The Working Space
TWS - Orgatec 2022 Photo/Video Album

A quick walk thru of Orgatec 2022.

TWS - Orgatec 2022 Photo/Video Album
Manufacturer, NeoCon 2021
Source: CFN News Desk
Hightower wins multiple NeoCon awards including ...

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.

Hightower wins multiple NeoCon awards including ‘Best Showroom’
Manufacturer, People
Source: CFN News Desk
Humanscale Announces Elizabeth Margles as Chief ...

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.

Humanscale Announces Elizabeth Margles as Chief Marketing Officer
Manufacturer
Source: CFN News Desk
Steelcase teams up with Kontrol Technologies to ...

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.

Steelcase teams up with Kontrol Technologies to provide air quality monitoring and viral detection technology
Manufacturer, People
Source: CFN News Desk
Alan Jay Heller dies at 81

For over 50 years, Heller offered leading designers the opportunity to work with new technologies to create innovative products. Those were great partnerships and they resulted in great products.

Alan Jay Heller dies at 81

Workplace Design

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How can inclusive design create a welcoming workplace?

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How can inclusive design create a welcoming workplace?

How many of your colleagues that you work with on a daily basis have a disability? Chances are it’s more than you think.

As many as one in three professionals in the U.S. has some form of disability, whether it be a visual impairment or mobility issue, and most of them simply make do with what their offices have to offer.

Fortunately, many employers go above and beyond the requirements of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by leveraging inclusive design.

Examples of inclusive design in the workplace can include door handles that are levers rather than knobs, flat-panel light switches rather than the traditional toggle switches, large-print labeling and instructions for equipment, wide doorways and hallways and spacious alcoves with turning space.

Via jllrealviews.com 

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Why Are People Searching for Better Places to Work?

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Why Are People Searching for Better Places to Work?

A new Gallup State of the American Workplace report is garnering headlines for this finding: The most engaged employees are people who work away from the office three to four days a week. But, it’s another conclusion from Gallup that should be resonating with leaders around the world. If organizations want to compete today they should consider giving their people greater flexibility, autonomy and care for the holistic wellbeing of employees.

“Organizations have nowhere to hide,” writes Gallup. “They have to adapt to the needs of the modern workforce, or they will find themselves struggling to attract and keep great employees and therefore customers.”

What does it take to provide an attractive work environment? As mobile work increases and people are working anywhere at anytime, we know people are seeking out new ways to get work done. So, the real question is: Is your work environment adapting to keep up or are people leaving the office to get work done?

Via steelcase.com

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The Importance of Working Environments

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The Importance of Working Environments

Look around you—do you have a cubicle, standing desk, or are you reading this on a mobile device?  As the boundaries between “living to work, and working to live” stretch, working environments are changing fast to keep up.

Just like clothes and music, office settings go in and out of style.  Depending on when you entered the workforce (and your industry), you may have had a traditional office, a nook, cubicle, or the kind of communal work spaces associated with contemporary start-ups.

Via brightmove.com 

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Digital workplace is ineffective without workers’ technical empowerment

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Digital workplace is ineffective without workers’ technical empowerment

Shifting digital dynamics are reshaping the way organisations operate and are recasting the traditional route to business success, claims new research into the rise of the digital workplace. Ricoh’s new report into digital workplace trends produced in partnership with polling company Censuswide, argues that the latest technology strategies are rendered useless without proper commitment to skills training and the empowerment of those workers who will be making use of it. It advises that businesses need to work on improving the workforce’s digital dexterity by creating an office culture fit for sharing ideas and skills across social, video and digital platforms. The report identifies digital skills training as a key differentiator for employees seeking a new job. Over a third of UK office workers (37 per cent) say they would move jobs to a company which offered better digital skills in the workplace. Likewise a modest 18 per cent of respondents rated their skills as ‘excellent’ whilst 51 per cent said ‘good’ and 30 per cent considered themselves ‘average.’

Via workplaceinsight.net 

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Staying on top of change: Five ways to futureproof the workplace

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Staying on top of change: Five ways to futureproof the workplace

Change is coming to workplace as advancing technology and data driven insights fuel new ways of working.

Both companies and their real estate will have to adapt. In fact, a workplace designed on today’s needs and assumptions could be redundant in little more than a decade, according to JLL’s Workspace, reworked report.

“Size and scale no longer guarantee success,” says Tom Carroll, Head of EMEA Corporate Research at JLL. “The companies that survive the changes set to take place will be those who successfully manage this uncertainty and seize the opportunities created by disruption. Leading firms are already identifying ways to use technology to transform the products and services they provide, the structure of their operations and the ways in which they compete.

Via jllrealviews.com 

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NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio shows off designs for planned tech hub

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NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio shows off designs for planned tech hub

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his team have revealed the designs for the 250,000-square foot Union Square Tech Hub.

