workSPACE An exploration into the future office workspace
Jack Hands
INTROduction My project focuses on two main areas of modern day productivity. The pschology of time managment and organisation, PRODUCTivity. And potential working environments, workSPACE
“Western culture typically views the mind, the body and the environment separately, but science is showing that they are intricately linked, as Eastern cultures have long known,�
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WorkSPACE 1-2 /Office trends 3-10 /Adaptability 11-18 /Technology 19-28 /Wellness 29-36 /Biophillia 37-44 /Desk Test 45-56 /Materials 57-66 /Colours 67-76 /Summary 77-82 /Concepts 83-93
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Despite being in a period of econ from the Office of National Sta worker is lower than all other G Jap
Gensler Research U.K W
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nomic recovery, the latest figures atistics show that UK GDP per G7 nations,with the exception of pan.
Workplace Survey 2016
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Open-Plan Offices Since their introduction in the 1950’s the popularity of the open-plan office has been a favoured styling option, particularly in the U.K, due to it’s efficiency for space and it’s collaborative promotion. However, they are typically bad for productivity. In a recent Telegraph article it was reported that every 3 minutes the average office worker is interupted in an open plan office.
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“Over 8 million UK empl environments and many are not optima
Gensler Research U.K W
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loyees work in open plan y of these environments ally designed.�
Workplace Survey 2016
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Hot Desking Hot desking refers to a more fluid approach to office organisation where in desks aren’t assigned to specific employees. Martin from Cohda said that when he used a hot desking method at his old firm. Most mornings people would sit at the same desk they normally did, and though seats weren’t assigned it was frowned upon to sit out of position
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Adaptability In a continually changing working environment where the same spaces are used for different activities in a standard day it is important for the areas and the furniture within them to be adaptable to multiple functions.
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Herman Miller - Sit Stand Desk
Standing + Sitting A recent trend in office furniture is the introduction of the standing desk. Sitting for prolonged times increases drowsiness, fatigue and proneness to injury. In a recent research experiment by Herman Miller the key points identified were: In developed countries, people on average sit 3 to 8 hours a day. Prolonged sitting can cause injury, heart disease, and fatigue. Experts recommend standing 5 to 20 minutes each hour. Height-adjustable furniture can reduce sitting time by up to 60 percent.
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Jarvis - Hardwood Standing Desk
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Dieter Rams - T-Leg Easy Chair
Look at the legs on that My issue with seating standing desk is that they mainly rely on over-engineered hideous legs T-legs that seem ill-considered and ugly. The T-Legs used on the Dieter Rams easy chair are much sleeker and surely support a similar weight. This Jarvis standing desk lightens the leg with a white powder coating, another option,
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KI -Universal Height-Adjustable Screens
Collaborative + Private The introduction of open-plan offices are an interior and architectural decision for a workspace. Designated areas, usually for a management position, are private, reminiscent of Taylorism. In fact, in the 2016 Gensler Workplace survey they found 89% of those in senior leadership have a private offices compared to 23% at lower levels of the oragnisation. As the task changes and the teams that work on them, the adaptability between collaborative and private is vital for retaining productivity and innovation.
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Technology The office space will forever be on the forefront of technology but the use of technology for prolonged periods of time is not only not instinctive for us but can be damaging to our health. The future office space is one that uses technology and data in a way that feels almost natural with how we interact with it and use it
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Inductive Charging Advances in inductive charging in recent years have seen an influx in intergrated inductive furniture. Stores such as IKEA have already began creating side tables and benches. As this technology becomes more ubiquitous, more products will utilize the technology. Including laptops and larger tablet devices.
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Touch Screen Projection Often omitted to sci-fi movies touch screen projection seems a desired step in how we will interact with technology. However Sony recently released the Xperia Touch which turns any flat surface into a 23-inch high definition touch screen. This shows the potential of the future interaction with desk based items
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VR / AR Becoming a much more understood and ubiquitous method of education and interaction due to companies such as Samsung and Google. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality could soon see a game changing method in how we work in office space, especially in creative industries. These methods do require a lot of open space to be used effectively, not too available in a standard office space.
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Speech to Text Software Introduced to early when the technology was not accurate enough speech to text software has been shunned beside it’s now present capabilities. However in the introduction of Smart home devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home the technology is becoming more accepted and reveered. Typically difficult in a loud office environment but it could see an appearance in the future office space.
