Notable Workplace Trends

   The high performing workplace, like the complicated world we live, work and play in is isn’t necessarily simple to achieve.  Such a workplace reflects the need to soundly integrate work processes, physical settings and furniture along with technology in service to the overall business needs of the organization and its larger mission.  It’s also hard work and demands constant organizational engagement over time.
     Rather than talk about the workplace of the future, a term routinely used over the last forty years, we believe it’s important to focus on creating and cultivating workplaces which promote collaboration, innovation and a sense of entrepreneurship aligning with an organization’s mission, brand and values.
     The following trends are vital to consider in the coming years in the design of the enduring high performing workplace.   They are adapted from a number of sources as well as our own experience.

1. Integrated workplace solutions:  Integration of architecture, interiors, operational processes, branding, information technology, furniture and office systems.  Bring a comprehensive and collaborative approach to the design challenge.
2. Sustainability Action: More direct integration of sustainability concerns in workplace design, ongoing operations reinforces employee engagement and brand strength.  Also supports lower operational costs through energy efficiency, resource conservation.
3. Branding & Storytelling: Tell the bigger story! Work to reflect organization wide core values, history and brand promise in physical design of your building, your work space, furniture, finish and color selection along with media and wall graphics.  Create a seamless experience from bricks and mortar to online.
4. Motivation, Opportunity, Inclusiveness: It’s not about carrots and sticks, but motivating employee’s sense of purpose, desire for advancement and organizational engagement, all helping in attracting and retaining quality staff. Workplace design echoes and amplifies the strengths of a diverse workforce in reinforcing employee engagement.

One Haworth Center, a Transcendent Experience

In late March I toured One Haworth Center located in Holland, Michigan, the global headquarters of the Haworth Inc. one of the big five workplace solutions / systems furniture companies here in the U.S. Office Environments, the local Haworth Dealer, located in Williston, Vermont organized the day long tour for local facilities personnel, architects and interior designers.

I joined in because, while very familiar with other Michigan furniture heavies such as Herman Miller and Steelcase, I knew next to nothing about Haworth.  As an architect engaged in the design of high performance workplaces and buildings among other kinds of work I do, it's critical for my clients I have a working knowledge of these companies, their key personnel, cutting edge research, product lines and corporate social and environmental actions organization wide and in their facilities.

I do this so I may best advocate on their behalf on project work collaborating with local dealerships so the companies I work with can best optimize investments in their workplaces, workers and the work they do together there.

What I found at Haworth really surprised me! Dick Haworth, Chairman Emeritus greeted us in the beginning of the day.  Having Dick speak with us emphasized that while this company was a global brand it was family run with a deep green conscience and pragmatic yet creative design heritage.  Matt Haworth, current Haworth CEO closed the day for us.  However, the LEED Gold Certified One Haworth Center was a star unto itself with its compellingly beautiful yet environmentally motivated heart just like the company perhaps.  And with the vibrant vision of its leaders and other team members we met with that day Haworth is poised for continued success in the marketplace.

Dick Haworth sharing welcoming remarks with visiting Vermonters 

Our Goals for the Day!

Whether visiting Haworth, Herman Miller or Steelcase in Michigan I am gratified by all of these companies efforts to walk their talk in design, innovation and sustainability in their facilities and the visitor experience.  It is a common thread in my experience with these companies.  It is the back story for another time though.

During our day long trip we met with workplace strategists sharing with us cutting edge human factor and environmental design trends, facilities leaders who were intimately involved in the renovation and transformation of One Haworth Center and then product area experts sharing with us the latest in seating, workstation design and architectural systems.  All in all, it was a fabulous experience helping me better understand Haworth, their areas of strength and how they fit into the workplace design universe I work in.

Looking back at my filled up sketch book pages here are a few highlights.

Workplace Strategies & Trends:
We met with Chris Neuheus from Haworth and Brian Scott, of Haworth's Ideation Group, a workplace and communications strategist.  Brian shared a framework for thinking about Organizational Culture Types, how to best assess them with a variety of tools and then create self-evolving collaborative environments which suit them best.  We also learned about a Change Framework to apply within fast moving dynamic organizations.  Brian shared with us the importance of fostering adaptive physical and technological environments which help such organizations continue to transform and innovate.

