Mix interiors 167 by Mix_Interiors

Mix Interiors 167

September 2016

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Inside

UPFRONT 11 10 Seven... 17 Keeping it Brief 18

CASE STUDIES58 58 Ogilvy 66 Task

Forward Thinking 21 Material Matters 22 Desert Island Desks

SPOTLIGHT 25 66

26 The Big Question 28 Innovation

Profile 70 70 Mehran Gharleghi

Preview 79 79 London Design Festival

96 Just an idea

The logo

Our logo reflects the Origami/ kirigami-inspired nature of the front cover chair. The design emulates the art of sculpting and folding paper creating organic shapes and forms. This use of organic creation can also be seen to reflect Scott Brownrigg Interior Design’s evolution. www.scottbrownrigg.com

A Word

The cover image

So here we are deep into September, with summer holidays just a distant memory (so glad I could cheer you all up!). It has been a pretty epic summer though, and one in which I feel I’ve learnt a great deal. To start with, the unparalleled political turmoil that preceded summer revealed two very distinct schools of thinking throughout the industry. There’s nothing profound about this, by the way, it just beautifully illustrates how this sector can divide itself into the glass is half full and the glass is half empty brigade. So, while half of the industry (and we’re talking about all sectors, from furniture sales guys through to heads of interiors and end users) assumed that we were now in a post-Brexit, pre-apocalyptic lull and therefore should use this calm before the storm to say their goodbyes to their loved ones make their way to the nearest fallout shelter, others simply assumed it was August. After all, August is always quiet.

RCA/Imperial College London graduate and KI Award recipient, Christian Felsner’s ‘Aktor’ can be manipulated into different shapes. Origami/kirigami-inspired, it has 2,240 joints and is mouldable when charged, becoming rigid again when it cools. ‘Aktor’ will be showcased at KI during LDF as part of an exhibition supporting students and innovation. www.ki.com MIX INTERIORS 167

D's New Inca power and USB charging module has been igned specifically for communal areas and meeting rooms. available in black, grey and white and has four faces that be configured to provide a range of power and charging utions for any working environment.

The cover

Mix Interiors 167

September 2016

SEPTEMBER 2016 THE INNOVATION GAME

Back issues Contact us to buy back issues: rebecca@mixinteriors.com

from Mick

Get in touch Editor Mick Jordan mick@mixinteriors.com

Editorial support Rebecca Sabato rebecca@mixinteriors.com Director David Smalley david@mixinteriors.com

MIX INTERIORS 165

Mix Interiors 165

June 2016

Which was good news for us sports fans – who were able to become creatures of the night and watch Olympic sports we didn’t even know existed until way into the small hours. There’s something both incredibly touching and slightly unnerving about witnessing two drunk Essex blokes (in their mid-50’s, I’d say) hugging because GB had just claimed a bronze in the trampolining! Forget all that stuff about one fallen athlete picking another up off the track to finish the race together or two brothers from Yorkshire embracing after their joint victory, the sight of two red-faced, tubby Brits with tears in their eyes, having just watched a 16-year old girl do some summersaults on a trampoline is, in my eyes, the true spirit of the Olympics. Although a special mention must also go to whichever diver it was who weed in that pool! If I’d jumped off aboard from 10m backwards I think I’d have done the same.

Designer Georgina Nicklin georgina@mixinteriors.com

JUNE 2016

Managing director Marcie Incarico marcie@mixinteriors.com

THE PRODUCT DESIGNER ISSUE

Founding publisher Henry Pugh

Contributors Mark Eltringham Nigel Tresise Steve Gale Address Mix Media Limited 2 Abito 85 Greengate Manchester M3 7NA Telephone 0161 946 6262 e-mail editorial@mixinteriors.com Website www.mixinteriors.com Twitter @mixinteriors

Subscriptions To ensure that a regular copy of Mix Interiors reaches your desk, please call 0161 946 6262 or e-mail: sales@mixinteriors.com Annual subscription charges UK single £45.50, UK corporate (up to 5 individuals) £140, Europe £135 (airmail), Outside Europe £165 (airmail). Printed by S&G Print ISSN 1757-2371

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Mix Interiors 160

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Mix Interiors 160

During London Design Festival, KI will showcase some of the remarkable work coming out of the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London’s Innovation Design Engineering double masters course. The two winners of this year’s KI Awards, Christian Felsner’s ‘Aktor’ and Christina Petersen’s ‘LYS’ will be displayed alongside other projects whose innovative ideas and imagination will influence the future of architecture, interior design, product design and manufacturing to create happier, healthier, more productive and sustainable spaces in the future. All images courtesy of the students. 6

KI @ #LDF16 How will the innovations of today shape the workplace of tomorrow? Mix Interiors 160

Visit us during #LDF16 19-23 September 2016 | 09:00 - 17:30 | @kieurope KI Europe Level 3, New Fetter Place 8-10 New Fetter Lane London EC4A 1AZ E: workplace@kieurope.com 7 W: www.kieurope.com

Mix Interiors 160

I N D U ST R I A L L A N DSCA P E No 6 - BRICK

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Mix Interiors 160

Upfront

Innovations that re-think waste

More than ever, companies are striving to minimise, eradicate, re-use and recycle waste that, once upon a

time, was destined for landfill. With this in mind, global modular flooring manufacturer and sustainability leader,

Interface, has highlighted seven inspiring innovations of 2016 that re-think waste. 4 1 SALTWATER BREWERY AND WEBELIEVERS Saltwater Brewery has partnered with advertising agency, WeBelievers, to limit waste in our oceans by creating edible beer six-pack rings made from the biproducts of the brewing process – barley and wheat. This new packaging is biodegradable and can be broken down as fish and animal feed.

©donjulio

2 IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY Young-A Lee, an associate professor of apparel, merchandising and design at Iowa State University, is working on using the waste from kombucha tea to create clothes, shoes and bags. The tea is created using bacteria and yeast, known as SCOBY, and the discarded remains after brewing form a bi-product with a similar consistency to leather – the perfect material for fashion goods. The fibre can also decompose, meaning that eventually these products can be used as nutrients for plant and soil.

4 FORD AND JOSE CUERVO Harvestable agave plants take between seven and 10 years to grow before being used to create tequila, and then discarded. However the plant’s lifespan could go far beyond this. Working together, Ford and Jose Cuervo have realised the potential of tography - Dupli r Pho co M using the bi-product formed in the distillation process. e y edi yD ad aL Br im Although this is still in its testing phase, the bi© i te product has the potential to create a bioplastic used for cup holders, fuse boxes and various parts of a Ford vehicle in the future.

3 BYFUSION ByFusion has found a way to repurpose plastic sent to landfill by developing RePlast technology, which recycles this waste into durable construction blocks. Needing no glue or adhesives, the end result is colourful building material with 95% lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional concrete.

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5 3DOM FUEL Based in Fargo, North Dakota, 3Dom Fuel specialise in developing 3D printing filaments – a coiled string of material that is melted for printing – from a range of unusual and unconventional materials. Their ‘wound up’, ‘buzzed’ and ‘entwined’ ranges use waste produce from coffee, beer and hemp to create more sustainable filaments for the industry.

6 WAITROSE Where packaging is concerned, Waitrose is leading the way with 100% recyclable boxes for products including its new gluten-free fusilli pastas. The packets are made from 15% recycled food waste, meaning the box can come into direct contact with its contents – eliminating the need for additional wrapping in the pack.

7 HOMEBIOGAS HomeBiogas tackles the issue of household food waste by turning leftovers into clean cooking gas without the need for electricity. The system is designed to fit neatly in a garden, making it accessible for all families, and can create three hours of cooking gas per day. The bi-product also works perfectly as plant fertiliser.

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Upfront

BOSS DESIGN DELIVERS A NEW ‘ASPECT’ ON OFFICE PODS

BANKING ON LIGHT Nulty has recently completed work on the refurbished London offices for a global financial services corporation. Working in collaboration with Perkins + Will, Nulty has created a sophisticated and tactile lighting design solution fitting for one of the world’s top financial companies. The large commercial space, set in one of London’s busy financial hubs, needed an updated café and seating area that would promote and aid communication and interaction between staff. Working with the engineering of the building, the Nulty team was able to create different communal pockets and a continuous flow of movement throughout the large open-plan area. Upon entering, a library space graces the back wall and provides additional seating for the nearby coffee bar. A relaxed domestic feel has been created

by using cleverly concealed luminaires within the ceiling and punctuating the space with a cluster of hanging pendants. Integrated luminaires were fitted within the bespoke bookcase’s joinery and provide an interesting focal point. A dropped ceiling, that forms the central point of the space, features a maze of LED luminaries mirroring and illuminating the furniture layout below. The impressive Nulty solution works with the exposed surfaces in the surrounding space, creating a raw industrial feel to the design, with linear pendants suspended between the ceiling ducts. Sustainability and energy-efficient lighting was key to the design throughout and the team managed to achieve this with approximately 11.85 watts per sq m.

Boss Design has widened its UK market-leading range of office pod systems to include a new and revolutionary model, Aspect, that will be on display in the showroom at this year’s London Design Festival. Taking flexibility and collaboration to new heights, this latest innovation has workplace wellbeing firmly at the heart of its design. Whether working in solitude, focusing on a concentrated task, or working as a small group, Aspect offers the intimacy and privacy that is vital for today’s modern methods of working. When it comes to meeting spaces for bigger groups, Aspect also delivers. As well as offering a cost-effective and contemporary alternative to formal meeting rooms and fixed partitioning, it provides the ideal solution for larger modern offices and delivers the ultimate in flexibility. Commenting on this latest launch, Mark Barrell, Design Director at Boss Design says: 'At last, there is now an office pod system with a real point of difference. People are key drivers behind workplace design today, and their wellbeing is paramount. Quite simply, when we feel better, we work better. We are confident that Aspect will be a firm favourite with those specifiers offering a holistic approach to workplace design.'

Upfront

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Upfront

LOCAL TEAM BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO BASKERVILLE HOUSE AS SPECULATIVE REFURBS RISE Overbury and Monteith Scott have announced the completion of refurbishment work on the lobby area of Grade II listed Baskerville House in Birmingham. The project began in April 2015 and includes new revolving entrance doors, a relocated reception desk to create a more welcoming approach for visitors and a more discrete, dedicated route for occupiers. Monteith Scott Managing Director Alison Monteith said: ‘Key to our design at Baskerville House was creating a new space befitting the modern, high quality office space throughout the rest of the building. However, we were also keen to ensure that the new fit out complemented the iconic art deco style of the original design. We’re confident that the end result has achieved this and we’re looking forward to seeing the space in use.’ Baskerville House is one of a number of Overbury projects in recent months that have seen the owners of office buildings in the West Midlands undertaking speculative refurbishments. Overbury’s Danny Parmar added: ‘It is well known that existing Grade A office space in Birmingham City Centre is in much demand as no new buildings will be coming to market for a couple of years. As a result, we’re seeing an increase in landlords speculatively refurbishing their office space to attract new tenants.’ As well as Baskerville House, Overbury’s Central team is currently working on office refurbishments at The Mailbox for Brockton Capital, IM Properties at No 1 Central Boulevard and last year delivered similar work at Birmingham Business Park for British Steel Pension Fund and 1 Trinity Park for Presbyterian Mutual.

HEALTHY RESULT FROM ISOMI The European headquarters of inVentiv Health, a global clinical and commercial professional services company, has been created by architecture practice Arcademy Design. Located in central London, the design for the 1,700 sq m project creates separate zones for the company’s different functions, and employs a wide range of colours, textures, shapes and finishes. When it came to finding the right solution for the reception area, Arcademy turned to Isomi, as Director Peter French explains: ‘The reception area is paramount to that first impression, and this is where Isomi’s Blok reception desk worked superbly well. It links beautifully with the large staff cafeteria design, and blends well with the rich reclaimed wall timbers. Out of all the options we had, Isomi’s solution was a resounding ‘yes’ when we approached the large decision-making design quorum within inVentiv. Isomi had a focused process from design to sign off to installation, and we look forward to working with them again in the future.’ With a minimal aesthetic, the Blok reception desk in solid surface can be specified for office and reception spaces of all sizes from a selection of modular components, which are installed as one seamless, highly finished piece. The Blok desk is also available as part of the Isomi in Metal collection, in hot rolled steel, copper and brass.

Upfront

SYNERGY IN ALL THINGS We are looking forward to catching up with our friends at Camira in their new Clerkenwell showspace, which is now just a few weeks away from completion. It’s not just the showroom that has kept them busy however, here are some of the fabric leader’s latest product innovations. Synergy is a new wool blend fabric, available in Camira’s largest colourway of 75 intelligent shades, from premium New Zealand wool, used in the woollen spun weft in combination with a fine worsted warp. We are told Synergy offers a smoother finish and is combined with just 5% polyamide Individuo, a wool-rich fabric with a distinctive tie-dye effect, is available in four contemplative colourways. Its fluid, graduated colour appearance is everchanging and ensures no two areas of fabric are the same.

