March 28, 2018 by

Design News You Can Use—Reuse, Revamp, Recreate Edition

Looking for a major dose of news you can use? In this edition of Design News You Can Use, Workplace Strategist Joelle Jach explores the incorporation of art, tech + robots and the importance of your co-worker in the workplace.

It just clicks: The office of today (and tomorrow) is modern, inviting, and most of all, technologically enabled. Even the slickest interior designs aren’t much without technology, and a successful workplace merges technology and design to encourage employee engagement and collaboration.

Proof in the pudding: It’s sometimes hard to make the case for WELL buildings without demonstrating a business benefit. Luckily, building technology is making it easier to measure (and demonstrate the effectiveness of) healthy building interventions, paving the way for more wellness-based design.

Human nature: Green design has picked up steam in the past several years, and companies from Apple to Amazon are bringing a touch of nature indoors. But is all this leafy design really something to write home about? Signs point to yes: study after study exemplifies the benefits of bringing nature inside.

Get real: Designers have leveraged virtual reality (VR) to show off spaces to clients and partners. But while those in other industries are seeing a surge of interest in VR, the technology has been more successful in retail and residential markets, but not as much in the office leasing market.

They’re just like us: All your Jetson dreams may soon come true! As robotics technology has advanced and we’ve become accustomed to constant connectivity, the door has opened for robots to become an integral part of our daily lives – from baristas to realtors, it looks like the revolution has already begun.

Stay awhile: Attraction, engagement and retention can be key indicators of organizational success. The challenge: how to get employees to stick around? Company culture and workload can play big roles, but creating a sense of place (and installing art) can go a long way towards keeping employees around.

Quick ship: Looking for a creative architectural solution? Think outside the box – literally. Designers are seizing on the versatility of shipping containers to create homes, building blocks and retail spaces. From complete transformations to modular interpretations, projects around the world showcase shipping containers as hip, functional components.

My generation: No matter your stance on millennials, there’s no denying that they’ve been a hot topic for quite some time. But what is a millennial, and are they all bad? Pew Research Center has released a definition of millennials and outlines some characteristics of the generation (keeping in mind that generalizations are risky).

All together now: Part of coworking’s success is due to flexibility, but the model has another, more important advantage: social support. Loneliness can be substantially harmful to our health, and by providing independent workers with a social network, coworking is doing more than just setting up fancy, flexible space.

Closed off: Neither the open office nor the hate surrounding the concept is a new thing – but as younger generations enter the workforce and discover the pitfalls associated with working, office space is beginning to change shape. Developers are starting to target a more “activity-based” model, emphasizing flexibility and catering to millennials.