Chris  reiterated some trends many of us have been experiencing over the last ten or so years with our aging workforce with multiple generations at work together, competing expectations and workstyles of younger millennials, gen-Yers and gen-Xers and aging baby-boomers.  The workplace plainly isn't a one size fits all world where entitlement based space design hierarchies and strategies will continue to apply. To attract younger workers, retain and groom more experienced performers and leaders a multi-faceted organizational design approach is critical with a more open attitude towards collaborative spaces, lower bench style desking with ever lower smaller workstation footprints.  Also, today and especially into the future, there's a greater need for a greater diversity of common spaces accommodating vastly different work patterns such as teaming, head down work, training and workforce development, long-distance collaboration and the like as well as providing an intrinsic adaptability to future work style changes.  This openness leads us to the next helpful takeaway from the visit, the "Chassis" design at One Haworth Center which was used by Perkins +Will and their design team to breath life into the iconic original factory updating it with some serious sustainability and innovative workplace design chops.

Diagram adapted from Haworth with added circulation arrows.

  

New atrium showing circulation with outcroppings

Interior work areas looking out into the atrium and shared daylight

The Chassis Design:

Conceived to bring new life to existing work areas with the addition of a new airy atrium bar and common circulation it's a clever way to update older space with a clear diagram and cohesive vision.  Divided into three zones of dynamic, temporal and place elements it offers an organizing mindset useful for an ever changing organization.  The shared common areas and circulation spine were extremely inviting and dynamic places served by the varying degrees of fluid and fixed workspace behind.  More interior linear circulation flow parallel to the exterior circulation balcony reinforce this open structure for change.   The executive leadership area was located well inside the shared daylit balcony spine in keeping with the more democratic nature of the atria common space.  It was great to see architects and space planners put common lounge spaces immediately adjacent to the this fabulous unifying spine.  The photos and diagrams above and below give a sense for this powerful idea and its execution at various levels of detail.

a conferencing collaboration area with white board wall surfaces
located deep within the floor plate in deference to workstations
accessing natural light directly.

Updated lounge/ cafe seating in cafeteria

panelized workstations of varying heights with dropped floating
ceiling and linear pendant up/down lighting - very comfortable!

workstations with view windows to atrium

furniture groups set up in the atrium to showcase

various collaboration concepts whether a womb like 

seating with felt covering or open table like settings with

overhead space defining rail system.

a delightful mobile ottoman

We also took a tour of the manufacturing floor and saw great implementation in best practices in green manufacturing principles, lean thinking and automation.  Here's a picture of the automated robot delivery vehicles which were really interesting to watch move around the floor spaces.

mobile robots at work hauling product in stages of production.

For a more indepth and informative tour direct from Haworth of the One Haworth Center about Take the tour here.  For specific info about its LEED Certification and Sustainability highlights click this Link.

Interested in learning more? 

You can find us now at www.arocordisdesign.com, the website of our Montpelier, Vermont-based residential architecture firm practice Arocordis Design. If you want to contact us there, click on this link. 

#netzero #homedesign #arocordisdesign #vermont #vermontarchitect #architecture #climateaction

Harder Working Homes - Some 2011 Home Design Trends

What does next year hold for homeowners, residential building and design professionals? Well there's good news for the remodeling side of the equation.  Not so good news yet for new residential construction of various kinds. However, in general, smaller is better with a strong focus on green and sustainable design features with better organized , downsized spaces.  Excessive square footages and volumes are diminishiing in importance, replaced with a focus on pragmatism and quality.

In a press release sent out today, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Joint Center for Housing Studies (www.jchs.harvard.edu) predicts "substantive growth in remodeling spending, coming off of a three decline, seems likely according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released today by the Remodeling Futures Program."