The hub, which was first announced in December, will include 58,000 square feet of “fluid space” for startups and a 36,500-square foot tech training center. (Partners in the training program include the New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education, General Assembly, Per Scholas, FedCap, Code to Work and Coalition for Queens.)

The anchor tenant will be Civic Hall — a 1,000-member work and event space that focuses on what founder and CEO Andrew Rasiej said is “the idea that technology can be used to support the public good.

De Blasio unveiled the designs at an event this afternoon at the New York City headquarters of adtech company AppNexus, where he also talked about his hopes for the space.

Via techcrunch.com 

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Five ways the workplace will change in the future

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Five ways the workplace will change in the future

A workplace where people and robots collaborate, employees’ personal brands are bigger than their employers’ and the office is a destination for wellness are just some of the emerging trends which are set to transform the way we work and how leaders direct their businesses over the next 25 years, according to the findings of the Global Workplace Trends report by Sodexo.

The global services provider has interviewed some of the world’s biggest thinkers and investigated emerging trends and academic research to uncover the trends that will impact the nature of the workforce and influence future leaders.

Via fmj.co.uk 

A business manager view: These trends will influence office design in 2020

A business manager view: These trends will influence office design in 2020

Office design is increasingly gaining importance as a tool to attract, engage and retain employees. But which trends will have the biggest influence on office design towards 2020?

As part of our 2020 Vision – New Ways of Working research, conducted in cooperation with Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies (CIFS) we surveyed more than 600 business directors and managers across North America, Europe and Asia, asking about the New Ways of Working and what they thought about the office of the future.

So which trends will have the biggest influence on office design from a business manager point of view? We summarize the key insights in our infographic below.

Via servicefutures.com 

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How to Design a Creative Brainstorming Space in the Office

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How to Design a Creative Brainstorming Space in the Office

In today’s competitive marketplace, creating a culture of innovation has become more important than ever. While most know the importance of innovating, many struggle to proactively plan for it – especially when it comes to office design. While it’s great to encourage employees to collaborate and brainstorm together, workplaces must provide creative brainstorming spaces where they can effectively innovate.

Collaboration zones provide a natural crossroads for coworkers to meet and share ideas. They can be as informal as a large table in the break room or as formal as a walled conference room. Remember to support those spaces with the necessary tools and flexibility employees need to work together. Ask yourself, “Is the space reconfigurable? Do users have choice and control over how and where they work in the space?”

Via myturnstone.com 

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THREE WAYS TO WOO MILLENNIALS TO YOUR WORKPLACE

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THREE WAYS TO WOO MILLENNIALS TO YOUR WORKPLACE

A new Deloitte survey shows millennials’ workplace wants have shifted in the last year. Here are the takeaways for associations looking to attract and retain a Gen Y workforce.

What a difference a year can make.

For instance, last year many young professionals said they were planning to say goodbye to their employers. “But, after 12 months of political and social upheaval, those ambitions have been tempered,” said the freshly released Deloitte Millennial Survey 2017.

Via associationsnow.com 

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Employees prefer effective workplace technology to wacky office design

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Employees prefer effective workplace technology to wacky office design

The majority (79 percent) of workers say reliable and modern technology is more important to them than office aesthetics, while accessories such as ping pong tables, slides, hammocks and wacky office designs may look good in pictures, but they don’t necessarily make employees any happier or productive. The is according to a survey, conducted by storage firm Kiwi Movers, which found that 86 percent of UK adults who work in an office said fun features were of no specific value to their working life, 11 percent said they were nice-to-have and of some value and 3 percent said they were very valuable. The most popular office perks are those offer an immediate tangible benefit to the employee, but even so, as many as 23 percent don’t take advantage every day; while 71 percent overall said they’d like more space in their office and of those, 58 percent believe that could be achieved by removing non-essential items. The research also found that younger workers were more likely on average to take advantage of ‘environmental’ perks like chill out areas and recreational equipment.

Via workplaceinsight.net 

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Sitting Is Deadly. Could Banning Chairs Help?

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Sitting Is Deadly. Could Banning Chairs Help?

By now the health deficits of sitting all day are so widely studied and well-documented that they're impossible to ignore. Studies show that sitting increases lower back pain, slows our metabolisms, and shortens our life-spans, among a host of other things. Not even daily exercise is enough to offset the damage. What's a health-conscious person to do?

One answer: Eliminate chairs altogether. At the interdisciplinary Dutch design studio RAAAF (Rietveld Architecture-Art-Affordances), brothers and cofounders Ronald and Erik Rietveld have been studying how radically redesigning the workplace and home might affect how sedentary we are. Their installations The End of Sitting, which debuted in 2014, and Breaking Habits, opening at the Mondriaan Fund for Visual Arts in Amsterdam February 16, present chair-free environments that encourage people to get up and move. As Erik puts it, "As long as there are chairs present, people will sit in them habitually."