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“The most successful organiz attention to employee wellbein financial and comp
TOM RATH Auth
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zations are now turning their ng as a way to gain emotional, petitive advantage.�
hor of Wellbeing
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Wellbeing A hot topic that is beginning to be raised around workplace environments is the wellbeing of the staff. The link between employee satisfaction and productivity is a fairly blatant link but now companies are looking outside the regular realms of job satisfaction to mental health.
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Presenteeism A condition of being there physically but unproductive mentally is on the rise in the U.K. In fact, the Centre for Mental Health puts the price of this at ÂŁ15 Billion a year - Almost twice as much the cost of absense.
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Absenteeism A much more familiar habit of taking days off from work. This is much more difficult to manage and understand because of varying reasons. An office space that apreciates physical, pshchological and environtmental needs to improve a work-life balance would help improve absenteeism.
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Stress Stress in the workplace is now emerging in the developing world, too, according to a 2011 report in Le Monde newspaper: “Countries from Asia and the southern hemisphere are now carefully—and officially— looking at the psycho-social problems and economic consequences linked to work-induced stress.”
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My Project The difficulty with welness within my project is it’s ability to hide within an employee and is based more upon work relationships to our work and other employees. However satisfaction can be improved with surroundings and our connection with our surroundings to make work as comfortable as possible.
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“When people are in environ emotions, they’re free to be p creat
Steelcase A Holistic View
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nments that support positive productive, collaborative and tive.�
w: Body Mind Environment
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BioPhilia Biophillia is the innate love of nature that is formed within people. Due to hundreds of thousands of years living in agrarian surroundings we are naturally comfortable in greener, more organic environments.
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Guela/Figuera -Viride
Biophilic Design Biophillic designhas been proven to reduce stress, lower blood pressure levels and heart rates, while increasing productivity and creativity and self reported rates of well-being. This can be induced artificially as it has been proven that even naturally occuring colours can stimulate the brain. Studies have shown that viewing an attractive complex fractal pattern can trigger the part of the cerebellum that makes a person want to reach out and connect.
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Amazon -New Proposed Headquarters
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Facebook -New Headquarters, Menlo Park
The Biophilic Office After it’s recorded increase of 13% increase in productivity in office spaces, biophillic office space is becoming a real innovation space with big players getting involved. Architecture and interior design choices play a large part, but intergrated biophillic design is emergin in products that can significantly improve productivity.
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“96% (5.3 Million) of businesses Employing 0
These small microbusinesses are the large majority of businesses th environments. These businesses will b
House Of Commons Bu
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in the U.K are microbusinesses 0-9 people.�
hat perhaps don’t have buildings that can facilitate multiple, suitable be the initial target area for my project.
usiness statitstics 2016
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Desk Test I conducted a test through Facebook and in the University building to get an understanding of what attracted people to work at a desk. I used the desks in the university final year room as there is a consistency in desk size and surround but variance in organisation.
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fe
li t n Pla
Simple but adorned in some small way
I Like Plants , Especially if you’re stuck in an office l rsona e P e Som ches Tou
Hydrated an d clutter free
Room to wo rk
Tidy & t a Ne
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d Sticky Boar for ideas Reminders s et in front of yo u
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Personalisa tion is paramou nt
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ip Sk e Lik
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Some Colour
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d ise m i r n Mi lutte C
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orkspa W n e Op
inter
3D Pr Cool
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d ise n a g Or haos C
I like somewher e to put my stuff out of the way
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Inspires creativity
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“Tidy Desk,
When your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your abi This could also lead to you being easily distracted and unable to p uncluttered an
Princeton University
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Tidy Mind�
ility to focus, limiting your brain’s ability to process information. process information as well as you could if your environment was nd organised.
Neuroscience Institute
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Material As I plan on making a physical product or piece of furniture I needed to look at suitable materials that would encapsulate the research that I have already identified in the earlier stages of this research. This required sample boards and material tests.
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Corian Corian is a solid surface material from DuPont. The potential use of the material is seemingly endless. It can be machined in an array of means to create seamless organic shapes. Some of it’s redeeming qualities are:
Durable
Tough
Easy-To-Clean
Withstands daily wear and tear
It doesn’t delaminate and is remarkably durable
Dirt doesn’t penetrate the nonporous surface
Non-Porous
Repairable
Seamless
Hygenic and unpenetrable from liquids
Renewable and inherently environmentally friendly
Inconspicuous seams can be created using resin 60
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Corian Aswell as it being easily machined it allows light to travel through it at certain densities. Different surface texture can be applied to it aswell. More redeeming is it’s ability to thermoform meaning continuos organic shapes can be achieved.