The indicator "estimates current quarterly and future home expenditures by homeowners."  Kermit Baker, the JCHS program director is also the AIA Chief Economist who assembles quarterly reports on the residential design and construction industry.  The AIA's recent reports also reinforce the growth in remodeling.  See the referenced AIA graph indicating how remodeling in general is strongest  out of all the residential categories tracked.  Among them remodeling kitchens and baths outpace other aspects of remodeling and alterations while other types of new residential construction countrywide remain in the negative.

Harder working homes

Homes are working harder than ever before.  With so many people going through work/life transitions, going back to school, the home office has become the most important special space followed by outdoor areas like porches, terraces and outdoor rooms, then mudrooms.  Home offices and expanded flexible use outdoor

Slow Green, an antidote to unrealistic expectations?

Some Observations

Reflecting over the Labor Day weekend here in the U.S., hearing all of the recent unemployment numbers, all the debate about whether are we or aren't still in a recession, when will these endless wars we keep fighting end?  How can we be optimistic for our children during such challenging times?  As a Green architect and design thinker, I sit here a bit brokenhearted about how the Green Movement seems to be stalled in effecting positive change, helping to right this unstable economy get America back to work, etc.

Re-evaluate your driveway and consider Greener Options

Ever consider tearing up your driveway and replacing it with a "Greener" choice? I do every day I drive into mine.  Perhaps you live in cold wintry climate or dry hot climate.  Here's a few ideas which predominantly suggest examine your driving behavior and parking needs, then lead to material selection.

One thing to consider regardless of the material you choose is assess how much parking lot area you truly need.  I bought a house in Vermont with my wife with a very wide and lengthy driveway which when the kids grow up I'd love to make smaller. 

Small steps with big impacts to improve your home and your wellbeing

I recently read an interesting article in the recent April issue of Money called "Get the Most Out of Your Home" written by Elizabeth Fenner, Assistant Managing Editor at Money Magazine.

Fenner writes about the rising importance of evidence based design on shaping how we think about remodeling our homes.  As she explains, it's research "backed by science that studies the effects of built spaces on our brains and our bodies- indicate that neither tons of space nor high-end furnishings are keys to home satisfaction."

For the article, Money Magazine and Lowes jointly funded an online survey in 2009 where 2,240 Americans aged 25 to 69 who own a single family free standing house which provides a good deal of the information shared in the article.  The article covers improvements which can be made in every room of the house which can improve homeowner satisfaction and a sense of wellness. (As well as help with possible resale value).  It doesn't cover much about the energy efficiency measures and using sustainable, environmentally friendly materials in any remodeling work.  Let's just say that's an untapped aspect of this article.

Some article highlights: ( I'll cover only the living room and kitchen to spark your curiosity....to learn about the recommendations for other rooms of the house go to your local library or order a back issue) 


Many of the suggestions ring true as good solid design strategies, while some are new to me and are worth further thought.

Living Room:

• Paint your walls soft yellow, this apparently helps make the living room more animated and comfortable to be in. (We have have soft yellow walls in our house.  My wife and I smiled when we heard this recommendation)
• Put your sofa in the right spot with a view to the door and through windows hopefully with scenes of nature of some sort.
• Build window seats to create social nooks.
• Add shelves to organize your chaos more neatly.
• Hide the TV within built-ins so you don't focus on it. Let the sun, drop the drapes or curtains.
• Open up your dropped ceiling.  It's more dynamic and creative.

Kitchen:

• Install a center island with built-in cook top.  We like having social connection to the rest of the room, not having our backs to people etc.
• Put your sink under a window or at least have a picture of nature and or a mirror if you can't over the sink.
• Use a variety of light fixtures to highlight counter work surfaces and the island.  Not just a single light fixture overhead for everything.
• Paint the walls a cool color.  Apparently this well help psychologically turn the down the room temperature a little bit by fooling the mind.

To help with gathering some of her insights, Fenner wrote about a the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, a group which joins research scientists and design folks together to further efforts in evidenced based design and research.  So often design can seem extremely subjective.  It's hard to pin down and agree on what are indeed effective and sound design strategies when remodeling or designing homes or in other areas of architectural design. Thus identifying more objective ways to describe and study design sounds great to me. Peruse their resources pages for more insight on the ideas behind design driven research and research driven design. 

