Contract furnishings provider, Hightower received multiple awards at NeoCon 2021, including IIDA's 'Best Small Showroom' (under 4,000 sf) and 'Best of Competition' for its newly designed Chicago showroom.
Humanscale welcomes Elizabeth Margles to its Marketing Division in the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Margles comes to Humanscale with twenty years of experience in design, fashion and retail and a background in public relations and advertising.
The exclusive relationship with Kontrol's BioCloud® Technology will provide real-time detection of airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 to help make workplaces safer as organizations return to the office.
Workplace design is an ever-evolving art as much as a science. From their physical layout -- closed vs. open spaces, for example -- to the color of the walls and the arc of the lighting, scientists and designers are constantly at work to improve American offices for the planet, human health, and corporate productivity. Top office designers are predicting several strong trends in the industry for 2017.
Somewhere between Dilbert and The Jetsons, our workplace changed. We went from private executive office suites and rows of cubicles to open floor plans and a mobile workforce. And, the pace of change has only continued to accelerate. Recently, business leaders began moving the success conversation from wealth to wellbeing. And, as a result, offices are seeing a renaissance and changing again to support the new way work is done.
The focus is all about you. Cafes are coming to life, becoming hubs of conversation. Multi-media rooms are transforming previously static spaces to allow for real-time interaction with remote workers. And, quiet spaces are being reimagined to support rejuvenation and ideation.
Office construction numbers in the United States support the underlying feeling that changes are happening. According to the United States Census private general office construction increased 19.9 percent in one year from June 2015 to June 2016. And, those numbers have continued to rise throughout 2016. IBISWorld’s recent market research report showed the commercial property remodeling industry is benefitting from large increases in demand. In the last five years, office rental vacancies have decreased and consumer spending on office remodeling has gone up.
Due to demographic shifts and rapid technological advancements, the U.S. workplace is undergoing exciting changes. For managers, it’s key to be informed about how these changes will affect the workplace so they can proactively harness them to their organizations’ advantage. What follows are the top eight workplace trends you can expect in 2017.
Walking clients through a project can be tedious, particularly if the work is still ongoing. Architects have long relied on paper, physical models, field visits, and, more recently, digital tools to convey progress on a project. Earlier this year, Autodesk announced plans to make 3D models created in a selection of its software programs compatible with Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality (AR) technology. The company is not alone. Software developers in the AEC space are evolving digital modeling with the development of AR and virtual reality (VR) platforms that allow project teams to use mobile phones, tablets, and headsets to immerse themselves and their clients in their forthcoming buildings.
In a new study from architecture firm Gensler, there is evidence that supports that workplace performance is directly linked to the level of innovative office design. We're not talking strictly about fancy technology. Innovative office design is implemented through all areas: from how comfortable a desk is to whether the employee lounge is laid out to accommodate both large groups and private conversations, from conference room adaptability to inspirational reception areas. "We've proven that design not only influences the innovative process," writes Gensler, "But also that, done correctly, design has the power to drive new innovation forward in a direct and measurable way."
By law, all employees need to take breaks when their shift is more than 3 hours. Even if your employees work a regular 9-5 day, they should still take regular breaks from their desk. Since most people will not have time to go home on a thirty-minute break, it is important that they have somewhere comfortable to relax before they head back to work. Google and other Silicon Valley tech firms have a reputation for creating over-the-top break rooms, but even if you don’t want to install a ball pit or slide, there is plenty you can do to design a relaxing, enjoyable space for your employees.
heneghan peng architects have collaborated with Airbnb to design their latest international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
The office, nicknamed The Warehouse, was once an ice and cold storage warehouse from 1865 to 1950, then from 1950 to 1980 it was a bicycle factory. After 1980, the space sat empty and fell into disrepair, and then was used as a meeting place for Mabos, a group of cultural activists, before Airbnb reinvented the space one more time, and turned it into the office that it’s used as today.
Among the many startling revelations of the recent presidential election was the emergence of a powerful new generational voting bloc: the Millennials. For the first time, this cohort of 21- to 34-year-olds, also known as Generation Y, made up the same proportion of the U.S. voting-age population as the Baby Boomers. This remarkably cohesive group is significantly more progressive than their parents -- in states as different as Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, 80 percent voted for Bernie Sanders; nationwide, they overwhelmingly backed Hillary Clinton -- and has the potential to shape politics for years to come.
They're already reshaping the workplace.
Bringing the outdoors inside, and work outside. There’s already been an uptick in incorporating nature into workplaces so we’ll continue to see more plants, more natural wood in the interior architecture and furniture with gardens, rooftops, and more.
The coworking mentality will also increase. Coworking as not just an option for the individual in need of a desk, but as a new attitude and style of working. Companies are now inviting outsiders to cowork in their offices, and send workers outside of the office to cowork elsewhere. It establishes a sense of community and an exchange of information/creativity.
As 2016 comes to a close and we all start looking forward to the new year, it’s time to think about way in which we can improve our workspaces to keep attracting (and retaining) our beloved members.
So, what do you have planned for 2017? What will 2017 bring you? When it comes to design, we’ve got you covered.
Allwork reached out to various design experts to get the scoop on what stays, what goes, and what’s coming regarding workplace design.
