The office is a story that is told through design. When crafted well, the workspace is an aesthetic and tangible narrative of a company’s goals, culture, branding, community, and the ways in which that company meets its employees’ needs and caters to their work ethics.
Take, for example, the Gensler-designed IIDA Headquarters office in the heart of downtown Chicago. The firm made a conscious decision to place work stations directly along the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Chicago River. Taking in the panoramic, iconic views throughout the work day is a welcome respite for IIDA employees; but this design choice is only one small part of IIDA’s overarching mission to practice connection to place, people, and purpose through an understanding of strategic design.
The culture and demographics of offices today are changing, and workplace design is changing in tandem. We want the places we work, create, and innovate in to align with our personal and professional values, and we want to see our practice represented through design, from the reception area to the meeting spaces. When we are actively engaged by a space, we are hard-wired to be more attentive, productive, and creative. So, how can designers keep up with the demands and requirements of the office of the future? And what exactly are those demands?
Successful contemporary workspaces are empathetic to the human condition and can support recruitment and retention, encourage community and collaboration, and meet specific branding goals. When we design for all of these necessities, we should always remember three critical frameworks: the community, the mind, and the body.
COMMUNITY AS STRATEGY
When we say human-centric design, we are typically referring to design that meets the needs of a unique ecosystem of individuals, workers, and stakeholders. Often human-centric really suggests community-centric, which requires designers to consider the many facets of a specific community and how its members utilize spaces together and separately.
Good design promotes engagement and collaboration within a professional community, thus driving productivity, company loyalty, and overall employee satisfaction. Building for a community means taking the extra step to do critical research, crowdsource information, hold open forums and Q&A sessions, and make evidence-based design choices. It also means purposefully reflecting on a company’s internal culture and the role it plays in the day-to-day.
The Logistic Republic Automation Warehouse in New Taipei City, Taiwan, designed by Taiwanese firm J.C Architecture, is a strong example of this design philosophy. The firm took on the challenge of designing for a contemporary and urban logistics facility company involved in sustainability and smart technology. The company’s unique cultural mission required an equally unique space: one that could fully display the mechanical functions and products of the company while still making the people working there feel considered and accommodated.
The solution was to design central meeting areas throughout the industrial spaces, allowing for better collaboration and communication and showcasing the human factor of warehouse culture. The project’s distinct point of view and seamless integration of workspace and warehouse earned J.C. Architecture the Best of Competition award in the 2018 IIDA Global Excellence Awards, which honor originality and innovation in the creation of contemporary interior spaces.
By considering and incorporating the needs of the professional community at Logistic Republic Automation, the designers were able to build a dynamic and supportive workspace for all.
Wilson Sporting Goods’ new downtown Chicago headquarters, designed by Gensler, also makes an effort to highlight the legacy brand’s unique corporate culture and sense of community. The space pays tribute to the employees’ genuine love for sports with moments of design whimsy, from the golf tee wall to the LED Wilson logo at the front door, and allows for energetic collaboration through work “neighborhoods” delineated by sport focus and comfortable break-out areas.
KNOWLEDGE AND BEHAVIOR AS STRATEGY
Designing for human work and thinking patterns is not always straightforward and requires designers to take on a “no size fits all” mentality. When a workplace delivers on catering to a full spectrum of behaviors, it means stronger professional partnerships, more creativity, and better use of the workday. Designers should start thinking like workplace psychologists in order to leverage human cognition and elevate the experience of being in an office.