SARACEN AND AUDATEX CREATE OPTIMUM USE OF SPACE Saracen Interiors has designed and delivered a full fit-out for Audatex – with specific focus on welcoming visitors and providing a more agile, open-plan work environment for all employees. Audatex was presented with a Pantone guide to assess which colours it would rather sit alongside its recognised corporate shade. Saracen then picked a vibrant selection from the client’s choice and presented these colours, throughout the office, in a random configuration, using carefully sourced furniture and fittings to provide a canvas for the multi-coloured hues. This backdrop of vibrant colour was then complemented by feature walls, designed by Saracen, including a map of the world and the outline of a car, which is made up of various car parts. The car theme was continued with docked iPads outside the meeting rooms, identifying each room as an automotive brand and providing an easy reference for schedules of events and availability. The refurbishment was undertaken in phased stages to ensure the 112-strong Audatex team were able to continue to operate with a ‘business as usual’ approach for its customers. ‘As a dynamic technology company, it is vital we remain focused on enabling our teams to collaborate and innovate and this re-fit recognises that need,’ explains Nicola Mascard, Operations Director, Audatex. ‘Saracen offered us the expertise to create the highest level of specification for our offices, harnessing the latest technology to build not only a stimulating and contemporary workplace for employees, but a centre of excellence for customers, prospects and partners to benefit from.’

Upfront

Keeping it Brief

In part two of his brilliant insight, Nigel Tresise, Director and Co-founder at align, tells us more about the importance of a great brief in creating a great workspace. Honesty is absolutely the best policy in the early stages of any project, especially if the person giving the brief has a fairly limited viewpoint of a business’ over-arching values. Whilst a brief may be given by a client representative who works day in/day out on office practicalities, like a Studio or FM Manager, or by a client with a more complete overview, such as a developer, CEO, COO or MD, it could equally easily be communicated by a Finance Director or HR Manager or the boss’ PA. If the designer senses that the brief-giver may not know the whole story themselves and is even ad-libbing to some degree, it’s important to dig away gently at what is being said to ensure as full a picture as possible emerges. It is of course a huge risk to say to clients that a brief isn’t quite good enough and people skills really have to be to the fore! Designers have to polish their interview technique and learn to relate to people in the moment, reading the situation as it unveils – a life skill that sometimes gets forgotten in a work environment. On the design side of the equation, there are often not enough people who know how to take a brief properly. Agencies can be guilty of sending in staff of too junior a level for this huge undertaking. If you get a junior designer who doesn’t ask the right questions and a client representative putting up something of a front, the project is in trouble from the outset! Conversely, another issue can come from a client being too design-literate. If a client or

brief-giver comes from a design background, there may be a presumption that the answers are already in hand, never mind the questions! At this point, a gentle reminder that external designers are there precisely to bring in an outsider point of view and wider frame of reference may be useful. Budgets are always a delicate area and internal agendas could be preventing clients from declaring their hand. Sometimes there’s

Reconfirming shows not only that the design and client teams have been in the same room but on the same page.

a fixed budget, for example, but clients deliberately don’t communicate it at the briefing stage because they don’t want to limit the design team’s creativity. Alternatively, the client may be testing out an idea of a budget to see how sound it is. Another scenario is that there is very much a maximum budget in place, but the client wants to know if the designers are going to come in under it. If a design team walks away not knowing the budget, it’s hard to know which of these apply. It’s a good idea then for the designers

to try and structure their design in such a way as to facilitate the prioritising of financial decisions. If everything is broken down into fine detail and the designers quote a fixed fee rather than the traditional percentage, everything is clear for everyone and variations are much easier to check as time goes on. Once all these twists and turns have been negotiated, there’s a final key stage to go through; namely, checking the brief back with the client. Reconfirming shows not only that the design and client teams have been in the same room but on the same page. This is the time for the design team to double-check hunches and nuances in unambiguous black and white! Once this process is complete, agreement needs to be reached by all parties on how to quantify the success of the project and set the parameters for moving forward. This set of criteria could be very particular to each client organisation. Is it increased staff morale, for example, or improved brand perception or increased productivity? Of course, no one knows all the answers at the beginning and there will inevitably be unseen challenges as the project goes on. Buildings can reveal hidden problems as walls come down and floors go up, especially if the project entails renovating a property that hasn’t been touched for a long while. It’s always wise to stay open, flexible and fleetfooted, ensuring communication channels are kept clear at all times. www.aligngb.com

Nigel Tresise is Director and Co-founder of align. nigel@aligngb.com

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Upfront

Forward Thinking

Innovation - I suspect that sometimes we do things simply because we can. M Moser's Steve Gale The word innovation makes me think of new stuff, physical things that were not around before, like Graphene, Segways or the jet engine, but I know I’m missing something. I probably need to consider Graphene as a discovery, not really an innovation – making it into a flexible skin for a car would be an innovation. And maybe the jet engine was what we would call an invention, and the jet aeroplane would qualify as its innovative application. On the other hand, I have missed intangible innovations. The World Wide Web must surely qualify, and that is certainly intangible, and then what about new ways of doing things, are they innovations? Of course they are. The Fosbury Flop was a new way of getting over a high jump bar, and just in time delivery was an innovation to reduce stock and improve cash flow. We can call these behavioural innovations. So now I can see two areas of innovation. Technological things, both physical and virtual, like carbon fibre bike frames or systems like the internet, and organisational ones like Kaizen (continuous improvement) or just in time delivery. In business, as well as training people to be more effective, we change the way we do things simply to embrace new technology. Do we innovate to exploit newly available systems, or do they exploit us? I suspect that sometimes we do things simply because we can, rather than because we have figured out what is needed to make a positive difference. And because of that, sometimes a business innovation can have unanticipated consequences which work against the big picture.

In the wider world we can easily find examples we all recognise. The mobile phone, for all its benefits, reduces pedestrians to sentient traffic cones in the street. They create annoyance in the railway carriage, and near violence when they ring in the theatre auditorium. The supermarket, which was a retail innovation which revolutionised shopping habits over a 50-year span, much like online shopping is doing now, has hollowed out town centres and created traffic problems that legislation is now trying to reverse. In the workplace we have created new ways of doing things too. These new behaviours have every right to be called innovations, and

The mobile phone, for all its benefits, reduces pedestrians to sentient traffic cones in the street

they ride on the back of technology, and this technology is frequently the internet or one of its spin-offs. Being always on and infinitely connected provides amazing potential, but we can use this potential without always thinking about its value. Teleconferencing allows teams from different countries and time zones to collaborate, but when that means long calls inevitably at unsocial hours with the reduced bandwidth of even the best electronic connection, you can wonder why you didn’t find

Steve Gale is Head of Business Intelligence at M Moser Associates. SteveG@mmoser.com

people nearby to work with, that you know and trust. Personal contact is hard to beat. Email is everyone’s blessing, and is the standard channel for business communication everywhere. Ten years ago, when I asked an IT department for their biggest single workplace problem, I expected them to complain about the noise disruption they were certainly subjected to. We ran two workshops which came up with the same unexpected issue: excessive emails, or ‘email blizzards’, as they called it. ‘Sort that!’ they begged, and they would double their productivity, and be much happier into the bargain. ‘Forget the noisy neighbours, we’ve got headphones’. Flexible working, that well-worn catchphrase, basically means the ability to work anywhere and any place. A common outcome is a radical reduction in the number of workstations, and a plethora of other settings mainly for collaboration. This is certainly regarded as an organisational innovation, and is fine if it works, but it is not unheard of for this to offend people’s idea of what their office should be. If you make people feel unwanted or not valued you run a risk of losing more than you gain in cost reduction. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to. If you can reduce your real estate by 10% and exploit Wi-Fi so people can give up their desks, assess the change in productivity before you do it. If it is negative, think again. Most times the plus side cannot be easily estimated, so it loses out to the demonstrable fact of cash saved by space reduction. Innovative products like the ones in this magazine will have plenty going for them. Apply them all, but use them to make people happy and more productive, and see if they change people’s behaviour for better or worse.

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introducing ferro...

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Upfront

Material Matters In this month’s Material Matters, the team at Material Lab shine the spotlight on up-and-coming product designers and graduates, along with the latest on-trend developments in surface solutions. www.material-lab.co.uk

District adds to Johnson Tiles’ new interchangeable line-up One of the newest additions to Johnson Tiles’ Absolute Collection, District is one of three new interchangeable ranges created by the manufacturer’s in-house design team to provide a complete solution for architects and designers. Soft shades of graduated grey and subtle surface effects are enhanced by the sleek simplicity of its design and its five sizes. With an inclusive Mosaics option and a choice of Grip or Natural finish for maximum versatility, District offers seamless installations and infinite design opportunities when paired with the new Palladium or Baseline range within the Absolute collection. www.johnson-tiles.com

Granorte brings a new dimension to 3-D surfaces Portugal-based Granorte’s newest collection of cork tiles create absorbing and unique 3-D surfaces. Cork Collection_03 draws inspiration from traditional Portuguese tiles and retro wood panelling to cast striking, rhythmic pattern across the wall. Delivering endless creative possibilities, Collection_03 provides exceptional texture and tactility combined with cork’s natural acoustic and thermal properties. www.granorte.pt

Grace Gallagher’s designs are true to form London-based designer and RCA textiles student Grace Gallagher is focused on showing us the beauty of the ordinary through pattern, texture and shape. All of her handmade pieces for surfaces and interiors are created using a mixture of traditional and contemporary techniques, with a focus on the rawness and irregularity of the chosen material and a preoccupation with materiality and process. Her work includes ‘Sundial’ – prints and furniture inspired by the astronomical instruments at the Jantar Mantar park in Jaipur, India, and Barbican – a pattern inspired by the powerful architecture of the Barbican building. www.gracegallagher.co.uk

Izzy Webb’s Colour Conversion rolls out a new use for carpet waste One of Absolut UK’s Top Ten Emerging Designers for 2016, Izzy Webb, is hoping to reduce the 400,000 tonnes of carpet waste that enters UK landfill every year with her Colour Conversion project. Her innovative use of unwanted and excess carpet repurposes the materials through handdye techniques, embroidery, tufting and sheering techniques, creating completely new coloured surface products for walls and floors. www.isabelwebb.tumblr.com

Upfront

Desert Island Desks

This month's castaway is David J Holt, Director at seventyfour architects.

1 AJOTO PEN I like to draw and being one of those organised sods I also like to write lists and my brass pen by Ajoto ( A-journey-to) is the perfect drawing tool. It was designed by a friend of mine, who set out to create a beautiful pen, something ordinary, but elevate it to become luxurious without it feeling too special to use. The pen is very minimal but has real attention to detail in it’s craftsmanship. Being brass, the pen gets better with age, like all good things.

3 CAMPING CHAIR I love furniture and have thought long and hard about which design classic I’d take with me to relax in – but when it comes to outdoor time there’s only one. So, sorry Arne, but I love my camping chair. It has a brilliant design that makes it cartable and even has a handy drinks holder to save you pouring your drink all over yourself when you fall asleep. Like most things I like, the humble camping chair epitomises good design and simplicity.

2 THE LEUKU KNIFE A quality knife would be essential and with presumably an abundance of quality fresh produce literally on my new doorstep I’ll be doing a lot of cooking. This knife from Leuku is designed to serve as a hatchet, a butcher's knife and a machete, just in case I need to get my inner Gordon Ramsay on with any unfriendly critters.

Tel 01925 850500 Email info@sixteen3.co.uk Web www.sixteen3.co.uk

4 SONOS I love music but can’t play an instrument and think I’d go mad without anything to listen to. So if the dessert island had electricity, this is what I’d take as it has a very neat design, great sound and is easy to transport. I guess I’d need my iPhone as well. Maybe if I started a party, more people would come…

5 CAOL ILA So another day in paradise is drawing to a close, the ﬁre is lit and I’m sitting in my camping chair. Apart from having my family with me, at this point I’d love a good whisky and for me, this is it. This distillery in Isla has produced a highly crafted single malt since 1846, which in my humble opinion has an intriguing, smoky taste. It is perfectly suited to a bit of reflection whilst looking at the stars with the sound of the sea for company – until the revellers arrive, that is!

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Spotlight Innovation Contents 26 The Big Question 28 Tomorrow's already here 30 Smoke & Mirrors Alison Montieth 31 Virtual Reality James Barry 32 Thinking Ahead Sam Sahni & AWA / Unicef 34 Cognitive Fitness Andrew Mawson 37 Acoustics - Rosalind Lambert-Porter 38 The Future of work & the impact of technology Aki Stamatis 40 Striving for genuine Innovation Miriam Turner 42 Products 48 Future Studies Phillip Ross 54 Innovation Round Table Hansgrohe

Spotlight - Innovation

The Big ?uestion What’s your favourite innovation – work or home?

Jonathan Hinton Ultrafabrics

Pernille Stafford Resonate Interiors

Jason Turner HLW

The iPhone. It may be quite obvious but without doubt I would say my iPhone has enabled me to work more efficiently, and run my whole life wherever I am and whenever I need to. It is my email, my phone, my diary, my camera, my news source, my music, my entertainment and probably, most sadly, my whole life in one small black box.

