Small Spaces

Workplace Small Spaces

Shrinking the Workplace

As companies strategize different ways to save space and limit costs, the workplace is evolving. They are not simply places to work, but spaces for employees to both work and enjoy, for clients to experience and build trust.

By MARTIN REEVES

As a hub of the company’s brand, workplaces are now becoming smaller and more concentrated

HOW STRATEGY IS HELPING THE SMALLER OFFICE

Companies are studying themselves and their structure meticulously and remodeling themselves and their environments as a consequence. The demand by organizations for real estate, and the way in which people use it, is being reinvented. Efficiency through optimization is a key tool to overcoming the ever-increasing cost of real estate, while being able to deliver significant performance benefits to the business. Value and cost is being balanced with the ways in which people carry out their work. The quality of the workplace has been given a new priority, as decisions about the way organizations spend money is reviewed. They are requesting more value for their money, and demanding their work environment ‘work harder’ for them at the same time.

LESS REALLY CAN BE MORE

Less space shouldn’t mean less functionality. Using less space can improve the dynamic in any office, as people are moved closer together, aiding communications and promoting teamwork. But there need to be other compensating factors to go with it. Spaces within the office are broken down and looked at in more detail than previously. The dilemma of a cellular or open plan is almost irrelevant, as workplaces become hybrids, combinations of alternative spaces that fit the function for the time they need to. Flexible space, un-bookable space and areas that allow the user to own it only for as long as they need to are adding value and improvement. Furniture solutions are as much part of this strategy as the interior architecture – pieces designed around how not only the business functions, but the various roles and ‘types’ of worker who uses it. Workplace strategy is no longer a tool open to only very large corporations, with firms like Bene and Jeremy Myerson at the Helen Hamlyn Centre in London adding clarity and energy to the discussion and studies. In practical terms, consultants such as Philip Ross at Cordless Group have written and produced much research attempting to look at the future demands of the workplace based around agile working, where he describes a more ‘nomadic’ worker. A ‘nomadic’ workforce is highly mobile and free to use alternative environments. This places less demand on the office as merely a quantity of area. The office starts to be seen in terms of it being a community. A landmark for the organization or a place to visit: more focused on delivery and quality, and less on general space and area. In fact, maybe the office needs to become smaller to deliver.

Officies as home

Maintaining balance, fostering creativity and comfort were the aim of TODA partner and designer

Mark Naden who created an intimate space for both work and living that was used as an alternative office space for design work, partner/ client meetings and office/staff gatherings. The TODA 55 Liberty

space functions as a home, but with the ability to transform to a business space with the use of sliding screens and curtains.

01, 02, 03 Photos: Courtesy of Toda.

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Toda offices in the TriBeCa neighborhood of New York, NY. Toda is a

multidisciplinary design firm. Photos feature the design of TODA's large office space in the 00's, before the shrinking. The space was design

by TODA partner Mark Naden, and featured many details, like swinging doors which come out of the wall allowing the space to be used in various ways. The space was designed to be open and inviting creating a balance between staff members personal work spaces and overall public space that could be shared.

04, 05, 06 Photos: Courtesy of Toda.

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There is more and more data and precedent providing evidence that mobile working, technology-driven interiors and new types of environments within the office allow the client the freedom to articulate the office in a more meaningful way. Higher productivity, profitability and higher staff retention are the goals.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS - THE

IDENTITY OF THE KNOWLEDGE WORKER(S)

Myerson uses terms like the “Anchor”, the “Connector”, the “Navigator" and the “Gatherer” to describe function, mobility and also requirements of the organization, which in turn allow the designer to “shrink wrap” the space around the functions of the staff. The smaller office becomes a more bespoke device, a meaningful tool for the transformation of the business. Looking at the functions and roles of the staff are the starting points to understanding the business. Smaller offices and more optimized space adds value and benefit, not simply in the financial cost led sense, although this is a key driver to the exercise, but tangible benefits to the business are also found in terms of productivity, communication, and collaboration. These elements need to be catered for as alternate spaces within the office, adjacent and annexed to the desks. Precedents for this type of workspace are becoming more developed with firms such as CISCO, Macquarie and BT, which embrace the principles and find benefit.

