capability for design teams serving organizations with stated sustainability commitments.

Art Integration and Cultural Resonance

The decision to engage local artists for site-specific installations within the Mangrove Garden workspace reflects Bean Buro's understanding that corporate interiors can serve as platforms for cultural engagement. Interactive art appears throughout the three floors, creating opportunities for employees to engage with creative work as part of daily routines.

Site-specific art differs fundamentally from art acquired for corporate collections. While purchased works certainly bring value to workplace environments, commissioned pieces created specifically for particular spaces can achieve deeper integration with architectural intent. Artists responding to the mangrove concept, the spatial configurations, the organizational context, and the Hong Kong setting produce work that resonates with surroundings in ways that generic selections cannot match.

The interactive dimension adds another layer of engagement. When employees can participate in artistic experiences rather than merely observe artistic works, the relationship between people and environment shifts. Art becomes conversational rather than decorative, prompting interaction, discussion, and the kind of spontaneous connection that supports organizational culture. In workplaces where collaboration matters, conversation catalysts carry genuine functional value.

For the financial institution occupying the Mangrove Garden space, the art program also communicates something about organizational identity. Supporting local artists, commissioning original work, and integrating creative expression into daily operations signals openness, cultural sophistication, and investment in the broader community. Cultural engagement messages reach both internal audiences (the employees who experience the art daily) and external audiences (the clients and partners who visit the space).

The integration of art with the broader biophilic design strategy creates particularly rich results. Natural elements and creative expression reinforce each other, producing environments that feel alive with possibility. Employees moving through the Mangrove Garden spaces encounter both living flora and human creativity, experiencing the workplace as a dynamic setting rather than a static container for professional activity.

Color Strategy and Brand Expression

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Mangrove Garden project involves the approach to the client's established brand colors. Financial institutions typically maintain strict guidelines around color usage, with signature hues appearing consistently across communications, facilities, and touchpoints. Bean Buro worked with the client to reinterpret the institution's signature red through diverse complementary colors, challenging conventional corporate approaches while maintaining brand coherence.

The color strategy demonstrates sophisticated understanding of how brand expression functions in physical environments. Literal translation of brand guidelines into interior palettes often produces spaces that feel more like advertisements than workplaces. Employees surrounded exclusively by corporate colors may experience environments as promotional rather than supportive. The mangrove garden concept required a naturalistic palette that could accommodate tropical vegetation and organic forms, yet the space still needed to feel connected to organizational identity.

The solution involved expanding the color vocabulary rather than replacing brand colors. The signature red appears within a broader spectrum, creating visual connections to brand heritage while allowing the palette necessary for biophilic authenticity. Materials and colors throughout the space work together to establish what the designers describe as a vibrant and dynamic atmosphere, one that energizes rather than overwhelms, that references brand identity without constraining environmental expression.

The color approach offers lessons for enterprises undertaking similar projects. Brand guidelines developed primarily for two-dimensional applications may require thoughtful adaptation when applied to three-dimensional environments. Design teams capable of interpreting brand essence rather than merely implementing brand specifications can create workplaces that feel genuinely aligned with organizational identity while functioning beautifully as living spaces.

Spatial Configuration and Social Interaction

The central hub concept driving the Mangrove Garden design addresses one of the persistent challenges in contemporary workplace design: how to encourage spontaneous interaction in environments where focused work also matters. The mangrove-inspired hubs anchor unique seating arrangements specifically designed to promote social interaction and teamwork.

Traditional office layouts often separate collaboration zones from work zones, creating distinct territories for different activities. Zone segregation can inadvertently reduce interaction by requiring intentional movement between modes. The hub approach integrates social space within primary circulation and activity patterns, making encounters and conversation natural byproducts of moving through the environment.

The seating arrangements within mangrove-inspired hubs deserve particular attention. Rather than standardized lounge furniture or traditional conference seating, the configurations respond to the organic forms of the mangrove concept. Varied seating options accommodate different group sizes and interaction styles, from quick standing conversations to extended collaborative sessions. The design creates what might be called structured informality, providing furniture and spatial definition that support productive interaction while maintaining the relaxed atmosphere that encourages people to linger and connect.

The three-storey distribution of hubs creates consistency across the workplace while allowing each floor to develop its own character. Employees throughout the organization share common design language and common types of spaces, fostering organizational cohesion across departmental boundaries. Someone visiting a different floor finds familiar elements that orient visitors while encountering variations that maintain interest and reflect the particular functions housed in different areas.