I LOVE MY NESPRESSO MACHINE! Beautiful coffee in every cup with a huge variety of flavours and a sleek machine to make it. The innovation in the capsules I think is a very clever, every detail has been thought through. Loyal customer – one at home and one in the office.

Work – Electronic sit-stand desks in our officeinteresting to watch who chooses when to stand and when to sit. Home – The ability to choose what TV I watch, when and where I want to watch it. I can even record stuff remotely via my mobile. However, my 5 and 8 year-old now mostly use the TV as 24hr animated wallpaper whilst I moan at them about Lego, colouring-in books, board games, etc.

Leanne Wookey No Chintz

Andi Theokle Scott Brownrigg

Catherine Counsell Camira

Airbnb! This innovation now lets me and millions of others enjoy a more unique travel experience. To meet new people who allow you a glimpse into their world, their space and take sanctuary. For me it appeals to everything I love, adventure, travel, culture, interiors as well as being really inquisitive. It also gives you the ability to live and experience a country like never before. This year I got to stay in an air-stream looking over Malibu beach! By far my favourite innovation.

My favourite innovation in the Theokle household is my lovely Vinturi aerator. This fantastic little gadget has transformed my life in allowing me to transition from being an interior designer to being an interior designer and a mummy. I can now have a beautifully decanted glass of wine that has the correct amount of air in it to allow the bouquet and enhanced flavours be delivered to my palette after my little girl has gone to sleep. Now I don’t have to finish the bottle, like I used to before – because it would be a travesty to waste it.

Any innovation which enhances wellness and wellbeing in our time-starved world really interests me. This might be the use of augmented reality to help people overcome phobias or allow virtual ‘getaways’, the use of SMART technologies embedded within fabrics to measure the biometrics of the user, or even Camira’s wool/bast fibre fabric blends, which remove impurities from the surrounding environment and offer inherent, improved flammability performance.

Umbrella editorial banner Mix Interiors July 2016.pdf 1 25/07/2016 13:51:24 C

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THE FURNITURE SPECIALISTS

CMY

Spotlight

trinetic.com 27

Spotlight Spotlight - Innovation

Tomorrow's already here Our Spotlight feature taps into the great subject of innovation, explained by some notable opinion-formers from over the world of commercial interiors, which will hopefully give you some food for thought. As a precursor, let’s put some context into the 'innovation in the office' discussion. The key objective for the vast majority of UK businesses is to achieve the most from their assets. In short, that staff are producing as efficiently as possible. Needless to say, any amount of innovation is worthless if the management

and behaviour becomes the forgotten cousin. Also, any amount of super kit will not achieve the productivity objective if staff spend time on Facebook, office gossip and personal emails. The great news for designers is that one design does not fit all. The focus must be on the current and likely future ways the workforce uses its time, providing flexibility if and when the company objectives shift. Our illustration shows just some of the innovations in the commercial office world of 2016.

GREEN Everyone has got the message that having planting in the office is a good thing. The logical progression is that plants, along with other biophilic elements, will be widely adopted and overtime be clearly shown to improve productivity – even to the doubters.

CHARGEABLE SURFACES Whilst wireless charging devices are increasingly common, there are still issues – not least of all the relative effectiveness compared to just plugging it in. Leaving the phone alone and untethered may not be an issue in the office but security is still a perceived problem. That being said, expect to see charging devices in many pieces of relevant office furniture.

PRIVACY SMART GLASS The use of a tiny electrical current passed through the glass will turn it from opaque to clear in an instant, or the other way around! Expect to see much more of this in workplaces in the future.

FLOORING Our illustration shows a rather smart carpet from Desso. As most will know, this joint innovation with Philips allows the 'Carpet Controller' to change images using super thin LED panels within the light transmitting carpets. As technology costs fall we expect this type of product to be specified more and more, allowing an infinite number of lighting options.

SIT STAND DESKS Not particularly innovative, we hear you say. Already a standard in workplaces throughout Scandinavia, we'll have to see whether legislation or cost benefit analysis will convince UK business leaders. 28

Spotlight Spotlight - Innovation

MONITORING STAFF Movement is nothing new (thinking clocking-in machines) but Hitachi’s Business Microscope goes 12 steps further. It looks like an ID badge but, through its sensors, will give details of where a person has been, who they have been with and how long they have been with said person.

LOCKERS Like Lucozade metamorphosised from medicinal to sport drink, lockers have had a rebirth. Increasingly distributed workforces inevitably mean valuable space not being used. Lockers are becoming ever more popular with or without a hot desking policy, providing space, security, and a little bit of home/leisure.

LIGHTS A new breed of LED panel luminaires from innovators like SORAA and Thorn Lighting feature upward curves that blend elegant design with excellent glare reduction.

PAPER THIN SCREENS For those that remember the first Apple computers and televisions that took a minute to warm up, one thing is clear, screens have got thinner. Not surprisingly the next generation of screens will take thin to the next level – paper thin to be precise. Without wires, stands and supports.

ACOUSTIC BRICKS Sound absorbing materials literally line every furniture manufacturer's soft seating catalogue. The use of moveable acoustic walls, lightweight bricks on simple metal bases, takes the idea of noise reduction further. We think Fabricks look great and according to Ocee, the creator of this delight, achieves amazing results.

ROBOTIC CONFERENCE Videoconference has had a chequered history at best. The use of an iPad connected to a mobile unit, such as Double, may just be the answer to the ongoing issues of talking to and seeing people who aren’t in the same room.

Spotlight - Innovation

Smoke Mirrors

Technology is changing the way people work – we all know that; in fact, that statement itself is somewhat obvious, writes Monteith Scott’s Alison Monteith. In 2015, the UK hit a record number of new tech start-ups, but it’s important to remember that not every business is a Google. Whilst technology is advancing on a daily basis, most businesses still function in a 20th century world. This begs the question: how do you marry technological advances with Stone Age human physiology? Google’s office environment clearly works for them, but not everyone is a Google, and businesses need to realise this. Although having bean bags and chill-out pods at work might seem like a ‘cool’ idea, they can be inappropriate for the majority of people and tasks that need an ergonomic solution. Whilst technology is integral to how business performs, we need to remain sceptical of it. Why? Many tasks performed in a business simply don’t require advanced technology to get the job done. Take your average accounts or HR department: whilst both departments are integral to the running of many businesses, their needs are simple – an ergonomic chair, a desk and a computer. When we talk about agile working environments and collaborative spaces, it may not apply to a significant percentage of

the workforce. That’s not to say these options should not be explored and, where appropriate, implemented; in fact, we recommend many of them for the majority of our clients. It’s just that you have to be mindful that in one organisation there will be a multitude of different needs and a multitude of potential solutions. The desire for a ‘cool’ and ‘funky’ office space frequently comes from the perceived need to attract and please Millennials, and despite this fact many tasks remain the same. NonMillennial, if you like. There is growing pressure on businesses to attract the best talent to stay ahead of competitors but these efforts can be superficial. As workstations decrease in size, our office footprint is reducing and personal space is being infringed upon. Employers need to give something back to their workforce and the use of technology may help them do this – but the question is, how? Often resistant to moving around, employees need to be encouraged to do so. One simple way to do this is to restrict printer locations; an unexpected by-product is its impact on conversations and communication, not to mention an easy way to burn off that custard cream. How long do we think it will be

before more progressive employers start to use wearable technology to monitor their staff’s movement and therefore wellbeing, or do we think that’s a step too far? But, before the big changes are considered, businesses should first look at the fundamental challenges they face. Technology is all well and good but human nature still has to be contended with – and all it takes is for one person not to adopt your changes for the whole system to come crashing down. It’s important to remember that work is an activity not a place. Some jobs may be able to be completed in a coffee shop or, indeed, on a bean bag, but the reality is that it’s not for everyone and it’s not for every task. Clients often come to us with what they think are creative ideas for no other reason than they think the final result will look ‘cool’. We strip this down and go right back to basics, looking at what employees need and want in order to complete their job. I’m not against technology, of course, I just believe that it is a tool, nothing more. It is the people within the business who deliver the results and if we don’t look after them, businesses will fail.

Alison Monteith is the Managing Director at Monteith Scott

FurniPlus provides smart, ergonomic office furniture and accessories. As manufacturers we can offer a flexible working solution to suit any budget, ensuring every client can benefit. Our range ensures a perfect balance of high quality, high specification products and prices you might be surprised by. Call us for a brochure or more information on becoming a FurniPlus dealer, and if you haven’t already;

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SIT-STAND Revolution

Spotlight - Innovation

V I RT U A L R E A L I T Y WITH THE IMPACT OF VR, HOW HAS THIS CHANGED THE WAY ORGANISATIONS ARE APPROACHING DESIGN AND FITOUT PROJECTS?

WHAT IS VR? Immersive artist and entrepreneur Chris Milk once said: ‘Talking about virtual reality is like dancing about architecture’, says Area Sq's James Barry. It’s a difficult thing to explain because it’s something you have to feel your way through. When I first experienced VR in Venice last year, it felt…like real life. I felt present in the environment my headset had conjured. Virtual reality, then, can be described as an illusion. By using visualisation technology, we can create realities outside of our own and essentially ‘send’ people wherever we choose.

As a commercial office design and fit-out specialist, we use visualisation technology to offer our clients a glimpse of the future they’re investing in. This technology allows you to move away from ‘an idea of how it’ll look’ to ‘exactly how it’ll look’. VR tech can be used to explore various home and office environments at the design stage. By using this tech, a future occupier can, in theory, step into their new office or home and have a play around with the furniture, and even the artwork. VR allows people to interact with a space, see how design decisions impact the environment and become more engaged with the process.

WHAT POSITIVE IMPACT HAS IT HAD? From Area Sq’s point of view, we’ve had a 100% win ratio when we’ve used VR as part of our pitches. That’s not to say the technology was the only reason we secured the business; but it certainly helped our designers communicate the ideas behind the project proposals.

TALK US THROUGH VR’S JOURNEY? Stereoscopic lenses emerged in the 1950's but the desire to simulate realities started long before that. In the 1600's, Luca Giordano was painting battlefields on 12x2m canvasses. Looking up at these grand scale paintings, you feel immersed in the environments. Whether they knew it or not, artists like Giordano were creating stereoscopic images. So VR, as a concept, has been around for a long time but the technology has of course evolved.

HOW IS VR TRANSFORMING THE INDUSTRY? Architects and designers have already begun to explore the possibilities and it won’t be long before everyone will be using this technology. It’ll improve the ways and means of showcasing a design concept. VR will make things easier, better and more exciting for everyone.

IN TERMS OF THE DESIGN INDUSTRY, WHAT ROLE IS VR CURRENTLY PLAYING? Pitching design and architecture projects used to heavily rely on one’s ability to breathe life into blueprints, floor plans and design specs. However, most people find it hard to visualise how a space will actually look when all they can do is glance at plans etched onto paper, or projected onto a screen. Yes, it’s the designer’s job to communicate the vision, but there’s something to be said for inviting people to experience a building before it’s even been built. Such technology can allow a client to grasp a concept when words and images only go so far.

WHERE IS VR GOING? We’ve only just begun to skim the surface of virtual reality and the associated benefits it can bring to the business world. We’re currently at the same point with visualisation technology as we were when the first mobile phone came out in 1973. Imagine the possibilities over the next four decades. Mark Zuckerberg has recently bought Oculus VR. Considering that one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs is prepared to invest in this kind of technology, it’s safe to say the journey is well underway…but this tech is on an open, endless road, and there are plenty more turns ahead.

VR Q&A By James Barry, Area Sq

Spotlight - Innovation

Thinking

‘choose your own device’ (CYOD) trend. CYOD has become more popular and this is often due to the fact that the technology we have at home is typically much better than standard-issue company devices or Wi-Fi infrastructure. It’s more about creating an environment that supports choice and allows people to work however they want to. Businesses aim to deliver comfortable environments and, generally speaking, people work better, or are more productive, using devices they know or want to use.

Ahead

Key office design elements will also play their part with acoustics or lighting being reconfigured to better suit technological needs – and it’s important that we take note of these changes as a means of futureproofing our buildings. Ultimately, to enable your workplace to be adaptable to technology, it has to become less intrinsically linked to the physical environment, and instead become more flexible. In order to provide optimal support to employees, every part of the business, from IT to HR, must be more joined up, so that businesses can create solutions which have the inherent flexibility to support employee productivity wherever, whenever and however it is needed.

Technological advancements, understanding workforce efficiency and changes to UK employment law have resulted in a fundamental shift in how employees engage with their workplace, we hear from Sam Sahni, Head of Workplace Consulting at Morgan Lovell and get sneak preview into some initiave research from AWA.

Technology is there to support and enable, not to anchor and dictate. Environments today need to have almost organic adaptability so that, as the trends change, your infrastructure is in place to cope. Designing a 'one size fits all' solution for your workplace and technology needs is not the answer, but at the same time, it's also not realistic to tailor everything to individual needs. Engaging with employees to learn about the many facets of their working lives allows designers to put together a standard 'kit of parts', with various configuration possibilities. This approach results in spaces that feel personal and those that encourage empowerment, engagement and ownership, while having a prolonged positive impact on wellbeing and the productivity of those who occupy them.

