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I’ve recently dived into the world of commercial interior design, both out of sheer curiosity and also as a form of informal research to understand better some of the challenges my clients are experiencing when tackling complex, large interiors projects. This writing is the result of multiple interviews and conversations with interior designers, both from large and small firms in order to see where commercial interiors are headed in the near future.
I’m going to present the most inspiring of these ideas and expand a little bit on them to give them some context around three main themes:
1. The importance of human to human interaction and human-centric design.
While we constantly hear about the impending doom of the approaching singularity and the resulting rise of our AI overlords, for the time being, people still don’t like to interact with machines, mainly on account of the fact that we haven’t been able to design machines that convincingly replicate a human to human experience. The uncanny valley makes our interactions with machines mostly weird and uncomfortable. In other words, it’s not anytime soon that the majority of workers will be replaced by machines, especially to replace human-to-human interactions.
This is why designing workplaces that foster face to face, wholesome relationships is critically important for our well-being. There is increasing evidence that a holistic approach to life where we don’t spend all our waking hours working, but rather strive to live fulfilled, balanced lives with a healthy dose of play is beneficial both inside and outside the office. There is more to creating such spaces than bean bags and foosball tables, as the best spaces are the ones that truly reflect a given company’s culture while accommodating the latest findings in workplace health. So bean bags and foosball may be a fit for one company and not another and should not be used as a formula just because they’re cool.
In her article about workplace design, Lois Wellwood further defines the idea of human-centric workplace design, where innovation and productivity come not from prescriptive work environments and scheduled interactions, but rather from visual and physical access to other people (Gensler’s research tells us that levels of interaction decrease exponentially as workers are further removed from one another), which in turns allows for unplanned and casual interactions. In other terms, there is an increasing body of research out there that has identified some universal principles that can help us design better workplaces.
However, these principles are not prescriptive of how a space should be designed, but rather act as a sort of guideline for which attributes will make the space better for its users. On top of that, it is a designer’s duty to to deep-dive into their clients culture in order to come up with a design that reflects said culture and contribute to make a workplace that embodies the organizational values of the client.
This is where a skilled designer will be able to artfully blend a scientifically-sound approach, backed by research, with a creative ability to design spaces that actually improves the worker’s experience and therefore their productivity.
2. Loose fit, long life.
This is a really interesting idea, in an age where we see a lot of custom work being done for companies so that they can have a cool office with all sorts of gizmos integrated in complicated millwork. Companies such as Gensler understand that technology is rendered obsolete in less time than it takes to say it, and therefore design their spaces to accommodate technology, without making its upgrading overly complicated e.g., having to rip out an entire wall just to replace a projector. This makes office spaces somewhat future proof, and easy to upgrade or retrofit for a new tenant.
The main idea behind this is to design for the common denominator and not the exception. Take for example someone who loves camping in the wilderness and goes on average camping once a month for 3-4 days. When looking to buy their next car, they are naturally inclined to buy a big, off-road capable SUV, because the trunk space and the ground clearance will come handy once a month. At the same time, they spend 90% of their time driving around the city, routinely parking in garages or squeezing in between a hydrant and another car that’s taking 50% more space than it needs to. They essentially buy their car for the once-a-month exception, when they should really consider a small, hybrid or electric car that will get them easily around the city, save them a lot on gas and maintenance and be much easier to park in tight spots. Then, when that person needs a big truck to go play in the mud they can always rent one for the weekend (not to mention that if it gets destroyed you only have to cover the deductible - I speak from experience, ask me about the time I destroyed an SUV in Costa Rica).
The same goes for designing workspaces. If 40% percent of an office’s desks are empty at all times, why not implement a hot desk system where people settle with their networked laptop for the day wherever is most convenient to them at that moment in time? I discovered such a set-up on a recent visit to a large Toronto architecture firm that recently significantly downsized their office when they realized that out of their 70+ employees, they only ever had 50 to 55 of them in the office at any given point in time.
Taking the idea further, we can imagine many a set-up for how an office should work for its employees. That’s where design comes in to determine solutions that are tailored to each situation. The aforementioned hot-desking policy is not a solution for every company, but it made sense for that one when they were looking for efficiency gains, which allowed them to move from an office that was somewhat tricky to access by transit to a downtown core office near practically every major transit option in the city. This, in turn, allowed them to retain employees that were increasingly moving out to the suburbs as a result of being priced out of the downtown area.
3. Experiences.
Designing great looking spaces used to be enough to get people in the door. You’d dazzle them with spiffy finishes and thick carpet and the novelty alone would be enough to make them walk out the door with a smoking credit card and a bunch of stuff in their hands. Nowadays, people can find stuff cheaper and faster on Amazon and have it delivered the same day for practically nothing (thanks amazon prime). Consequently, retail spaces have to provide amazing experiences where people come for more than just shopping. Whether it’s a hands-on experience, coupled with unparalleled customer service (Apple stores), or a local café where the space is designed to cheer you up in the morning on your way to work (Milky’s), the spaces we frequent every day affect us. Working extra hard at making those experiences positive is a great way to differentiate oneself from the competition in markets where the product/service is commoditized. Even a notoriously commoditized brand like Samsung has started to recognize that with their latest Canadian flagship store. It is not a place where people go to buy stuff (they can do that from anywhere), rather a place where people get to experience the products and learn more about them, which is not a bad thing when you’re going to blow 5K + on a kitchen appliance.
However, experiences are increasingly becoming continuous, multi-channel experiences, where one may go to the flagship store to touch and feel the product and then go to the manufacturer’s website to read more, look at specs and make a final decision, before engaging with the brand on social media only to finally buy it from a reseller. This is where brands like Apple, Tesla and IKEA demonstrate the value of being in control of all steps of the experience. Samsung may control some of these steps such as the flagship store and their website, but since their products are sold by many different retailers, that’s where the experience breaks down, because they are not in control of what the experience is like at many of these retailers. Conversely, Apple controls 99.9% of its users’ experiences, from the website, to the Apple Store, to the customer and product service. The only time they relinquish control is for small, local, third-party retailers, but you can bet that they put a lot of contractual conditions on authorized resellers for them to retain their status and ensure a great experience. That’s also one of the reasons why Tesla doesn’t rely on conventional dealer networks to sell their wares. They are smart enough to know that car dealers variable geometry ethics would not serve them in the long term.
It is the companies who master all aspects of a customer’s experience, are willing to look beyond the obvious and tackle the most seemingly insignificant touch points with their customers who will come out ahead in the future, even Terry O’Reilly says so.
Conclusion:
We’ve covered 3 interesting ideas that are currently shaping commercial design and architecture: the human need for connection, designing adaptable spaces and providing users with unparalleled experiences. In my opinion, they are all deeply related to organizational culture and a reflection of how businesses think about about and present themselves to the world. They all challenge our preconceived notions about design, but are also essential to achieve the highest caliber of design. In such an uber-competitive landscape, firms who want to attract and retain the best talent not only need a solid cultural foundation, but also work out of spaces that embody that culture.
Firms who do not pay heed to the latest development in corporate design are destined to remain second-rate players, because the smart ones will continue to work really hard at improving themselves in every area.
Arnaud Marthouret is the founder of rvltr and leads their strategy, visual communications and media efforts. He has helped numerous architects and interior designers promote themselves in their best light - pun intended - in order to help them run more effective practices and grow in a meaningful way.
If you have questions about this article or rvltr, or want to chat about your strategy and communications, you can leave a comment, share with a friend, or reach him at arnaud{at}rvltr.studio.