Meanwhile, dig deeper into this article and maybe stir yourself into action leading to some big impacts on your home without breaking the bank.  For more information on energy efficiency and conservation turn to my friends at Efficiency Vermont and it's residential home team.  They have some very helpful Q&A with tips on everything to do with your home and shifting towards more green behaviors.  Enjoy these resources.  

Downsizing Options_The Real Goods Solar Home

What kind of house can you afford when you retire and want to have more predictability in your monthly expenses when living on a fixed income? Do you remain in your rambling family home with its many bedrooms to be used by your now adult children and their family only occasionally? Do you really need that 3,000 or 4,000 square foot home any more? Can you afford to heat it when you can't predict what fuel oil, natural gas or propane will cost next year or five years from now?

A strategy many empty-nesters often consider is downsizing perhaps to an efficiently laid out 1 to 2 bedroom cottage like home. One way to make your monthly expenses more predictable is to yes move to a smaller home but on top of that consider a small highly energy efficient green home, whether built new or gently used and renovated to green standards helping to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions. By moving up to small you will help your bottom line over the long term. Another aspect of this is moving from car dominated suburbs to the more pedestrian oriented communities. Having access to downtowns with their mix of services, people and resources is kinder to environment as well and often goes hand in hand with other strong communities.

One company filling this need for a small, affordable built new modular or plan home is Real Goods Solar Living from Boulder Colorado. As well as offering renewable energy systems for homeowners to add to their homes it now offers a solar kit home which comes in 1 and 2 bedroom sizes with various Solar electric system options, whether on the grid or off the grid. It also offer energy star appliances and an option for a composting toilet along with low-water use fixtures. The homes offer single level living within an extremely compact floor plan, essentially a 27' x 40' box. You can view more about their offerings at the product ordering part of the site. You can order it systems built which I understand as being modularized into distinct field assembled components or you can order architectural plans to modify with your own architect and builder.

From my perspective, The Real Goods Solar Home solution offers a great choice for homeowners looking to downsize, or build a first home with plans for future additions etc. Many companies offer this kind of solution like this though and I'll mention them in future posts. However, when considering buying a home like this it is important to examine the details. One area which concerns me is making sure to optimize or right size the level of building insulation, heating system and specifying the right amount of PV's to fill your solar electric and solar hot water needs.

I feel the level of insulation in the Real Goods home doesn't go far enough. The R-21 walls, R-49 ceiling and code compliant flooring insulation might be great for Colorado but they don't really help homeowners in colder climates like ours in the Northeast. In comparison other's such as Building Science Corporation recommend higher levels of insulation to further lower energy loads. See the Building Science Corporation's website for their recommendations and a little more about the European Passiv Haus an even more super insulated home concept.

"The Typical BSC low-energy home uses a minimum of r-5 (U=0.2) windows (triple glazed, low-e, warm edge spacers), R-10 sub slab insulation, and R-20 wall insulation in a conditioned basement, R-40 above-grade walls and R-60 ceilings (The "5/10/20/40/60" approach)." Both the BSC Low-Energy House and the Passiv Haus have higher insulation standards the Real Goods Solar Home, especially relevant in the cold climate region of the northeastern US. Perhaps the Real Goods folks could offer a Version 2.0 for our climate up here in Vermont.

From a practical viewpoint, installing more insulation further reduces the size of the heating system needed and the amount of PV's to provide solar electricity and hot water. PV's are expensive equipment to buy whether building new or renovating. Adding insulation isn't terribly glamorous and while largely invisible it is a more affordable choice helping to lower overall energy costs to the homeowner and optimize building systems and hopefully reduce first costs of construction and equipment. This process is called integrated building design. It takes collaboration and a willingness to work together to achieve homeowner's goals.

Please be aware buying a set of plans to build your own or a systems built home to assemble on site is only part of the story. Real Goods provides a online brochure which points out the home will generally cost up to $200,000 before purchasing land. But be wary of focusing too closely on this amount as every homeowner's situation is highly variable.