The research process underlying spatial decisions involved collaborative stakeholder engagement and site analysis. Interviews, workshops, and visual analytics informed understanding of how the organization's people actually work, what kinds of interaction employees value, and what spatial configurations might support professional activities. The research-informed approach connects final design decisions to documented organizational needs rather than abstract design principles.

Recognition and Industry Impact

The Mangrove Garden workspace received the Silver A' Design Award in Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design in 2025, recognition that positions the project within a global conversation about excellence in interior design. The Silver designation acknowledges designs demonstrating notable expertise and innovation, strong technical characteristics, and remarkable artistic skill.

For Bean Buro, the recognition validates an approach that integrates biophilic principles, sustainability practices, cultural engagement, and brand expression into cohesive workplace environments. For the financial institution occupying the space, the award provides external confirmation that the investment in progressive workplace design achieved notable results. For the broader design community, the project establishes a reference point for what contemporary corporate interiors can accomplish.

Design professionals and brand managers seeking to understand how biophilic principles translate into implemented projects can explore the award-winning mangrove garden workspace design through the comprehensive documentation maintained by the awards program. The documentation includes detailed imagery, designer explanations, and technical specifications that illuminate both the conceptual foundations and practical execution of the project.

The project's influence extends beyond physical boundaries. Contributing to new benchmarks for workplace design, as the design team describes the work, means participating in ongoing evolution in how organizations worldwide approach physical environments. When a major financial institution in a major global city demonstrates that progressive biophilic design aligns with corporate requirements, the demonstration expands the perceived range of possibilities for similar organizations elsewhere. Innovation in one location creates permission for innovation elsewhere.

Implications for Enterprise Workspace Strategy

The Mangrove Garden project illuminates several principles that enterprises might consider when approaching workspace initiatives:

• Conceptual coherence matters. The mangrove metaphor provides organizing logic that connects countless individual design decisions, creating an environment that feels intentional and unified rather than assembled from disconnected elements.
• Sustainability and aesthetics can reinforce each other. Rather than compromising visual ambition for environmental responsibility, thoughtful material selection can achieve both objectives simultaneously. Organizations with stated sustainability commitments can demonstrate values through physical environments without sacrificing design quality.
• Employee experience deserves central consideration. The emphasis on wellbeing and hospitality throughout the Mangrove Garden project reflects understanding that workplaces exist for the people who inhabit them. Design decisions flowing from employee-centered orientation produce spaces that support professional activity while nurturing human flourishing.
• Local cultural engagement enriches corporate environments. The integration of Hong Kong artists and site-specific commissions creates connections between the organization and the home community, producing authenticity that generic international approaches cannot replicate.
• Brand expression can operate through spatial experience rather than literal signage. The sophisticated handling of the client's signature colors demonstrates that organizational identity can permeate an environment without overwhelming the space, creating workplaces that feel connected to brand heritage while functioning as genuine living environments.

For enterprises considering similar initiatives, the Mangrove Garden project demonstrates what becomes possible when design teams with cross-cultural perspective, research-informed methodology, and commitment to both aesthetic excellence and sustainable practice address contemporary workplace challenges. The project spans the 18 months from November 2022 to April 2024, reflecting the substantial investment of time and expertise that notable results require.

Synthesis and Forward Perspective

The transformation of 54,000 square feet of Hong Kong corporate real estate into the Mangrove Garden workspace represents a sophisticated response to the evolving relationship between organizations and physical environments. Bean Buro, under the direction of Lorene Faure and Kenny Kinugasa Tsui, has created a space where biophilic design principles, sustainable material practices, local artistic engagement, and thoughtful brand expression converge.

The central hubs inspired by mangrove gardens provide anchoring elements that promote social interaction while connecting occupants to natural forms and living vegetation. The material palette balances aesthetic ambition with environmental responsibility. The art program creates cultural resonance and catalyzes conversation. The spatial configuration supports both focused work and spontaneous collaboration.

The Mangrove Garden project contributes to ongoing evolution in how major enterprises approach workplaces, demonstrating that progressive design thinking aligns with corporate requirements when executed with skill and intention. The Silver A' Design Award recognition places the project within a global context of design excellence, establishing the workspace as a reference point for organizations worldwide.

As more enterprises recognize that physical environments shape employee experience, brand perception, and organizational culture, projects like Mangrove Garden illuminate what thoughtful design can accomplish. The question for organizations considering workspace futures is not whether to invest in environments, but rather how to approach investment with the coherence, intentionality, and ambition that notable results require. What might your organization's mangrove garden look like?