New research from My Family Care and global recruitment firm Hydrogen claims that when compared with all other industries, the technology sector has the most number of employees taking advantage of flexible working practices. Over four in five (81 percent) of employees who work in tech say they work flexibly to some degree – around 15 percent higher than the average of 66 percent and over half of the 265 people surveyed said they worked remotely at least one day last week – 18 percent higher than the average for all employees. The research also claims that people who work in tech put a high value on flexible working when considering a job offer, with 88 percent of professionals considering it to be more important than other benefits like private healthcare insurance, enhanced pension scheme or commission or bonuses.
Why are some parts of the workplace always buzzing with activity — social spaces with constant clusters of people, rooms that are always booked or desks and enclaves that are always taken? What makes people choose to work in one space over another? Increasingly, people at work are searching for something. They’re looking for spaces that allow them to feel comfortable, help them think better and support their ability to solve problems.
These informal, authentic and inspiring spaces are creating workplaces where people want to gather, collaborate and perform at their best. The workplace is experiencing a rebirth to address the new ways in which people are working. Because technology allows people to work anywhere, the workplace is being reinvented to give people what their homes and cafes cannot — successful spaces providing places for focus, collaboration and socialization. These new spaces are human-centered combining design, materiality and performance to feel good, perform well and inspire people.
Some things in the office don’t change – the need for desks and chairs, the ringing telephones or the colleagues chatting on a coffee break.
But some things do. Over the last century the workplace has seen some huge changes in terms of design, employee dress, ways of working and of course, technology. And in the coming years the pace of change is set to increase further as smart tech and artificial intelligence have a big impact on how we work.
The design of the new Allen Institute breaks the barriers of conventional research facilities. By fostering a culture of team science, the Institute helps lead to discoveries every day. Discover how scientists and researchers worked with Perkins+Will’s Seattle office to create a new model for laboratory science.
The workplace has evolved exponentially over the past decade, from large, uniform workstations and offices to efficient open plans and auxiliary areas. Technology has advanced from desktop computers and landlines, to laptops, and mobile apps. Innovation in technology has driven an increase in employees’ productivity and efficiency, and innovation in design has strategically followed.
However, effective and engaging workplace design doesn’t stop with a response to technological and real estate needs. It must go further, supporting the creation and integration of a company’s culture, brand identity, and overall community.
A confluence of factors, including the Financial Crisis of 2008 and the Digital Revolution, have undeniably reinvented the financial market. FinTech—a portmanteau for financial technologies—continues to mature as startups and the technology groups of financial service firms serve as models for companies with digital transitions still underway.
FinTech most often refers to a variety of technological interventions within the financial sector as fiduciary institutions increasingly focus on technology and digital means for services and products. FinTech includes established institutions that adopt new technologies, as well as startups attempting to disrupt or compete with financial incumbents. This kind of competition and disruptive innovation alters the way companies do business and negatively impacts those unwilling to adapt to the use of new business models and processes.
Recently, at IDEO London, we’ve started to think more creatively about how to collect and use data for research during the design process. It’s easy to track user behavior when we work on digital design projects; the tools are built in. But what if we had those capabilities outside the digital space? On a recent project, design researcher Jenny Winfield and interaction designer Miha Feus found a way to collect user data in a physical/digital prototype, by using sensors to evaluate a redesigned hotel workspace for Crowne Plaza hotels. Here’s a little bit about how they did it, and how approaches like this one could change the future of design research.
Two booms taken together turned Center City Philadelphia from a somewhat sleepy place at night with a buzz-cut of a skyline to a vibrant, round-the-clock environment with a true big-city downtown profile.
The first was the office construction boom that was touched off by Liberty Place, the building that broke the buzz cut. The second was a wave of new residents that first began to stream into the city center around that same time.
But as that wave turned into a flood, the two booms ended up canceling out the city’s office-sector growth. Older office buildings were turned into residences even as new office buildings went up, thus keeping the office market (and the rough number of office workers) flat. The culmination of this canceling-out was the conversion of Two Liberty Place’s upper floors into condominiums in the early 2000s.
When Google emerged as a search engine innovator, the company’s unconventional Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, California, showed the business world what a workplace could be.
With foosball tables, a bowling alley, lava lamps, nap pods, a coffee laboratory, colorful sofas, slides between floors, and more, the Googleplex inspired tech company office design everywhere.
As the U.S. tech sector expanded in recent years, driving nearly 25 percent of office leasing activity, tech companies have become a tenant of choice in many cities, according to JLL research.
However, many have specific requirements in mind for their workspace and only some buildings will make the cut. “Tech tenants look for buildings with character and connectivity to accommodate their workplace design styles,” says Steffen Kammerer, who leads JLL’s Technology Practice group. “Such elements as high ceilings, large windows and open, pet-friendly spaces will inspire a tech company to consider signing a lease.”
The UK’s offices host a more diverse workforce than ever before. It is not uncommon to walk into a large open-plan space and see four different generations at work at their desks. Legislation addressing age and disability discrimination in the workplace has removed some of the barriers to people of different abilities. Women have broken through the glass ceiling in many previously male-dominated companies.
Inside our larger urban business districts and corporate campuses, employees from all creeds and corners of the globe contribute to the UK economy as part of the free movement of labour that has been integral to the British workplace for the past 20 years.