STAFF BONUS - COMPENSATING FACTORS – THE NOTION OF REWARD

The new office space can function as an agent of change and reward. The London office of DZ Bank, designed by Maris Interiors, reduced the demand from 2 floors into 1 by co-locating workers who had never worked together before, bringing different departments and roles into closer proximity to one another. This change, which brought different spaces next to one another through the use of perforated screens, good acoustic separation and a high degree of design planning, allows the teams to work separately, while in close proximity to one another. At DZ Bank, the flexible approach to meeting space epitomizes the movement towards flexible work environments. The main boardroom is no longer an iconic status of hierarchy and corporate positioning but fulfills its regular functions as a meeting space, along with being the fulcrum for the entire DZ Bank experience, both for visitors and staff. The environment promotes

Room Studio was designed to be easily customized and photographed in, to meet a set of diverse needs. The

space sought to be both neutral and filled with personality by using a minimalist and highly detailed interior architecture approach. It aims to be a work space

that allows the staff to work in both big and open spaces, as well as smaller spaces for staff working behind the scenes of a production.

07, 08 Courtesy of TODA

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transparency while maintaining strong acoustic qualities, yet it can be opened to promote social events, relaxed meetings that are connected to the adjacent social area of the office, and closely intertwining the movement of clients and staff without exposing visitors to confidential information or the day-to-day activities of the staff. Desks in the office have been recycled, as existing frames have been reused, with new worktops added, so no reduction in desk size was required, despite moving from 16,000sqft / 1,486sqm, to 11,393sqft / 1,058sqm. The previous office was planned on a different metric, allocating much more space between desks, with some organic moves and changes over the years making the problem worse. Reducing the space around the desks, joining desks and re-planning meant there was no need to offer smaller personal space. The re-

Ynno is a consulting firm based in Utrecht in the Netherlands. Their services

include strategy advice, analysis of work, selection of it, development of innovative office concepts, program management and implementation among others. Their new Creative

Valley took a new approach. The idea was to maintain balance and comfort despite their small offices. They perceived the office as a home base rather than an actual office.

12 Courtesy of Ynno

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ward to the staff is not only within the design, the materials and the build, but unbookable space, vibrant, attractive furniture solutions, artwork and radically improved shared resources such as the large and inspiring pantry, which provides a combination of casual meeting space, break area, exceptional catering, full audio-visual installations and access to an exceptional penthouse roof terrace, creating a sense of status for the employees. A sense of pride is an important tool, as much as more tangible elements. Richard Kauntze, the Chief Executive of the British Council for Offices, summarizes the new approach to office density perfectly "it is a misconception that higher office densities mean we are all packed in like sardines. The increase in density has come about because, on the whole, we are working differently and using space more effectively. The cellular, inflexible offices of the 70s and early 80s have gradually been replaced by open-plan, team-orientated environments with a range of facilities from kitchens to gyms. We are a knowledgebased service economy where comfort and amenity play a significant role in workplace productivity.”

RE-THINKING THE OFFICE – SIZE

REALLY DOESN’T MATTER!

So collectively, we are re-thinking our image of what the office should be, whether as a component of an organization, an extension of one’s home, and perhaps most importantly, how it responds to the activities carried out within it. Motorola’s headquarters fit-out in 2005 was reflective of a strong workplace strategy that, in hindsight, minimized its exposure to a reduced market presence while they drastically altered their

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working environment, placing 1,000 previously ‘static’ workers in a flexible environment that contained only 650 desks. To fully work, there need to be defined compensating factors: What’s the reward? Good design strategizes to capture the client experience and the candidate experience. Unsurprisingly, innovation is a key factor. Spaces that are responsive to the organization have to be truly bespoke. Interiors that use technology strategically, rather than simply operationally, are more and more becoming the norm. The ‘Cloud’ is commonplace and has also entered our daily vocabulary. It’s no longer experimental, but rather the benchmark. This, then, is the evolution of the office, a space that is designed around the space you need for the time you need it – this ‘new office’ as a landmark, a placeholder for the organization, has

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less to do with size, and more to do with representing the culture of the organization. The smaller office is coming of age.•

DZ Bank provides access to the international financial markets for its partner institutions and their

customers. In order to perform these functions, it maintains branches in London, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong among others. 09 Office environment and dynamism 10 Shrinked meeting room 11 Relaxation area

Photos by Alex Kendrick

Courtesy of Maris Interiors

DMH Stallard a UK

law firm offers services for both businesses and

individuals. The organization has asked Maris Interiors to redesign and optimize their office space, that went from a bigger location to a smaller one. 13 Series of shrinked offices 14 Simple and comfortable workstation 15 Waiting room 16 Entire office floor plan

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