Our occupancy research shows that, on average, desks have an average utilisation of 54%. Of this, only 39% of the time is active use, while the remaining percentage shows what we call ‘signs of life’: the monitor is on, a jacket is over the chair but no one is actively occupying the space. This internal mobility means that almost half of all desks in a workplace are wasted space.

It is clear that many factors affect the efficiency of the typical office workforce. Anecdotally, we know that drinking enough (water) is a good thing – but how much and what is the result? We were fortunate enough to be aware of some work carried out by the workplace change management consultancy, Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA). Along with research partner, MyCognition, AWA worked with Unicef UK on a research pilot that sought to understand how much impact certain factors have on cognitive performance – and what it takes to encourage people to adopt new, beneficial habits. Whilst AWA are keen to point out that their research was based on a small sample and much more research is needed, we think it is worth a mention within this Innovation feature. Prior to working with Unicef, significant work was carried out in to previous research, asking the question ‘What is known from the scientific literature about the factors that impact cognitive performance?’ AWA plans to run a second trial to test the initial findings with a larger population and illustrate how workplace professionals can impact on people’s health and performance through these simple practices. A total of 13 Unicef UK employees participated in a two-month trial that involved practical interventions coupled with cognitive assessments of five key domains; memory, speed and accuracy, decision making, planning and attention. Having reviewed the impact of breakfast, hydration, sleep and exercise on the brain’s performance, the first phase of this groundbreaking trial has confirmed that these factors do influence cognition. There are many variables involved in cognition and this research provides some valuable understanding of the benefits that developing new habits can deliver to cognitive fitness. Here are the results A

In response to this change, a number of organisations are now focusing on empowering their employees with a complete suite of resources wherever their work takes them. This allows staff to work easily and efficiently anywhere in the workspace – and good connectivity across the workplace is vital to achieving this. However, as with all major changes to how our offices operate, it’s important to spend time understanding which connectivity solutions work best. Equally, outside of the workplace, there’s a high demand for connectivity, especially when employees are on the go. For example, at Morgan Lovell, employees are tethering their laptops to their work iPhones or iPads and using the 4G network while on the move. More businesses today are actually tailoring their technological solutions to address the bespoke needs of their staff. The technology provided to employees must be adaptable to personal preference. An organisation’s solution can no longer be isolated from its employee’s work style, use of office space, geographical location, type of device or the access method. While organisations and the workforce are advancing beyond traditional boundaries between space and work, the provision of technology in workplaces today must make a similar transition. As we look to the future, we expect to see the development of an entirely wireless office space, as well as a greater interest in the

Spotlight - Innovation

CUMULATIVE IMPROVEMENT IN COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE: BREAKFAST AND HYDRATION TRIAL

% age increase in cognitive performance following each trial

Attention (concentration) the ability to focus one’s perception on target

20%

visual or auditory stimuli and filter out unwanted distractions Processing speed (speed & accuracy) Working Memory (calculating and

15%

problem solving) is the system responsible for the transient holding and processing of new and already-stored

10%

information, and is an important process for reasoning, comprehension, learning and memory updating

Episodic Memory (memory) the ability to encode, store, and recall information. In most studies memory is further divided into recognition, recall, verbal, visual,

Attention

Processing speed

Working Memory

Breakfast trial

Episodic Memory

Executive functioning

episodic and working memory. Each type

Overall cognition

of memory has specific tasks associated with that memory function

Breakfast + Hydration Trial

Executive functioning (planning and strategy) the ability to strategically plan one’s actions, abstraction, and cognitive flexibility – the ability to change strategy as needed

Breakfast trial

16%

10%

8% 6% 4%

•

Volunteers were asked to complete a baseline questionnaire prior to the first briefing session Volunteers were asked to pay attention to their breakfast practices and to make changes if they wished to (based on the information they had been provided, regarding benefits of eating a healthy breakfast) A MyCQ (cognitive assessment tool) assessment was taken at the end of the trial period

Breakfast trial

12%

•

Breakfast + Hydration trial

•

Breakfast + Hydration + Sleep trial

14%

Breakfast + Hydration + Sleep + Exercise trial

% age improvement in cognitive performance following each trial (cumulative)

IMPROVEMENT IN COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE MEASURED DURING TRIALS

Hydration trial • Volunteers were asked to complete an assessment and questionnaire about hydration prior to the briefing session • Volunteers were asked to continue with their breakfast practices and to pay attention to hydration and to make changes if they wished to (based on the information they had been provided, regarding benefits of drinking more than they would usually) • An assessment was taken at the end of the trial period

Spotlight - Innovation

COGNITIVE FITNESS The majority of our creative readers will be fully aware that their role is not just about beautiful and practical design. Convincing the client about the less obvious benefits to the bottom line is now a key part of the designer's required pitch. Whether seen as innovative or not in 2016, the following factors massively impact on cognitive performance and are a useful reminder about getting the most from the workforce.

3 Lighting, temperature, scent Consider different

lighting designs for different tasks, providing people options for optimum conditions. As remarked upon at a recent Mix Roundtable; 'Men are hot and women are cold!' Whatever the case, the challenge is get the temperature right throughout and keep everyone happy.

6 Sleep

If they need it, do educate people about the importance of sleep. Whilst not something that culturally will work in many offices, you might want to consider nap areas.

4 Exercise, physical activity Create a culture

1 Caffeine & glucose drinks

Provide good quality – but encourage moderation in caffeine and high energy drinks.

of exercise – and

this usually needs to come from the top. Do you think the staff of the property giant JLL would have such a keen interest in triathlons without the complete support of boss Guy Grainger? Design should encourage / promote movement during the day – think use of stairs, walk to printers etc.

7 Hydration

Ensure good access to quality water and supplies of fruit. Encourage hydration breaks.

5 Cognitive stimulation mindfulness

2 Breakfast, nutrition breaks

Provide areas that will make the tackling of new tasks and projects a joy, connecting people in a safe and comfortable environment.

If possible provide breakfast

options with somewhere for people to gather socially – perhaps a more domestic setting for breakfast.

8 Noise, speech distractions, task interruptions

Provide different spaces along a noise gradient so people can find the best locations for them; enable people to be mobile to take advantage of these; develop noise and interruption protocols within teams.

Thanks to Andrew Mawson, Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA)

Spotlight - Innovation

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Spotlight - Innovation

M/Connect Streamline Your Space

Introducing the Ergonomic Docking Station www.humanscale.com/mconnect

Spotlight - Innovation

Leading acoustics consultant Rosalind Lambert-Porter tells us that we shouldn't make workplaces feel like libraries – it might not be noise levels driving you to distraction For the past 10 to 15 years, our understanding of acoustics in offices has progressed in leaps and bounds. While many of us intuitively know that noise in open plan offices is often a problem, there is now a large body of research to show that, not only does a poor acoustic environment affect one’s ability to carry out a task efficiently, it also affects productivity in general. The sense of comfort and wellbeing within the workspace is also impacted by an acoustically uncomfortable environment, contributing in a large part to what ergonomists describe as 'presenteeism'. Contrary to what many believe, people are able to work effectively in both quiet and noisy environments. For example, most of us, at some point, have had to work in an aeroplane or in a noisy café, and can do so relatively easily. But what is it about the open plan office that causes us so much distraction when noise levels are comparatively low? This question has been investigated again and again, and one factor stands out as the main cause of distraction – speech intelligibility. We are able to work in a space where speech is audible, however, the clearer and more intelligible the speech becomes, the less able we are to ignore it and focus on our work. This knowledge has changed the way we design good acoustics in a space, and the focus has shifted from lowering noise levels, to reducing speech intelligibility. This new understanding of our biggest distractor has led to the development of the

relatively recently adopted standard – BS EN ISO 3382-3 – which enables us to quantify the acoustics in an office in relation to speech intelligibility and distraction. By testing an open plan office to this standard, the number of

A common misconception is that a product is acoustically effective simply because it is wrapped in fabric

people distracted by one speaker in the office can be established, as well as the level of speech at certain distances and the general rate at which loudness decreases as sound travels across the office. This powerful method of accurately assessing the quality of the acoustic environment has resulted in the development of better, more effective products, that are designed for purpose. Armed with this new insight into office acoustics, many designers have started to introduce the type of office furniture that will assist in reducing speech intelligibility with distance. Because of this, typical office

Rosalind Lambert-Porter, MSc MIOA MIED MInstSCE. Independent consultant advising Ocee Design

furniture products, such as screens and booths, are increasingly being developed in such a way as to make them perform well in the speech frequency range. Of course, the way these products are used is just as important as the performance of the products themselves and it is not unusual to see clients spend large sums on acoustic products, only to use them to solve a problem that the products are not designed for. In some cases, the installation of the incorrect product can make the acoustic environment worse! With new acoustic products being developed all the time, it is important that the performance and appropriate use of these products be made clear to clients. A common misconception is that a product is acoustically effective simply because it is wrapped in fabric. A more prevalent belief is that the quieter the office environment, the better. Both of these are oversimplifications and lead clients to make incorrect choices in selecting a solution. While no formal test standard exists to enable the user to compare, for instance, one high-backed sofa with another, there is a need for more data on how that product behaves in a real office, and a greater degree of transparency regarding what a client can expect from a product. Perhaps, if such a standard is developed, solving acoustic problems will become less of a 'dark art', enabling office-dwellers to design an environment that works for them.

Spotlight - Innovation

THE FUTURE OF WORK & THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY Earlier this year, Area Sq, part of Fourfront Group, and GCS Recruitment Specialists got together with 10 business leaders at the Kyocera HQ to discuss the future of work and the impact that technology continues to have on our sector. Aki Stamatis, Chairman of Fourfront Group, summarises the key findings Design a space that supports employees 'The general consensus among the roundtable delegates was that it is essential to understand how a business functions before designing a space that can support employees. The 10 industry experts agreed that an organisation must first conduct research about the workforce, including how people use the space depending on their various activity portfolios. It’s then a case of being playful with a space and creating different zones that support a variety of individuals all undertaking an array of tasks.'

Encourage collaboration 'A key requirement of tomorrow’s workforce, regardless of how the world of work is changing, is the opportunity for collaboration. From the roundtable’s collective experience, workers want a place to share learning, knowledge and ideas. Organisations, therefore, need to review how technology and flexible working impacts such collaborative pursuits.'

Create a sense of community 'Striving for a sense of community can foster that all-important need for collaboration that, in turn, can boost productivity. This can be achieved through implementing a working model and designing a space that naturally brings people together. Creating a community at work also feeds into the overall culture of a business. A set of clear and undisputed values underpins any given culture and, to drive it forward, it’s important to make employees feel like they ‘belong’.'

Recognise the attitudinal shift 'The concept of a ‘work / life balance’ has been replaced by the idea of a ‘work / life blend’ and the roundtable delegates believe technology has played a fundamental role in this attitudinal shift. Organisations need to recognise that the line between the personal and professional worlds is blurry; it is, therefore, necessary to offer flexibility in return for the constant and unwavering connection to work demands. The onus needs to be placed on establishing a working model and a workspace that encourages a healthy work / life blend.'

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Facilitate the demands of the modern day workforce 'From the roundtable’s collective experience, workers want and need the latest technology. This is particularly true of the younger generation – the Gen Zeds – now entering employment for the first time. Organisations also need to understand that the modern day worker expects a combination of the latest, most effective tech in addition to an element of flexibility. Embracing such offerings can help to both attract and retain talent.'

26th & 27th October 2016 Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

There's no place like home 'In order to tap into the potential of a workforce, business leaders need to make people feel ‘at home’ and relaxed. A flexible work environment tends to mean the people working are happier and more engaged – and this is what essentially improves productivity. Aside from the location, proximity to local transport links and onsite facilities, such as showers and breakaway areas, the panel were united in thinking that adopting a flexible approach to work, in addition to bringing domestic elements into the workspace, is key to attracting talent and to improving output.'

#BCFAOPEN

WWW.BCFAOPEN.COM

Spotlight - Innovation

Striving For Genuine Innovation

Miriam Turner is Assistant Vice President Open Innovation and Product Sustainability at Interface. Miriam is responsible for brokering relationships with external organisations and networks to develop and successfully commercialise innovative, sustainable products and services. From marketing to manufacturing, companies are using the term innovation to encompass anything from new ways of working to different techniques and alternate approaches. However, ultimately it’s about thinking differently. For manufacturing, architecture and design businesses to stand out, they are striving to be as genuinely innovative as possible – this means focusing on radical change and transformative thinking. With sustainable practice climbing the business agenda, it’s vital that the industry, as a whole, takes a step back to rethink any negative impact of existing products and processes on the supply chain, the market, and ultimately, our planet. For Interface, genuine innovation includes spearheading sustainable ways of working. This doesn’t just mean changing the way we do things, but dramatically rethinking ideas so our practices evolve to surpass original expectations. This involves having the freedom to challenge long held perceptions and break traditions that are held as the norm. When it comes to sustainability, by looking at completely new ways of working with a restorative vision in mind, major breakthroughs can be made. However, this cannot be achieved by any one company in isolation. When implementing an idea – no matter how far-fetched – sourcing support from like-minded partners and peers can make it much more effective. Genuine innovation can have significant impact on a company’s bottom line – it brings both opportunities and risk – and therefore it

can be a daunting and intimidating proposition for anyone involved. However, by working together, businesses up and down the supply chain can pool resources, share vital insight and varied expertise to address a wide range of manufacturing and supply chain challenges, with minimised risk. These collaborations can come in the form of research bodies and partner organisations, or forward-thinking companies that share the same common goal, whatever that may be. Sometimes unlikely partnerships can be the most effective when finding revolutionary solutions that can transform the way materials are produced and consumed.

