Kanawha Design Studio

We help collaborative spaces get moving!

Kanawha Design Studio’s mission is to combat isolation and loneliness by supporting localized, intentional communities. We do this by using our combined skills in technology and design to create, develop and support collaborative spaces. These spaces include coworking, coliving, maker spaces, artist studios and all possible combinations thereof. We believe that the avenue for connection is less important than connection itself.

While our mission is to develop strong communities, our projects are both grounded in immediate, practical problems and influenced larger directional shifts in the coworking and shared resource movements. We are designers - we create built environments that are comfortable, flexible and specific to the needs of each community. We also develop technology systems and create safe, flexible networks for communities with vibrant, diversified memberships. We can also help with business plans and operational systems. And it is a magical thing when all of these work together to support people.

In short, we support collaborative communities – coworking spaces, coliving spaces, makerspaces and artists’ communities – with whatever tools they need to be healthy and successful. If you are interesting in chatting with us about your space, we’d love to hear from you.

History

Kanawha Design Studio is named after the Kanawha River in Katie’s home state of West Virginia. It is also the namesake of Kanawha Manufacturing Company, run by four generations of Katie’s family. The origin and the pronunciation of “Kanawha” is hotly debated, but any true Appalachian will tell you that it is pronounced something close to “K’Naw.

The studio started in 2011 as an umbrella for Katie’s eclectic design projects, workshops and artistic endeavors. In 2015, Jacob brought systems, IT, software and community leadership skills to the company. As the company evolved, Katie and Jacob found that working with people on collaborative spaces was both in demand and very rewarding. And this is where Kanawha is today – an avenue for us to make great spaces with smart, creative cultural leaders.

Our Team

Katie Davis-Sayles

With a masters degree in architecture and over 15 years of design experience, Katie can design anything from kitchens to coworking communities. She both has experience with big picture business and operations planning and a problem solver’s ability to dig deeply into details . Katie’s strength is in her ability to see complicated projects to completion – she has designed, managed and finished over 30 renovation and built projects as the Creative Director of Kanawha. Once called a “Curator of Visual Culture,” Katie helps communities develop and build spaces in which members are comfortable and engaged.

Jacob Sayles

Jacob is a creative and entrepreneurial technologist with over 20 years of experience and a history of innovative ideas, well executed projects, and management of diverse teams. In 2007, he and Susan Dorsch recognized the growing trend and lack of support structures in place for independent and remote workers and opened Office Nomads, the first coworking space in Seattle. To support this business and others like it, Jacob wrote Nadine, the first open source coworking platform and founded Open Coworking, a non-profit dedicated to supporting the Coworking Movement. In his role at Kanawha, he supports small and large collaborative spaces with business planning, operations, community development, IT infrastructure, and the many uses of technology to support memberships and communities.