New Work, New Workspace

Innovative design in a connected world

Ruth Slavid

• Publisher: RIBA Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000217247
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architektur
• Subtopic: Berufspraxis in der Architektur

Does it matter where and how we work any more? Increasingly, many of us can work anywhere, so what is the meaning of the dedicated workspace? With 30 detailed case studies of all kinds of workspaces – from traditional workspaces to writer's sheds and studios – this book argues that a specific place to work is still needed but that the kind of space is changing fast.

As social interaction is favoured over places to toil, and as millennials and Generation X take a very different attitude to work than their predecessors, being more concerned with completing tasks than presenteeism, so the needs of design change. There are increasing metrics for measuring the effectiveness of workspace, and they show that good design – design that is focused on the environment and wellbeing that the workforce needs – is valued. At the same time, there are more generic spaces, such as co-working spaces, that have to fit all – or at least all of the target community.

Case studies include:

• 80 Atlantic Avenue, Toronto
• Nick Veasey studio and gallery, Kent
• Kostner House, Italy
• GS1, Lisbon.

1 The dedicated office

There is a great GIF that shows the ‘evolution of the desk’. It starts in 1981 with a desk that is home to loads of things – stand-alone computer, diary, calendar, phone, papers and books, Rolodex. On the wall are pictures and a pinboard. Pretty soon the computer is replaced by a laptop, and then icons on the screen start to replace all the other objects. At the end, nothing physical remains except the laptop and a mobile phone. That is the generic image of how we work today, and it is why some organisations have been able to ‘untether’ their employees from their desks – why we have agile working, people working from home some of the time, and even entirely remote workers.

It is true that most ‘office workers’ or ‘knowledge workers’ have much the same basic needs, but this does not mean that all offices should be the same. Indeed, there is possibly more thought going into the design of offices than ever before, and this is particularly the case where an organisation is able to make a space entirely its own, whether with a dedicated building or in a part of a much larger one.

Today organisations have to worry about company culture. Simply because everybody’s most basic needs are much the same, they have to think beyond those needs if they are to attract and retain staff – and to ensure that those staff are as productive as possible. If a company is responsible for the exterior of a building, it may use it as a billboard, an attractor for staff, clients and collaborators. At the most basic level, if the essential meetings with clients can take place there, productive time spent on travelling will be minimised.

And where once the office may have been all about ‘production’, now it is interaction that is the holy grail. That, and wellness, which should ensure that people are as healthy and happy as possible – that they work productively and well, that they do not have time off sick, and that wherever possible the employer can avoid the disruptive cost of recruiting replacements.

Some things are becoming givens. Sit/stand desks are becoming ubiquitous. This is a response to the general concern that we all need to sit less and to help the numerous people who have back problems. Catering is being taken increasingly seriously, even in inner-city locations surrounded by outlets. Partly this addresses the need for a supply of healthy food (it is one of the things that the WELL building standard demands) and partly it is yet another way of promoting social interaction. And, of course, it discourages people from eating at their desks. More and more places are installing phone booths for calls, because telephone calls, which were once routine, are now seen as disruptive.

But beyond this, there are elements that mark out particular organisations, and are part of the joy and diversity of buildings. So, Portuguese organisation GS1 has a building on a business

FIGURE 1.1
The U + I office in London, with some fairly conventional workspaces and a most unconventional floating meeting room, shows how companies can arrange their buildings to suit their particular needs. Note also the exposed services.

park that has been decorated by an international graffiti artist. International news organisation Bloomberg funnels staff in its London HQ through a timber ‘vortex’ that ensures everybody starts their day by taking the lift to the fifth-floor pantry. And property company U + I has a boardroom that combines privacy with extreme visibility, by suspending it above the main work floor.

Some of the best in their fields, these organisations have addressed fairly common needs in an individual manner. Whether they are coating walls in moss, as at The Crown Estate, planting the team in a near-jungle as at WWF, or installing a Caribbean-style beer shack in the basement, as Mintel has done, none of the buildings shown here is bland. They have stacks of personality and nobody going to work there should be in any doubt about the place where they have arrived.

Bloomberg, London

When you arrive at the London headquarters of media giant Bloomberg it is immediately obvious that this is an organisation that operates in an unusual way. Staff and visitors pass the reception desk and then go through ‘The Vortex’, a sinuous sculptural timber form that is an engineering achievement in its own right. Strictly a public space, although only the boldest outsider might have the courage to access it, ‘The Vortex’ funnels people towards one set of lifts, which takes them immediately to ‘The Pantry’, on the fifth floor of the 10-storey building.

FIGURE 1.2
'The Vortex' funnels arriving workers towards the correct lift.

FIGURE 1.3
‘The Pantry’, where everybody starts the day, has the same acoustic ceiling as the office floors.

This is a magnificent, column-free space with views over the City of London. The idea is that everybody starts their day with a cup of coffee or a snack and talks to their colleagues before moving to the floor on which they are working.

They do this by going up or down a generous ramp that runs through the centre of the building. Not only does this make a contribution to the building’s extremely green credentials (because most movement within the building is without power assistance), it also increases the potential for informal interaction and ensures that people use their legs. A second set of lifts, slightly tucked away, is used for exiting, sending staff out into the other side of ‘The Vortex’.

FIGURE 1.4
Spiral ramps lead people through the building.

FIGURE 1.5
Instead of a tower, Bloomberg built two blocks with a reinstated street betwen them.

The rest of the building is equally unusual, with new products specially developed for it so as to provide the working environment that Bloomberg wanted. Kate Murphy, partner in charge of the project at Foster and Partners, said, ‘From the start the vision was very clear and incredibly obvious – they wanted to create a workspace that would support everybody who is working in the building so they can be as productive as possible – a beacon to attract clients and top talent. The building was an expression of Michael Bloomberg’s desire to innovate and do everything in the best way you could.’

The Bloomberg headquarters, which won the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2018 (making it officially the best building in the UK for that year), also works hard to be a good neighbour. The original planning permission was for a 21-storey tower that would have sat among open space. Bloomberg challenged this, instead creating a 10-storey building that occupies most of the site. But that ‘most of’ is important. It is split into two unequal parts, with between them a ‘new’ street, which is in fact the reinstatement of the old Watling Street, following a desire line between Cannon Street and Cheapside.

There are also new public spaces where corners of the building have been cut off, and an artwork, Forgotten Streams, by Cristina Iglesias.

Internally, Foster and Partners had to ensure that the deep spaces that Bloomberg wanted were well ventilated under the mixed-mode regime that uses natural ventilation wherever possible. It achieved this with a special ceiling design of pressed aluminium ‘petals’ that greatly increase the surface area. The design team also carried out simulations with varied weather conditions to make sure that the ventilation would reach every part of the office, no matter what the outside world was doing.

Concern about acoustics, which Kate Murphy believes are largely neglected in building design, also extends to the floors. These are of timber, for its natural look. But there was a worry that they could be noisy and so Foster devised a system of planks above an acoustic floor. The floor is fully accessible, because the planks are held down by magnetic fixings. This was just one innovation that manufacturers subsequently imitated.

In the working area, people work at 120-degree desks, organised in clusters of six. This allows people to spin round and have an informal meeting, or continue to work informally.

FIGURE 1.6
Cutaway showing the internal layout and the deep floors.

FIGURE 1.7
Desks are arranged to make impromptu meetings easy.

A small circular table at the centre of the space helps increase flexibility. All the desks themselves are sit/stand desks.

There are also ‘haha’ meeting areas, designed for two people with a Bloomberg screen. This design feature resulted from the Foster team’s observation, in the old office, that there were frequently large ...