The answer is to look at how new ideas and creations affect the broader industry, rather than a single business.

Through partnership, here at Interface, we’ve been able to achieve not only a series of firsts, but breakthrough developments for the whole supply chain. PVB (poly-vinyl-butyral), for example, is a laminate material found in car windscreen glass that prevents it from shattering, and is a common waste element from the automotive

Miriam Turner, Assistant Vice President Open Innovation and Product Sustainability at Interface

industry. Shark Solutions is a company that specialises in recycling the product, and worked with us to look into the potential use for the flooring industry. This has resulted in the development of a solution that extracts PVB from glass, refines it into dispersion, and can act as a precoat to fix yarn to the backing compound when manufacturing Interface flooring. This innovative thinking means a shortened supply chain by eliminating the need to source virgin latex for the company’s operation. In addition, waste to landfill has been minimised for the automotive sector – an achievement for both industries. So how do we bring back focus within the industry towards genuine innovation? The answer is to look at how new ideas and creations affect the broader industry, rather than a single business. It requires thinking beyond isolated roles, and instead needs to look at how an idea or invention can shape the future for all. For example, how or where the next generation of manufacturers will source raw materials, or how designers can re-use waste in unusual and inspiring ways. By understanding the wider impact, we can collaborate to share others’ knowledge and experience and push the boundaries even further to make radical change. The end result is real innovation that can transform and revolutionise the existing industrial landscape, and will help us on our journey to achieving a common goal for all – a more sustainable future.

Spotlight - Innovation

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Spotlight - Innovation

AS LITTLE AS FIVE YEARS AGO FEW PEOPLE WOULD HAVE DISCUSSED INNOVATIONS SUCH AS DRONES, WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY, AGILE ROBOTS, SMART WIND AND SOLAR POWER. TAKE A LOOK AT THE BBC NEWS WEBSITE TODAY AND THEY WILL ALL BE FEATURED! THE PACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE LAST 20 YEARS HAS BEEN SIGNIFICANT, BUT EXPEDIENTIAL INNOVATION GROWTH IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS MIGHT JUST BLOW OUR MINDS. UNBELIEVABLY, PREDICATIONS FOR 2025 INCLUDE THE

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE? Innovation can be defined as a new idea, device or method. Taking this concept to the workplace, Knightsbridge has approached its furniture design with a new method, creating pieces that feel remarkably reminiscent of the home environment to help encourage social interaction between colleagues and heighten productivity and wellbeing of employees.

Alfie, designed by award-winning British designer, Sean Dare, is inspired by the 1960’s film of the same name. Its masculine finish and angular lines makes for the perfect standalone feature for any workspace. Exuding style with a structured wooden frame and soft, textured upholstery, this chair offers comfort and class, making it an innovative piece for a breakout space or open-plan office.

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Desso and Philips – partners in carpets and lighting respectively – have developed the pioneering and patented Luminous Carpets. Think moving images, the latest news broadcast on the floor, personal greetings for important guests – all changeable at the click of a button. Luminous Carpets also allows businesses to display videos, infographics and logos underfoot. It can be used to share and celebrate an occasion, or simply inform visitors of the current waiting time. On a functional level, it can provide directional information and highlight emergency exists. The solution is designed for high traffic areas and comes in different colours, shapes and sizes.

SOURCE OF THE WORLD’S ENERGY; ACCEPTANCE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS; REGULAR DNA TESTING FOR CHILDREN TO PINPOINT FUTURE DISEASES. THE WORLD OF OFFICE INTERIORS IS AWASH WITH INNOVATION. TO CONTINUE THE THEME OF INNOVATION WE HAVE COLLECTED A DELIGHTFUL GROUP OF PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES THAT HAVE INNOVATION IN THEIR VERY DNA.

Spotlight - Innovation

LIFE THROUGH THE LENS Continually evolving office environments demand a flexible approach to lighting but one that until recently has been difficult to achieve. Designers would want to adjust the CRI (Colour Render Index) and light distribution, for example, and have to change the luminaires in given areas to achieve the desired effect. Now, the introduction of efficient and cost-effective lenses for LEDs means that an office lighting environment can be changed easily and swiftly to meet new needs that present themselves as businesses change. For example, Verbatim has developed new lenses that shift the CRI from 85-90+ while SORAA’s SNAP lens range provides control over beam angle, colour and other parameters, with no negative effect on energy efficiency. The ability to change lenses with minimum fuss also means that office environments can maximise the energy savings from fitted LED luminaires over their very long working life, while having complete control.

INNOVATION TAKEN TO TASK Trinetic by Boss Design is a brand new task chair that incorporates a brand new type of movement. It creates a superior and completely natural user experience and its design is set to change the face of the task chair market. Boss Design conducted two years of intensive market research in which the concepts of how office chairs should move and what they should offer users were completely deconstructed. The outcome was to completely overturn the market’s fixation with developing task chairs of greater complexity and with increased functionality and ranges of adjustability. Trinetic provides revolutionary dynamic support through fluid movement, and does not require any user adjustment, multiple components, complex assembly or even training.

FAB FOUR Ocee Design believes in constant innovation. ‘Even with a great product we always keep searching for improvements’. To prove the point, the new Four®Cast’2 chair collection embodies the same features of the original Four®Cast design, including the ergonomic V-shaped back and flexible shell, but the new construction method streamlines production, improves recycling and creates a stronger chair. Four®Cast’2 also has sleeker contours thanks to the new construction. The development of a structurally stronger and even more durable frame removes the need for a crossbar, so now the design is even cleaner. Ingeniously designed to be constructed with fewer parts and no screw fixings, the construction creates a stronger, lighter chair and makes end of life recycling easier and more effective.

Spotlight - Innovation

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Spotlight - Innovation

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Spotlight - Innovation

BUILDING FABRICKS Fabricks is so simple and yet so clever – just like good design should be. As you can see from the illustration on pages 28/29, we like this so much we thought we’d give it a little more coverage. Fabricks transforms open plan spaces into separate areas in moments, fulfilling the need for modularity with effective simplicity. An acoustic wall that is flexible, quick to install and easy to reconfigure, Fabricks has been rated Class A for sound absorption and sound attenuation, tested to ISO 10053 and BS EN ISO 354:2003. The lightweight bricks simply slide onto aluminium posts and the interlocking ‘house brick’ style creates a strong wall. Power is hidden through the extruded posts. The brick colour options even allow you to create pictures, logos or messages to suit your brand. You can create a meeting room in 15 minutes, while nothing is permanent if you don’t want it to be.

PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM BeCode Public is a new highly innovative locking system. A green flashing light on the BeCode MiniPad keyless lock indicates a free locker; using a mobile phone, simply scan the QR code on the lock. After registering (just once) you are immediately connected to arrange payment and receive the access code. Fast and easy payment is made via PayPal or credit card, with billing calculated by the minute. You can even receive a text to remind you that your rental time is running out. With BeCode’s TANmode software, the lockers and locks are operated offline, so they are protected against online manipulation.

PANEL SHOW The focus on wellbeing of employees and growing awareness of Sick Building Syndrome has sparked a wave of innovation in lighting, Mark Sait, CEO SaveMoneyCutCarbon.com, tells us. It’s now pretty much universally accepted that getting the lighting right is essential for any healthy office environment. Physical and psychological wellbeing is inextricably linked to lighting conditions. Quality of light, its effect on shades and colours and the need to avoid glare are front-of-mind when planning or refitting office space, along with energy efficiency. In response to the growing need to combat glare and provide excellent quality light, we are seeing a move away from the standard LED panel to a new form of LED panel luminaires that combine elegant design with innovation to reduce glare and provide human-centric lighting in offices. These panels, from innovators like SORAA and Thorn Lighting, feature graceful upward curves that minimise glare, especially in large open plan offices, while helping to reshape the office aesthetics.

Spotlight - Innovation

FUTURE

STUDIES

Philip Ross is the leading consultant, commentator and writer on emerging technology and its impact on work, the workplace and people’s lives. He has worked with organisations such as Ernst & Young, Allen & Overy, McKinsey & Co, Cushman & Wakefield and Royal Bank of Scotland on future concepts and opportunities for innovation. Philip has spoken at conferences around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, Europe CEO Forum on Converging Technologies, alt.office in the USA and CoreNet’s Global Summits in Beijing and Melbourne. In 1994 he wrote and published The Cordless Office Report and in 1996 launched his incredibly successful business, Unwired. He has written three books on the

future of work and workplace: The Creative Office, The 21st Century Office and Space to Work (all co-authored with Jeremy Myerson) and has contributed to a number of books including the Responsible Workplace and the Corporate Fool. Today Philip is CEO of UnGroup comprising Unwired Ventures and UnWork.com as well as chairman of Cordless Consultants and a founder of Building Zones and Building Sustainability. ‘Our mission is for Ungroup to be thought leaders in the impact of new technology on the behaviour of people and their use of buildings,’ Philip explains. ‘We set out to predict trends and shape the future through innovative and inspirational research, analysis and forecasting. A 48

Henry Wood House

When we first looked at pulling together a major Spotlight on Innovation, our thought quickly moved towards technology. Now who could we talk to about the technology of tomorrow and how it is likely to impact on the workplace of the future? There was always going to be one man for the job.

Spotlight - Innovation

Interiors photography courtesy of the Office Group

Spotlight - Innovation

‘We aim to communicate succinctly and clearly, avoiding jargon, so that people in non-IT roles can gain an understanding of how technology can enable or achieve innovation in their worksphere. Through consultancy and advice, presentations and thinktanks as well as publications and training we seek to inform, educate, inspire and present visions of the future. ‘Our events bring the best minds together around the globe to envision the future. We now run WORKTECH events in Amsterdam, Auckland, London, Manchester, Melbourne, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore.’ In fact, we’re lucky to catch Philip who, as you might have already guessed, does more than his fair share of travelling. In fact, at the time of our meeting, he’s preparing for a well-earned break from the 21st century world he spends the majority of his days discussing by trekking the Inca Trail. Right now, however, we couldn’t be much further removed from the Machu Picchu and the trail, as we sit in a smart meeting room at the Office Group’s fantastic facility in The Shard, looking out across London and beyond. ‘We’re just putting some iBeacons in this week,’ Philip grins, with his mind clearly still in the 21st century. ‘They’ve been shipped to us by MIT and we’re hoping to become the first in the country to link iBeacons to Amazon’s Alexa – so you can talk in a room like this and ask which rooms are free on the third floor, for example, or ask where Mick is, and it will answer you straight back!’ It is this type of research and implementation that has put Philip and the team at the very forefront of workplace innovation right across the world. We ask about him to tell us a couple of examples of the global trends and the continual innovations he’s seen on his various travels. ‘I think there’s been elements of people taking a leap forward in different markets for different reasons, which is quite interesting,’ he reveals. ‘In Australia, for example, they are starting to use technology in a very advanced way. Westpac’s new headquarters building in Sydney has some of the most advanced workplace Apps – where you can’t just find a person, you can even find a capability. So in a building of 5,000 people, if I need to talk to an expert in a particular field, this App will let me know who’s available to talk to about this. ‘For the first time, we’re now seeing real time real estate. So the building, for the first time, has got the infrastructure from the technology to know what’s going on inside it – this is the next big turning point, I think. It’s about connecting the unconnected. We’ve all got devices on us, but they’re not connected to anything – the building doesn’t know who we are, it hasn’t engaged with us. There could be a guy stood just outside in the hallway who happens to be a designer you’d love to meet – but you’ve got know idea who he is. There is no reason why we couldn’t have a real time social network here. It’s really close. This is engineering serendipity – or accelerating serendipity. This is the next paradigm shift. ‘iBeacons work on Bluetooth low energy. These

So the building, for the first time, has got the infrastructure from the technology to know what’s going on inside it – this is the next big turning point, I think.