See http://www.realgoods.com/text/RG_Solarhouse_Info.pdf. The brochure identifies all of the other variables which go into building a new home, especially this kind of home. No kidding, there is a ton of complexity in building a low-energy renewably powered home. This complexity is the reason why it's important to work with an architect and a builder and their team of sub-contractors and consultants. It will pay off to you in many tangible and intangible ways.

Regardless, it is important to note how important it is for the building industry and the mainstreaming of the Green Movement to have companies like Real Goods offer the saavy green focused homeowner a turnkey concept like this with an eye to more predictable long term energy costs and reducing ecological impacts. Thanks Real Goods for offering consumers your Solar Home! And if you ask them about wanting additional insulation, I'm sure they'll at least talk with you about it.

(images are courtesy from the Real Goods Website to provide visual support to this post)

"Workplace Matters"...a design and organizational process resource

I ran into Kevin Kelley from the GSA public building service at NEOCON East in Baltimore last fall.

He mentioned Workplace Matters, a GSA applied research design book published in 2006 as a great resource for those interested in the design of the high performance and sustainable workplace. Kevin was a principal author along with Kevin Kampschroer, Kevin M. Powell, Judith Heerwagen and Intern: Patricia Cheng. Though it's a few years old now it offers an in-depth overview and explanation of the GSA's design process along with a variety of case studies illuminating best practices in application in the field at GSA projects around the country.

The book explains why the workplace matters in Government (or private settings). It identifies on page 8, "The emphasis of workplace design should be on the people and the work they accomplish. The cost of people in a building is typically 10 to 12 times the cost of the building’s infrastructure." So often, in designing, conceiving and constructing workplaces, the focus is on first costs rather than long-term operational costs and the soft-costs of human capital. This is unfortunate as much can be done in the design and implementation of workspace positively affecting long-term organizational effectiveness, while serving the public good. This is the heart of the message of this book and it's case studies.

Some Key GSA processes which emerged from the book:

• Using a Balanced Scorecard in the design process: The system is a mission driven measurement and management tool developed by two Harvard professors. Specifically it analyzes key financial, business process, human capital, and customer outcomes and creates a “balanced” perspective on how well the organization is performing and helps guide improvements.
• Quantitative and Qualitative Discovery Toolkit. GSA’s WorkPlace program develops design concepts and proposed solutions by seeking to understand how organizations tick, their mission, goals anFeedback Loop. GSA’s WorkPlace program uses a modified version of Deming’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” continuous feedback loop. The hallmarks of this process are clearly identifying connections between business/workplace goals (plan), designing solutions (do), measuring organizational outcomes (check), and improving upon the originally identified business/workplace goals (act). objectives, the make-up of the people, their clients etc. The GSA uses quantitative analysis of space use, turnover rates, absenteeism, and costs. The complement this by using qualitative tools such as a Web-based workplace satisfaction survey. They also conduct visioning sessions focused on seeking out organizational goals, behavioral norms and workplace expectations.
• Change Management: The GSA cast a wide net involving as many employees in the process with surveys, workshop and targeted focus groups. They gather information to influence thinking and build consensus about new ways of working and organizational behavior. This helps shift the organization from a entitlement to needs based space- allocation culture.
• Feedback Loop: Their program modified Peter Deming’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” continuous feedback loop process which identifies links between business/workplace goals (plan), designing solutions (do), measuring organizational outcomes (check), and improving upon the originally identified business/workplace goals (act). (paraphrased from p.14)

Workplace Matters also tackles other issue such as dealing with "Generations at Work" where Millennials, Generation Y, Generation X and Baby Boomers all work together in the topsy turvy world of the blended workplace. Each generation has its own work /life expectations and proclivities in the workplace. It's part of the story and any considered design process. Steelcase provides an interesting white paper on this subject as well entitled Millenials at Work.

For those interested in specifics on their process check out the chapter/ section on "Deep Dives", the workshop driven, data collection, brainstorming process so important to involving key stakeholders and deriving key design constraints.

All in all the book provides a very helpful complement to other Workplace Design resources written about on prior blog posts. It's a great find and better yet it's freely available online!

Give me your feedback on how valuable or informative resources such as Workplace Matters are to you in your work developing the high performance workplace!

Thanks!