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Corian Tests As I may use electronic components aswell as lighting components within the Corian I wanted to test it’s transluscency with light combined with it’s toughness. I milled 30x30 squares of varying depths into a piece and shone a light behind it. The piece itself has strangely attractive aesthetic properties regardless but the material finish after milling is still of high quality and it was easily machined.
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Soft Fabrics An office space not only consists of solid surfaces but soft dividers and sound isolation. I acquired samples of several sound isolating fabrics to potentially use in my workSPACE. Kvadrat, A danish fabric producer, provides sound isolating materials with interesting patterns and textures that would look good in office furniture.
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Office Colour The influence on pschology and mindset that colour has in a space can have effect on how employees work and their motivation to do so. Offices are notoriously dull places in a letting generation. Grey carpets and white walls don’t provide much mental stimulation. Office furniture trends suggest an influx in colour splashes in small amounts
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Millenial Pink Pantone naming rose quartz as their colour of the year of 2015 began a trend towards pink. This year millenial pink has seen a massive increase in in fashion and design.
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Biophillic Colour As I found when looking at biophillic design, naturally occuring colours, textures and hues , even if artificially produced can provide stimulus for the brain, I will therefore be looking towards a more natural colour palette.
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Cube Stationairy -Tom Dixon
Summary I want to summarise my learnings of the research project and where my innovation space would sit in the workspace. I created a set of rules that would help me to shape a product for this market.
1. Organised A tidy and organised workspace is vital to optimise productivity. By assessing projects on a task by task basis it means that the brain doesn’t become overwhelmed. An organised, tidy workspace allows a person to work most effectively.
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Herman Miller Factory, Locksbrook Road -Sir Nicholas Grimshaw
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Tilt Brush -Google
2. Flexible An office space must facilitate the multiple functions and different tasks throughout the company. The need for a workspace to be suitable for different types of work is valuable in microbusinesses as their small numbers require an adaptive office space.
3. Technological Technology is an intrinsic working platform and a workspace needs to facilitate that. Through inductive charging, lighting and interaction design a workspace can improve how employees work alongside their technology. Also an understanding of how technology can influence the form of an office.
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Falling Water - Frank Lloyd Wright
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4. Natural Though technologically equipped, an office space should be instinctively natural, creating comforatbility. This can be achieved using biophillic design in terms of texture, colour and material selection. But also how we interact with our workspace, how we understand and manage data that we send and recieve
5. Pleasurable Offices that understand a healthy, happy mindset from their employees have greater productivity success . A comfortable workspace can improve mental association with work and reduce presenteeism and absenteeism. This can be done in several ways through accomplishing the other rules but creating meaningful and delightful interactions and experiences with the workspace.
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Concept 1 A collaborative and private desk Creating a workspace that embraces private and group work my first concept for a workspace is one that can store information relevant to private projects on a sound-proofed divider. This can then be folded down and the solid back surface be used for collaborative work.
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Concept 1 A little piece of the office With this concept I was hoping to make a more personalised and pleasured surrounding by featuring potentially a magnetically backed wall and a planting area to create a an attatchment to the desk.
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Concept 2 The Hood A completely secluded working space using soft noise diffusing material to create a hood that can be put up and down depending on the work. Looking at the materials I have looked at, pyramid like shapes are good for absorbing sound but they can also tesselate and fold.
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Concept 3 Who said a desk had 4 legs and a top? A more contempory idea of a future office space. I thought about the difficulty with desks is there presense in the room, things to be moved and arranged within changing functions. An arrangement of desk from the ceiling allows a multitude of different working scenarios and ideals. A futuristic hotdesking in which employees could pull down the amount of needed tables for the allocated tasks. It also creates an opportunity for sitting/standing desks without the ugly legs!
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Regular Office Day
Small Meeting
Concept 3 Changing Environment This concept would allow the desk to be an interchangeable work surface that could be altered in XYZ planes to meet set tasks. “Desk Chairs� could store the employee work and be freely moved around the office.
Large Meeting
VR/AR Space
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Any comments or queries please contact me at: jack.hands.design@gmail.com
...Thankyou