Whitechapel

are really cool little sensors – the ones we are using are powered by ambient light – and they pump out a Bluetooth signal that works with your device. So people like the banks in Australia are now using this to let people into the building, rather than giving them a silly little security card. ‘Once you’ve put on the Bluetooth to get into the building, it triggers the link to the iBeacons – and the vision is that you have an iBeacon in every building and space and rather than having to look to find out where you’re going, you pull out your phone and it already knows where you are and where you are going. ‘Similarly, if I want to find someone, I can see exactly where they are. The key here is that it starts to mine knowledge – what you read, what you write about, whatA 50

Photography Oliver Perrott

Spotlight - Innovation

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Spotlight - Innovation

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Spotlight - Innovation mean that we’re never going to get that office robot we always hoped for? Maybe not. ‘There’s a really interesting new development from a company called Double Technology,’ Philip tells us. ‘If you take a look at a typical meeting room, you still have a widescreen TV hung on the wall and a landline phone on the table that is hardly ever used. What this company has done is to take something that looks like a Segway, with a pole out of the top of it and an iPad. If you are in a typical video conference configuration, everyone in the meeting room is staring at a screen up on the wall and nobody is able to have eye contact with one another. The idea of Double Technology is that you put the person you are video conferencing on the iPad, at the same height as the rest of you, and you wheel them up to the table. You have a virtual person in the room. I’ve used it and it’s brilliant. It’s much more human, ironically. ‘I’m a big fan of technology becoming much more human and challenged in terms of how they are used in a space. Too much of this stuff simply isn’t challenged. You need to push boundaries – the technology and innovation is certainly there.’ This month, Philip – along with the international workplace design expert Jeremy Myerson – will launch the WORKTECH Academy. Building on the success of the WORKTECH conference series, it will create a global knowledge community linked to the WORKTECH conference series, offering its members a wide range of top-level editorial content on the future of work and workplace plus opportunities for learning, networking and peer recognition. WORKTECH Academy’s six content streams are: People; Culture; Technology; Architecture and Design; Space and Innovation. Curators, writers and workplace experts around the world have been recruited through the WORKTECH conference network to develop high-level content. For more information go to: www.worktechacademy.com

The Stanley Building

you’re working on – and that’s the real secret. So all these people are on a system through an App. ‘Facebook has launched its own iBeacon that allows small business like retailers to connect with their customers in real time inside a shop or other environments as part of the Facebook platform. This ‘location layer’ in a building is having a real impact in retail and my gut feeling is that it will also make a huge breakthrough in the workplace. ‘We’re getting used to the idea of location aware Apps and experiences. This technology is now taking that forwards and because we are getting used to this, I believe it’s going to take off in the office environment. ‘We’re building Apps for a couple of our big workplace projects right now and they’re asking for two things – who’s nearby and who’s nearby that you might know. It might be someone who started at the same time as you – this makes so much sense. ‘There’s always negative reaction to this kind of innovation – but the benefits are huge and if you don’t want to be disturbed, you can either flag that up or even turn your Bluetooth off ! But the idea that there might be someone really interesting to you in the next room is incredibly exciting. ‘There is a whole new culture in workplaces now – we’ve gone from blue collar to white collar to bare collar. This can massively impact on the way in which the next generation works, communicates and interacts. To make all this work you have to build innovation into the physical space. ‘What this all means is that the office starts to become much more of a business driver rather than just an overhead. You can start to really manage the space. The people who do manage buildings will be able to understand and become involved in all this interaction and productivity – not just policing an office. It becomes a much nicer role for them.’ This is the true innovation we were after. Does it

Spotlight - Innovation

MATTHEW KOBYLAR ARNEY FENDER KASALIDIS

RAJ KRISHNAMURTHY WORKPLACE FABRIC

MOBINA NOURI STUDIO INTEGRATE

PINO CATALANO MORGAN LOVELL

BRUNO ALMEDIDA SANTOS GREENLAND HOLDING GROUP

MARK RUSSELL HANSGROHE

THE ROUND TABLE IN ASSOCIATION WITH

KRISTIAN PIOLET HANSGROHE

STEVE GALE M MOSER 54

It’s easy to focus purely on technology when talking about innovation, but it goes much further than that of course. We’ve pulled together an expert panel to discuss how our places of work, rest and play are changing and what innovations we are now seeing start to emerge. We’ve gathered at Hansgrohe’s impressive Water Studio in Clerkenwell, where we begin by discussing exactly the word innovation itself. Throughout the industry it has become woefully overused – and often misused, we contend.

PINO CATALANO

THE INNOVATION GAME ‘Innovation is crucial to the continuing success of any organisation’, someone far smarter than ourselves once proclaimed. Of course it is. No one has ever written a brief – whether for product design, interior design or architecture – which specifies that there must be little to no innovation.

It’s certainly a buzzword in the workplace. Whether it actually holds any weight anymore – I’m not so sure. When a client gives us a brief they will always ask for a modern workspace or an innovative workspace and I don’t really think they know what they’re asking for. They’re often just throwing those words out there. We still have to go in there and fish for that brief – discover what they really mean.

STEVE GALE What is the opposite of innovative?

MARK RUSSELL Maybe it’s continuity? That can also be attractive to clients. Some of the most successful companies we deal with really look for continuity and consistency as well as innovation – it’s the Ying and the Yang!

BRUNO ALMEDIDA SANTOS

or unique is to understand the value of design. Being a designer, working on the client side, it’s really hard to justify this to agents – who now have extreme power in the market. In my view, they shouldn’t have this power. Someone once told me ‘If an agent tells you to go right, go left!’ They will never tell you what is innovative – they’ll tell you what’s safe for them to sell.

It’s incredibly difficult to get a new concept adopted in the market. Whatever is innovative is not fully tested – which means it may go wrong.

I think another word we’re now getting bored of hearing – especially from agents – is ‘unique’. It’s being used to death. It’s interesting what was being said about clients not knowing what they’re asking for – but I think that is now changing. Some companies will play it safe while other developers will look to be more innovative. I think the key to being innovative

RAJ KRISHNAMURTHY It’s incredibly difficult to get a new concept adopted in the market. Whatever is innovative is not fully tested – which means it may go wrong. How many people are willing to take that risk? There are things that have happened over time, that have slowly evolved, and we now look back and think ‘Yes, that was innovation’. Flexible workspaces are a good example – it has taken 10 years for them to evolve. This is a true innovation that not everybody has adopted yet. So there are innovations, but they take a long time and many of them won’t stick.

STEVE GALE I totally agree. I think innovation in the workplace is really weird. I was working in this business 25 years ago and I left it and then came back – and it doesn’t seem as if A

Spotlight - Innovation

anything’s changed, if I’m honest. I can pick up on a few little things but globally it hasn’t moved much – it’s glacial. I wonder why there is that much inertia in a market that claims to be hungry for innovation. I don’t think it is really. It’s not in the product so much but if you went to sleep and woke up 10 years later, not a lot has changed in workplace design. I’m happy for people to challenge that – it’s just my opinion. Clients often say, ‘We want our people to be innovative – what can you do as a designer to promote that?’ I’m thinking, right, you’re in insurance and want to be innovative – what does that look like?

MARK RUSSELL As a manufacturer, we do hear people say is this proven? Is it tested? I think one of the things that levels that is the amount of time a company’s been in business – a company’s proven track record. A lot of the schemes we are now involved with are quite legislationdriven. As much as we’d like to be more creative, actually you can have the most innovative product but it simply isn’t compliant. That can be a frustration.

MOBINA NOURI Not every innovative idea needs to be creative and vice versa. I’ve studied how the workspace affects people’s creativity and productivity through their emotions for five years now and found some really interesting results. It is really difficult to assess people’s creativity – but there are some theories out there. We used

design tasks, for example, to assess creativity. We looked at usefulness and originality. We can say that an idea is creative or is useful – but is it innovative? I think this depends on the context, on the timing – it is relative. You can bring something to the market that is really useful, really functional, but that does not mean that it is original.

STEVE GALE That’s a really interesting example, and going back to what Mobina was saying, the innovation here is a behavioural one – it is not to do with the invention or development of a product. This is about new ways of doing stuff rather than new kit.

MOBINA NOURI RAJ KRISHNAMURTHY If an idea is useful, then people will adopt it far more quickly – and often, almost before we know it, you have an innovative approach to something. Just look at Bring Your Own Device – is it an innovation? Probably not – but the fact is that it happened before anyone could say that it shouldn’t happen and before you know it corporates were rushing around trying to put their own Bring Your Own Device strategies in place! People were bringing their own devices in anyway. Innovation happens – and it happens because it is useful for people.

Different environments affect people’s emotions and some emotions affect creativity – anger can be good for creativity, for example.

We look at how people feel in the workplace environment – we assess people’s emotions in different spaces and different settings. Different environments affect people’s emotions and some emotions affect creativity – anger can be good for creativity, for example. That is quite an extreme example. But we did find that it very much depends upon the task. So, the environment should adapt to the task.

PINO CATALANO This is probably where the true innovation in the workplace lies – in the understanding of activity based working. That’s where, when clients give us a brief, they are starting to become a little bit more educated in how their teams work and how they collaborate and integrate with one another – and this is where they are starting to bring in different furniture pieces that can help with this activity based working. The true innovation here is the knowledge, I think.

MATTHEW KOBYLAR Certainly, for some organisations, activity based work settings might not be seen as particularly innovative – as someone said a

little earlier, some of this stuff has been around for 10 years. Innovation can mean very different things to different people. Two different companies can have completely different cultures and completely different DNA. There are some places that you walk into and they’ve never seen this kind of thing – they’re a group of people in petri dish who have never seen outside of their own walls. We worked with a company in Toronto who still had Action Office 1.8m high partitions around everyone’s cubicles – I said ‘You have to preserve this office – seal this office off for 20 years and it will be like a museum piece of how offices were in the 1970’s’. When we talked about people using smartphones and laptops, their jaws dropped! I thought ‘This is innovative to you?’ I think the perception of innovation is in the eye of the beholder.

RAJ KRISHNAMURTHY I think when you give something to people who are ready for change rather than forcing something upon people changes the results you’ll get dramatically. In one particular case for us, we used a very disruptive way of using workspace when two major businesses came together as part of a merger – and when we put this disruptive technology in this new office it was adopted really quickly because one half thought this was how the other half were already working and vice versa. So it worked – but the key thing was that they were ready for this and keen to adopt it. l

CONCLUSION We certainly couldn’t have summed things up any better than Matthew and Raj have. Innovation is in the eye of the beholder – and doesn’t necessarily belong to the technology companies and leading manufacturers. To be sure (or as sure as you can be) of success, behaviour and culture must first change.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Case Study - Ogilvy

SEA

CHANGE However, today we’re visiting a project that is as big as it is impressive, full of innovation and interest. The new landmark headquarters for Ogilvy Group UK has been designed, in a collaborative venture between BDG and Matheson Whiteley, to deliver a truly unique response to the client brief. The end result is a fresh vision for workplace architecture of the future. The 20,000 sq m workplace, located within Sea Containers, occupies a prominent location on the river Thames, between the iconic Tate Modern and the Oxo Tower. Armed with future-proof technologies, the workplace delivers a cultural shift for the 1,700 Ogilvy staff and 700 people working for WPP sister company MEC, who are co-located within the building. To create a dramatic flexible working space to encourage collaboration between different parts of the organisation. The building itself is complex, presenting significant space-planning challenges. The result – a successful collaboration between landlord, client, design team, contractor and other consultants – is an inspirational workplace that makes maximum use of London’s best views while providing the perfect environment to support Ogilvy’s future growth and success. The space is arranged around a series of structural interventions within the existing building. These have been smartly organised to create vistas, platforms and connections between different groups and departments, while providing alternative places to work. Nearly half the usable floor area is given over to shared space and facilities, supporting work that is increasingly informal, flexible and connected. By concentrating workspace on the lower parts of the building, the upper two floors are dedicated to shared and hospitality functions, including a cafe/bar, bistro, private dining, A

Whilst walking through many a new workplace project we often think to ourselves that our greatest challenge is going to be how we do real justice to the scheme in what is a relatively short number of words. And size really doesn’t matter with the smallest of projects also bringing innovation and interest.

Case Study

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Case Study - Ogilvy

It was great that we were on the doorstep, as it were – it was really beneficial. It enabled us to build a tight relationship with the contractor and oversee all aspects of construction

200-person double-height amphitheater and spectacular new roof terrace. Such is the scale and complexity of this project, we’re more than slightly relieved that BDG’s Toby Neilson is on hand (we ‘knocked on’ for him from BDG HQ next door) to guide us. ‘Ogilvy was previously based in Canary Wharf and also had an office in Paddington,’ Toby tells us as we walk across to Sea Containers’ main entrance. ‘It was time to make a move both geographically and culturally, and they looked at a few different places and this one came to the top of the pile about three or four years ago. ‘This building had been developed as a fairly typical Cat A fit-out, designed to be let out to a number of tenants Ogilvy and WPP then came along and said that they’d take the whole lot. By the time we came on board they had started the Cat A fit-out, fortunately we were able to stop that on some floors and implement our own designs, although the ground floor had already been developed. Floors 1 and 2 were just shell and core, the middle floors were Cat A – and the top floors were shell and core. Ideally we would have like all floors shell and core. ‘It was great that we were on the doorstep, as it were – it was really beneficial. It enabled us to build a tight relationship with the contractor and oversee all aspects of construction.’

