By: Jacqueline Houton
The cubicle farms that sprouted in the 1960s dominated offices for decades, but design pros are increasingly thinking outside the beige box, reimagining the spaces where we spend more than a third of our waking hours. Can design increase employee engagement? Impact the bottom line? Maybe even create joy? These are questions driving the Center for Workplace Innovation, a new Design Museum Foundation initiative launched in April that will produce exhibitions, a podcast and event programming, including the first annual Workplace Innovation Summit. Taking place Nov. 3 at the Innovation & Design Building, the daylong conference will feature presentations and panels as well as field trips to nearby workplaces of note. “We’ll have the whole Seaport available to us, all the new office spaces that we can go check out,” says Design Museum executive director Sam Aquillano, who cites the new Seaport Boulevard headquarters of Red Thread as one standout—no surprise, since the company is itself in the office furniture biz. “They’ve designed the space to be the latest thinking in workplace design. There are multiple different types of seating and different ways of working. No one has their own desk; no one has their own office,” Aquillano says. “Based on how you’re feeling and what you’re trying to get done, you can choose a private area when you really need to focus, a cafe area where you can sit on a comfy couch with a little desk, a standing desk. A lot of folks are moving to a sort of you-choose model, where things can morph and be more flexible.”
Photo Credit: Caitlin Cunningham Photography
Another company ahead of the curve? Aquillano points to Cambridge’s Genzyme. “They designed their new headquarters with natural light, open space, bringing nature into the building. They did a survey after the fact and found that compared to their previous workplace, 72 percent of employees felt more alert and productive.” But smaller changes may have an impact too. Aquillano recently visited Fidelity’s Summer Street office, where employees have taken design into their own hands, playing with different layouts to suit the needs of specific teams. Or consider Carbonite, an online-backup company that’s adopted a Star Wars theme throughout its Downtown Crossing office, from a Darth Vader mural to Luke and Leia icons on the bathroom doors. “There’s just this visual layer that they put on everything, and it’s really fun and keeps people engaged,” says Aquillano, who aims to tap a wide range of local perspectives for the center’s programming. “We want to be visiting different offices and getting multiple voices, from the decision makers in the C suite to people who are using the office every day.”
Imagine That
By Improper Staff April 22, 2016
Office Maxed
By: Jacqueline Houton
The cubicle farms that sprouted in the 1960s dominated offices for decades, but design pros are increasingly thinking outside the beige box, reimagining the spaces where we spend more than a third of our waking hours. Can design increase employee engagement? Impact the bottom line? Maybe even create joy? These are questions driving the Center for Workplace Innovation, a new Design Museum Foundation initiative launched in April that will produce exhibitions, a podcast and event programming, including the first annual Workplace Innovation Summit. Taking place Nov. 3 at the Innovation & Design Building, the daylong conference will feature presentations and panels as well as field trips to nearby workplaces of note. “We’ll have the whole Seaport available to us, all the new office spaces that we can go check out,” says Design Museum executive director Sam Aquillano, who cites the new Seaport Boulevard headquarters of Red Thread as one standout—no surprise, since the company is itself in the office furniture biz. “They’ve designed the space to be the latest thinking in workplace design. There are multiple different types of seating and different ways of working. No one has their own desk; no one has their own office,” Aquillano says. “Based on how you’re feeling and what you’re trying to get done, you can choose a private area when you really need to focus, a cafe area where you can sit on a comfy couch with a little desk, a standing desk. A lot of folks are moving to a sort of you-choose model, where things can morph and be more flexible.”
Photo Credit: Caitlin Cunningham Photography
Another company ahead of the curve? Aquillano points to Cambridge’s Genzyme. “They designed their new headquarters with natural light, open space, bringing nature into the building. They did a survey after the fact and found that compared to their previous workplace, 72 percent of employees felt more alert and productive.” But smaller changes may have an impact too. Aquillano recently visited Fidelity’s Summer Street office, where employees have taken design into their own hands, playing with different layouts to suit the needs of specific teams. Or consider Carbonite, an online-backup company that’s adopted a Star Wars theme throughout its Downtown Crossing office, from a Darth Vader mural to Luke and Leia icons on the bathroom doors. “There’s just this visual layer that they put on everything, and it’s really fun and keeps people engaged,” says Aquillano, who aims to tap a wide range of local perspectives for the center’s programming. “We want to be visiting different offices and getting multiple voices, from the decision makers in the C suite to people who are using the office every day.”
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