Via fastcodesign.com 

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What A Bug’s Life can teach us about building and workplace design

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What A Bug’s Life can teach us about building and workplace design

There is a typically telling and intelligent Pixar moment in the film A Bug’s Life in which an already well lubricated mosquito goes up to a bar and orders a ‘Bloody Mary, O Positive’. The barman plonks a droplet of blood down on the bar. The mosquito sinks his proboscis into it, sucks it down in one go and promptly falls over. The main point is that the mosquito doesn’t need a glass because that is for animals that have a problem with gravity. For insects the major force in their lives isn’t gravity at all, but surface tension. The cleverness of the illustrators lies in them seeing this from the perspective of an insect when most of us ignore this kind of thing because our day to day lives are completely dominated by the invisible forces that define not only how we function but the form of our bodies and how we look and behave. As the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould put it, “we are prisoners of the perceptions of our size”.

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The 7 best coworking spaces in New York

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The 7 best coworking spaces in New York

A new generation of creative workers expects more than bland ‘business centers’ and sterile ‘serviced office space’ setups. They’d much rather park their laptops at a growing range of shared spaces designed to boost productivity and a sense of community. Powered by new models that integrate the perks of private clubs and services usually reserved for large corporations, New York coworking spaces are flourishing – offering options for every industry, taste, and budget. Here’s our essential guide to where to pull up a chair.

Via thespaces.com 

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Rethinking Collaboration in the Next Generation Workplace

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Rethinking Collaboration in the Next Generation Workplace

Technology change does not occur in a vacuum, and this is becoming evident as enterprises struggle to realize anticipated results after making costly investments in collaboration solutions. While today’s applications truly are exciting, it’s easy to overlook how important the workplace environment is for their success. The context in which a collaboration solution is deployed really matters, as a holistic approach is needed to ensure that the right technologies are deployed in the right way to meet today’s workplace needs.

Via techzone360.com

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How Would Future Designers Create Tomorrow's Design Studio?

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How Would Future Designers Create Tomorrow's Design Studio?

Meet the people shaping the future of design. Students from design programs stretching coast-to-coast recently traveled to Michigan in the heart of winter to unveil their final design submissions for Steelcase’s annual NEXT Student Design Competition. The finalists emerged from more than 65 programs and 800 students competing this year.

The students rose to the challenge of creating the next generation design studio situated in Los Angeles’ entertainment district. All five finalists presented in front of a panel of top industry leaders. Judges awarded Amy Groome, a Virginia Tech talent, top prize for her design inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. All five women who made the journey to Steelcase said they came away winners — validated for taking risks, energized by their new peers and inspired by their differences.

To see renderings from all five submissions presented to the judges, go to the latest 360 Latest News article published today.

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There Are More Than 2,000 Plants In This Lush Coworking Space

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There Are More Than 2,000 Plants In This Lush Coworking Space

The architects at the Madrid-based firm Selgascano are well acquainted with the power of plants. At the 2012 Venice Biennale, they orchestrated an artful pavilion of hydroponically grown greenery. Their own office is sunken into the forest floor, which naturally insulates the structure and can help fuel creativity by communing with nature. So it comes as no surprise that the architects chose to collaborate with Mother Nature on the new Lisbon, Portugal, outpost of Second Home, a coworking space for creative companies.

The office goes all-in on biophilic design, which encourages a connection between people and nature. Brimming with more than 2,000 individual plants and trees from 100 different species—such as tillandsias, philodendrons, and monsteras—the collection is watered and manicured by a team of local gardeners.

Via fastcodesign.com 

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The Open Office: What’s Working And What’s Not?

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The Open Office: What’s Working And What’s Not?

The term “open office” is a lightning rod for those in the corporate world. With articles, blog posts, and other commentary coming out seemingly every week (many of them negative), there is no shortage of opinion about this office design. As a facility executive, it is a topic that can’t be ignored; as the open plan becomes more mainstream, it’s likely that someone from your organization knows someone who has had a negative experience in this type of work environment. Due to the pervasiveness of this design, employees may just assume their office will be next. Regardless of actual plans for future workplace endeavors, it’s helpful to have a solid grasp on the concept. So what do facilities professionals need to know?

Via facilityexecutive.com 

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The Evolution of Office Design and Pre-fab Partitions of the 20th Century

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The Evolution of Office Design and Pre-fab Partitions of the 20th Century

Long before the modern cubicle became popular in the 1960s, prefabricated office wall partition systems that simulated stick built walls were available. By the 1930s, there were several major manufacturers of office partitions systems, most of whom offered railing systems—the architectural grandparent of today’s cubicle—with optional glazing. The BTHL provides an overview of the stylistic evolution of office partitions following changing fashions, from traditional wood panel systems in the 1920s to minimal Miesian models in the 1960s.

Via architectmagazine.com 

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