Toby tells us that the complexity of the space here is heightened by the Mondrian hotel – which has a large number of floors in the middle of the building on certain floors. Furthermore, radical remodelling was required to the middle zone floors, 6 to 11, to alleviate the effects of low ceiling heights and deep floorplates. In the final design, Ogilvy took the uppermost three floors in this block (levels 9, 10 and 11) while WPP sister company MEC occupies the lower three floors (6, 7 and 8). BDG and MW appreciated that cutting large openings into the concrete floor slabs within this middle zone of floors would open up spaces and alleviate the oppressive

atmosphere created by the low ceilings. Ogilvy agreed, and fortunately could see past the slight loss in floor area that would lead to the environmental benefits of quality space and daylight. These openings would also create muchneeded new opportunities for vertical circulation within this dynamic building. A critical initiative was to divide the three storey zone from floors 9 to 11 into three distinct vertical ‘stacks’, each occupying one-third of the width of the building, known as the west, central and east stacks. This created a grid of nine spaces, creating a series of manageable ‘humanised’ volumes of space. A

CaseCase Study Study - Ogilvy

Two types of new connections between floors were conceived – ‘fast’ connections are simple staircases aimed at providing rapid access, while ‘slow’ connections meander between floors, encouraging interaction and chance encounters. Toby and the team then treated the workplace in terms of city planning, with a collection of neighbourhoods connected by common spaces. Each self-contained neighbourhood contains an Ogilvy Group company, while the common areas support flexible working, collaboration and circulation. Inspired by ideas of landscape and urban design, the central stack here is a series of gently cascading terraces, suspended platforms and wide stairways, creating an ‘undulating landscape’ that connects floors while creating a ‘collaborative nucleus’ for the building. This also creates a series of long diagonal vistas through the building and over the Thames, while generating double and triple-height volumes, completely obviating any sense of claustrophobia that may have been caused by the low ceiling heights. The long views through the space were also about encouraging people to adapt to flexible working by making the facilities highly visible. ‘The top two floors have this full height glazing and great views over the City,’ Toby points out, ‘and rather than give that over to the executives (as the developer envisaged)

this is now a shared café, restaurant and conference space – facilities that everyone can use. ‘There are no private offices throughout,' Toby points out.. 'They did want space for as many different settings so whatever your preference you can find a work setting to suit you and what you are doing. Ogilvy is made up of approximately 15 different brands, and each of those brands has its own separate area. Each floor also has what we call a ‘grab and go’ coffee bar.’ Although industrial finishes and exposed ceilings run throughout the majority of the floors here, there are subtle differences in each ‘neighbourhood’. ‘There is a slightly different feel between the brands,’ Toby confirms. ‘Each department was allowed to choose their own furniture and there is also a difference between how each of the brands work and how much noise they make – real cultural differences. Of course we were on hand to advise in keeping with their individual budgets and their choices. ‘The space is completely flexible in nature. It started off being more fixed but as people became more comfortable with the idea the agility went up. Again, this is slightly different for each brand, who have their own separate requirements. In terms of flexibility, it’s about 1:3 throughout. Some of the workspaces might look quite densely occupied but then there

are others which are quite ‘slack’, so there is actually plenty of space for future expansion. The shared spaces are also designed so that they can provide extra workspace if needed.’ The entire central stack of space on these three floors is designated as shared space, ‘common areas’ acting as the ‘slow’ connections between floors, as well as supporting various flexible working activities, ranging from solo touchdown spaces to large meeting rooms. The East and West stacks provide the self-contained workspaces for the different brands, with their own ‘front doors’, buffered by the central stack. ‘Fast’ connections within these east and west stacks allow rapid access between floors and the possibility for an Ogilvy Group brand with greater spatial requirements to occupy more than one floor with its own internal vertical connections. This created a large variety of different spaces, which helped determine which company went where. These ‘fast’ stairs were fabricated on-site from steel plates in a variety of configurations to add variety and character to the spaces, including spiral and scissor stairs. Timber treads provide a warm and natural feel. The overall result was the ability to create a large variety of spaces available for the different Ogilvy Group companies, which vary significantly in size and activity, all connected by a central shared zone.

bespoke STAIRS & BALUSTRADES

A special mention must go to the amazing Acrylicize artworks we find throughout the building – we particularly like Soundskate, which is an amazing noise-activated display formed from skateboard wheels. We also really liked the elevated fully glazed meeting room towards the top of the building, which feels very Bond baddie – in a good way! World-class catering and hospitality facilities, aimed at competing with London’s top bars and restaurants, are another standout feature of the project. Restaurant, bar and events operator Green & Fortune was commissioned to operate all facilities within the Ogilvy workplace, delivering a multitude of different food and beverage offers throughout the building. The ground floor lobby features the Green & Fortune café, with homemade fresh produce. At sky terrace level, there are a number of options. The Sunset Bar serves as the main employee dining area, evening bar and terrace and the elegant ‘Cucumber’, which offers a more formal experience with full waiter service with a private dining room and two 12-seat terraces overlooking the river. It is a perfect setting for client dining and is every bit as impressive as the leading restaurants here on the South Bank. We finish with a drink on the terrace overlooking the river. Brilliant – both outside and in.

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Case Study - Ogilvy

Such was the magnitude of this project, that we felt it only right and fitting to acknowledge the many fine companies and people who helped put it all together. And what better way to illustrate and decorate this finale than with a selection of some of the incredible Acrylicize branding and artwork that features throughout Sea

Essentials Lead Architect BDG architecture + design Project Manager & Cost Consultant Bollingbrook Main Contractor Structure Tone M&E Consultants Arup Cost Consultant M&E Quantem Lighting FUTURE Designs Catering Green & Fortune Branding and art installations Acrylicize Consultant Architect Matheson Whiteley Exterior / feature lighting Jason Bruges Studio Furniture Abstracta, Alias, Aliki, Arflex, Arper, B&B Italia, Benchmark, Brands, Brunner, Cappelini, Carl Hansen, Cassina, Centrium, Clerkenwell Rug Studio, CMD, Coexistence, Crest Contracts, Dare, Forest London, Fritz Hansen, Gubi, Hay, Heals, Humanscale, Icons of Denmark, Interstuhl, James Burleigh, Jennifer Newman, Ritson, Knoll, La Palma, Lammhults, Lampe Gras, Ligne Roset, Loehr, Magis, Maine, Max Design, Mitab, Modus, Moroso, Muuto, Normann Copenhagen, Offecct, Poltrona Frau, Pinch, Punt, Resident, Sancal, SCP, Senator, Tacchini, Tollgard, USM, VGP, Viaduct, Viccarbe, Vitra

EASTERN PROMISE A friend of ours recently asked if we were celebrating our 10th anniversary soon. When we told him that we’re already 16½ his jaw virtually hit the floor. ‘How did that happen?’ he asked. We keep asking ourselves the same question. This also means that we (well, some of the more mature members of the team) have known a number of our key clients for the best part of 20 years. While the ‘glass is half empty’ brigade might worry about where the time went, we prefer to be incredibly proud not just of our own longevity, but also that of our friends. One such company is Task. Not only has the business continued to be the furniture company of choice for many of the City’s financial blue chips, it has now developed into a designled supplier of leading Italian brands, which include ICF, Marelli and most recently, Penta lighting. As such, the company has recently relaunched under a new fresh brand, complimented by a stunning refurbishment of its Shoreditch showroom. We’ve come to the impressive redesigned Great Eastern Street show space to meet with Task stalwarts, Managing Directors Tony Daltrey and Costas Karavias, who began the business 35 years ago. Whilst remaining true to its traditional and loyal customer base, the company has taken the strategic decision to elevate and expand its presence within the architectural and design community through its design, manufacture and supply of quality commercial and hospitality furniture. As Tony explains, ‘We looked at the trends in the marketplace and reassessed our product portfolio in line with the demands of end clients and specifiers. In support of our own Task products, we represent two fantastic furniture brands in Marelli and ICF; both of whom manufacture products of exceptional quality and design and they needed greater presence in the showroom. 'The market has inevitably moved on since we began this business and we recognised that we needed to address our branding and positioning within it. So, we took an in-depth look at the business, the outcome of which led to the appointment of Pernille at Resonate to redesign both the showroom and our Head Office and logistics facility at Beckton – and also the engagement of a brand specialist to redesign our logo. ‘We’ve always had a great space here, working with some top practices and winning fabulous projects, but we asked ourselves what else could we do to be different, what else

We approached this holistically and with our eyes set on the future of the business

could we do to make us more attractive to the design community. ‘We had already met Pernille, and felt she really understood our business and importantly what we were looking to achieve. As part of the process Pernille visited both ICF and Marelli in Milan – and we were delighted with how impressed she was. ‘It wasn’t just about the showroom,’ Costas reveals, ‘we approached this holistically and with our eyes set on the future of the business. We knew that the time was right because we have enjoyed a strong three or four years and could see our presence growing in the marketplace as a result. We have invested in our people, bringing younger people in to bolster our A&D sales: They have a different approach from us senior guys – and that’s really healthy. That’s where the market is today – and it helps that they now have the right showroom environment to support them. ‘The ICF product range has given us access into a number of practices. ICF has continued to invest in its product offering and we are able to offer a complete solution.

Case Study Case Study - Task

‘I think you’ve got to be prepared to invest,’ Tony agrees. ‘We have to give our people the best tools to compete in this competitive market and with which to further develop and grow our business. ‘We want this to be a memorable experience for people. We want clients to come in here and go back to their office saying ‘Have you seen the fabulous new Marelli lounge at the Task showroom?’’ Task appointed Resonate to create the new showroom environment, providing a showcase for the three brands whilst still functioning as a workspace for employees. The key joinery elements reflect the bespoke side of the company’s business, while the impressive new light fittings are supplied by Penta – with whom Task now has an exclusive UK distributorship. The journey through the new showroom begins from the street, as suspended frames magically float chairs in mid-air, providing an enticing an dynamic shopfront, whilst allowing an uninterrupted view of the gallery space beyond. A

Case Study

WE KNOW THE KEY TO A GOOD LOCKER For a start, there’s over 25 years of experience. Then there’s the skilled engineering, design and manufacturing, using only the best quality fixtures and fittings. We’ve also put in a huge amount of time ensuring that the smallest of details are taken care of. Add to that a huge amount of pride and ownership and you’re some way into understanding that our product really is exceptional. All that is also the key to our success.

WWW.JAMES-TOBIAS.COM 68

Case Study - Task Inside the showroom, the completed design ensures that the furniture is of key prominence and the ground floor has become a museum gallery with pure white monolithic display plinths to define key areas and collections. Floating ceiling rafts echoing the plinths below, cast uniform light over the set pieces and mirrored surfaces permit customers to view the products from a 360 degree perspective. The white gallery theme contrasts with black Crittal framed Optima glazed partitions behind the bespoke reception desk, referencing the industrial context of the building and its exposed brick surfaces. Warm timber accents create focal points of the hybrid reception desk-come-glass display case and bar area, which starts to set the scene for the more luxurious lounge furniture of Marelli. Passing through the black framed glazed screening, visitors are transported into the aforementioned Marelli Lounge – a choreographed collection of sumptuous fabrics and warm bronze hues. The lower ground floor accommodates Task’s everyday working environment in a live animated gallery of office product as well as the impressive executive boardroom. Beyond this, a naturally top lit courtyard, formed in an existing unused light well, has been transformed into a decked outdoor space for staff to retreat and take time out. The acoustics throughout the showroom are managed with a new product line called Gecho, an acoustic panelling system that has been newly designed exclusively for Task. As well as the stunning new interior, the new Task showroom also benefits from state-of-the-art AV and technology to enhance the customer experience. ‘Overall this is a scheme that celebrates the products,’ Pernille comments, ‘theming the interiors in a very neutral but sophisticated way that enables the individual pieces to shine.

‘When we first looked at the original designs of different settings and how to split the Marelli and the Task offerings, we knew we had to look at the entire brand. 'The Resonate concept changed very little from that first presentation and was all about setting the furniture in an almost gallery atmosphere, with a 5-star lounge approach for the Marelli products, with their hospitality market appeal.' ‘We looked at how we could get over that line, how we could get recognised,’ Tony concludes. ‘I think it’s happened – and I think things are only going to get better for us. It’s taken a lot of hard work, but I think we’re really starting to get that recognition.’ l

Profile

Profile - Mehran Gharleghi

Believe it or not, there are a number of things a great designer and journalist have in common – not least the thrill of discovery and a naturally inquisitive nature. Over the years, one of the key things we’ve discovered is that the more inquisitive the designer in front of us, the more likely it is we’ll be rewarded with a great article. Mehran Gharleghi is a perfect example. Mehran founded Studio INTEGRATE – the innovative London-based architecture, design and research studio – back in 2011 but (and we have to be totally honest now) it wasn’t until our friends at Morgan Furniture showed us the brilliant new Rio collection that our own heads were turned. Developed by Morgan in collaboration with Studio INTEGRATE, Rio cleverly combines the craft of yesterday with the craft of tomorrow. As well as the traditional timber and upholstered elements, there is a 3D printed component that creates an intricate curved sculptural arm. It is constructed using a mathematical algorithm and printed in polyamide or resin. We immediately wanted to know more. So, today we’ve headed into that coolest of boroughs, Hoxton, to meet with Mehran and discover more about his original and much heralded design philosophy. The studio’s diverse work decorates the space, ranging from research projects looking into the fluid dynamics of ancient Iranian bridges – Mehran’s own heritage comes from Iran – through to designs for technology driven mobile phone and gaming accessories, 3D printed miniature GeMo vases and dynamic new architectural projects. As Mehran kindly grabs us a drink, we can’t help but notice the sizable library and the fact that a number of the books aren’t what we’d normally find in a design studio. ‘What we do is design and architecture for people,’ Mehran tells us as he picks up a copy of Darwin’s The Origin of Species. ‘These are my bibles. Books such as

Sean B. Carroll’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful talk about how the entire ecosystem is related and how each of them evolves. It’s written how an architect would write it – it talks about building blocks, how things grow and how things are put together. This is really the beginning of the idea that objects can be related – how a sculpture can be related to a table, to a building – and all of them are a series of codes and that led me to look at how we can use the language of design to extend possibilities. There are sections in the book that look at the relationship between species – how we are more than 40% related to fruit flies, for example. In other words, we studied fruit flies to understand more about ourselves. Therefore, when you look at things in this way – in code – you start to understand that there is not a great difference between an everyday object and a building. A coffee cup will have a similar DNA code to a city. If you then ‘grow’ them based on a body plan, you are then able to control them and evolve them and add more and more information to them over time. A

Case Studies

LIBERTY

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Profile - Mehran Gharleghi

This all relates to people and how people behave. Not everyone wants to be different from other people. It’s a fascinating process.

‘Some of the theories might not be scientifically valid any more – but for designers this is still a great reference. All species, all things, are so related. The geometric differences are very small.’ Mehran describes as he shows us the book On Growth and Form by D’Arcy Thompson. One of the studio’s first projects was the fascinating GeMo collection of vases and miniatures. The collection perfectly illustrates Mehran’s original design philosophy. ‘This is a series of individually unique vases – there are 500 of them and every single one is unique, but is formed from the same code. They are genetically modified. It’s a two-dimensional drawing which, rather than proliferating them horizontally, I proliferated them vertically and captured each one of the changes in the algorithm. They are all different – but they are really all the same. ‘This is really my lifetime’s project. These are individual and yet accessible. You don’t even see the difference until you look closely.

‘This all relates to people and how people behave. Not everyone wants to be different from other people. It’s a fascinating process.’ Mehran’s right. This is an incredibly fascinating process and approach. We do all see ourselves as individuals, yet there is still a need to conform – to be not too different. We see it through fashion, through arts, through design and through architecture. The studio’s original approach doesn’t look to mimic nature, but to take the essence of what is all around us and apply it to design. The aforementioned Rio chair is a perfect example of this – the beautiful 3D printed back and arms have been developed through research into the skeletal evolution, so are strong and yet incredibly light. A 73

Profile - Mehran Gharleghi

As we mentioned earlier, Mehran has also taken a great deal of inspiration and influence from the great architectural and design works of the past, and then looked to apply his own future methodologies and manufacturing capabilities. As an example he shows us a residential property in Croatia he has designed. ‘The whole building acts as a sponge,’ Mehran explains. ‘This is the Mediterranean – you have these amazing views and an amazing environment and yet these houses have these shutters which completely shut all of this off,’ Mehran explains. ‘So we used the genetic algorithm, not in terms of creating the overall form, but to allow it to settle down with its environment. So we have used these setbacks to allow the views to be opened while also filtering the sun. You don’t need the shutters any more!’ Mehran has used modern technology, coupled with classical, ancient principles and local materials to deliver an

amazing project that boasts incredible natural ventilation that is completely sensitive to its surroundings. Moving on, we are shown more of the studio’s incredibly impressive concepts, including a vibrant multicoloured residential tower in South America that takes its inspiration from the stacked hillside of the favelas, and an equally eyecatching molecular lighting structure. So what drives Mehran? He’s certainly not afraid of diversity. ‘I wanted to do architecture, one-off designs and every day product design – I wanted to link these things. It’s just a matter of scale. I’m really excited by the idea of linking supposedly different elements. When you look at these things closely, they all start to come together. ‘I’m not afraid of challenges. This is why I started my own multidisciplinary practice four and a half years ago after I finished working with Foster + Partners. I wanted to look at the word ‘design’ in a more holistic way, to drive it with research and to link it with other worlds. ‘I might not become the richest person on the planet – and I’m not afraid to fail. I do like to be challenged though. I’m focused on what happens next. 'I don’t go after projects – I simply don’t have the resources to do so. I’ve been lucky that work continues to find me – and sometimes we don’t make money on unusually ambitious projects, but I’ll still look to take them on because this is my life, this is how I get my kicks and this is how we can contribute. I cannot change this. 'People tell me that I’m wrong – but I’m not prepared to become an extension builder.’ Nor should he. We cannot think of a more suitable profile to sit within an issue that focuses upon the subject of innovation. l 74

Profile

Black and White was yesterday

Re-pend Design | Martin Ballendat

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Preview - London Design Festival

The London Design Festival (LDF) is an annual event, held to celebrate and promote London as the design capital of the world. LDF 2016 will run 17-25 September and whilst some of the shows that sit under its umbrella have been around longer, LDF itself was launched in March 2003 by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans. The following pages give you a taste of what

to expect from this year’s commercially focused

shows and events. London Design Fair can be

Cross – and, to be honest, we’re really looking forward to seeing the outcome.

The former industrial heartland was once a

found at the Old Truman Brewery (the umbrella

pretty rough area, but is now being transformed

London) – 22nd-25th and tickets for this will

with the redevelopment creating 1,900 new

brand for Tent London and Super Brands also get you in to the ‘softer’ Decorex event.

100% Design is once again at Olympia

this year and offers a wide range of sectors and

exhibitors, and includes a number of interesting, specially designed features – think CDW.

into one of the capital’s most exciting destinations, homes, 20 new streets, 10 new public parks and

squares and some 3 million sq ft of commercial

office space. If you’ve visited King’s Cross recently, you’ll know things have changed a great deal! Anna

Strongman,

Partner

Argent

However, our first destination of choice for

commented: 'King’s Cross has a rich history

already aware, designjuntion has moved from

stores and railway itself were all outputs of our

LDF 2016 will be designjunction. If you are not

its former home on Southampton Row. With

the support of the King’s Cross Development Partnership, designjunction will be at King’s

of industrial design – the gasholders, grain

country’s creative heritage...we are excited about designjunction arriving, and see it as further endorsement of King’s Cross’ great reputation.’

Deadgood brand / designjunction

LONDON DESI GN FESTIVAL

LONDON DESIGN FAIR 22-25 Sept Old Truman Brewery. Brick Lane Tube: Shoreditch High Street Holds the largest collection of international exhibitions, designers, brands, country pavilions and galleries in one destination. Also included are Tent London and Super Brands DESIGN JUNCTION 22-25 Sept Kings Cross Tube: Kings Cross Critically acclaimed international design show. Relocated to King’s Cross. 2016 theme ‘Immersed in Design’ 100% DESIGN 21-24 Sept Olympia Tube: Kensington (Olympia) The archetypal exhibition of the LDF with three areas: Interiors, Workplace and Kitchens & Bathrooms DECOREX 18-21 Sept Syon Park Train: Syon Lane Resource for high-end interior designers, architects, specifiers, retailers and property developers FOCUS/16 18-23 Sept Chelsea Harbour (Design Centre) Train: Imperial Wharf Luxury in interiors. 120 international exhibitors, modern and contemporary art

100% Design at Olympia 79

Preview - London Design Festival

Another Country / designjunction

Sibille / designjunction

Four distinct exhibition sites will make up the

designjunction show:

DYS ID

SQUARE will feature 10 custom exhibitions for

E ST

REE

Lewis Cubitt Park

WAY

HAN

K YOR

The centrally located (A) - GRANARY

T HAN

Gasholder Triplet

featuring the best in contemporary lighting

in the ‘ lightjunction’ as well as furniture from

D House of Illustration

including everything from fashion accessories

NT ’S

to technology, textiles and stationery. Located

REGEN

T’S CAN AL

NA L

between Central Saint Martins and Waitrose, the

large market area will takePAshape under a heritage NC S

OD S

WAY

The Guardian Headquarters

CA ML

RO protected wrought iron structure AD

EY ST RE

(D) - THE CROSSING, running through

the Central Saint Martins building, will provide

AY SW YORK WAY

pop-up venue for premium retail brands,

COPENHAGEN STREET

Central Saint Martins

Coal Drops

REET

YORK WAY

international design brands.

E ST

TREE LE S

Cubitt Square, will have a strong trade focus,

Gasholder No 8

STAB

(B) - CUBITT, a two-floor pavilion in Lewis

DYSID

headline sponsored projects and installations.

the show’s registration point as well as a platform

Pancras Square

factories. Both Granary Square and The Crossing N PA

WHARFDALE ROAD

September’s festival.

will remain accessible to the public throughout

KING’S BO ULEVAR

for specially commissioned installations and flash

DR D

Feature projects and installations

St Pancras Station

B CUBITT

YORK WAY

A GRANARY SQUARE

njunction Morgan / desig King’s Cross Station

Contemporary lighting and furniture

C THE CROSSING N PA CR AS RO AD

Design House Stockholm / designjunction

PENTONVIL

ROAD

Premium retail design

L A ND

D THE CANOPY

MID

Registration point, installations and flash factories

N TO

GRA Y’S

INN

R OA

LE ROAD

Region the new table system from tangent, brings harmonious fusion of materials to a collaborative workspace. www.tangentfurniture.co.uk

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Case Study

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Estudio Claro / designjunction

Preview - London Design Festival

Morgan / designjunction

We Do Wood / designjunction

Design House Stockholm / designjunction

De / d sign es H ign ou jun se S ct t ion ock

Estudio Claro / designjunction TFL / designjunction

Preview - London Design Festival

IN ES.artdesign / designjunction

Sibile / designjunction

Hagit / designjunction

Estudio Claro / designjunction

Label Edition / designjunction

Ethnicraft / designjunction

Case Study

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Preview - London Design Festival

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Preview - London Design Festival

Framery / 100% Design

Mass Productions / 100% Design

Arper / London Design Fair

Johanson Design / 100% Design

Ornamenta / 100% Design

Sagal / 100% Design

Preview - London Design Festival

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Framery / 100% Design

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Out For Space / London Design Fair

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Story Museum, Cardiff (The Old Library)

29 September 2016

HOME, Manchester

14 September 2016

Preview - London Design Festival

Karl Andersson & Soner / London Design Fair

Cupallo / London Design Fair

Design Point / London Design Fair

Redshed Collective / London Design Fair

Vera Kyte / London Design Fair

Nature Lab / London Design Fair

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Justan

idea

The Office of the Future is a Snark, writes Mark Eltringham. So we should stop pursuing it and focus on the Office of the Present, he argues.

Lewis Carroll’s second best known work, The Hunting of the Snark, is a long nonsense poem that describes the pursuit by a group of adventurers of an elusive creature called a Snark. This turns out to be a much more dangerous Boojum when it is finally seen, causing one of the crew members to vanish. The poem may or may not be an allegory for the pursuit of happiness but it could easily be about our pursuit of anything elusive, imaginary or ephemeral. The author never explains. In the parochial world of workplace design and management the great Snark is The Office of the Future, the pursuit of which has been ongoing for decades. We’re sometimes shown pictures of it but on closer inspection these always turn out to be hyper-realised versions of The Office of the Present. What we see in them is a Boojum. Yet, there appears to be something much more profound and visceral going on with regards to this yearning for some idealised Office of the Future that will solve all of the workplace ills of the present. We feel in our guts that things will get better when certain factors come into alignment. And that when they do we will witness the transition to something that marks an end point. The happy ever after. We know this to be true because it is how we see ourselves. From an early age we are presented with an image of The Tree of Life

with us perched at the top. The Ascent of Man depicts a process which culminates with us. This is not just dangerously solipsistic in its own right but leads to some flawed thinking about how the world works.

From an early age we are presented with an image of The Tree of Life with us perched at the top.

For example, critics of the Theory of Evolution like to ask why there are no transitional forms in the fossil record. This not only ignores the fact that there are plenty but also, perhaps, the more pertinent fact that all animals are transitional forms, including us. We are all in the process of becoming something else. This is a slow process of course, imperceptible in the now, but transformative in the long term. As the astrophysicist Martin Rees puts it: 'Most educated people are aware that we're the outcome of nearly 4bn years of

Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. It will not be humans who watch the sun's demise, 6bn years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.' This is not a comforting thought, but it is the truth. As for the office, we have no way of knowing what the future holds, especially in an era in which so many disruptive technologies are about to make their mark on the world all at the same time. So we should discard any hard notion that we can ever define what the office of the future will be like. That does not mean that we should not plan to be ready for it, nor does it mean we should assume it will die out. Humans need each other and so there are no grounds to believe we’ll get rid of the places where that happens. What I can say with certainty is that depictions of the Office of the Future are Snarks and we should give up the hunt for them. It’s likely we can’t even imagine what will happen. As the biologist JBS Haldane once remarked; 'I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.' www.workplaceinsight.net

Mark Eltringham is the publisher of workplace design and management website Office Insight. mark@workplaceinsight.net

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