I RECENTLY read a piece about workplace design and it reminded me about Arch. Frank Lloyd Wright and what he did in designing a new office building for New York-based Larkin Co. around a century ago.
Wright was an American architect, interior designer, educator and writer, who designed more than 500 completed buildings in his long career. He believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment. He called this architectural philosophy “organic architecture,” an architectural school of thought that was truly ahead of its time.
The Larkin Co., in turn, was a pioneer in the thriving mail-order business back then. The company wanted a new office building to serve as a symbol of their growth and to beef up their chances for bigger commercial success.
So, the Larkin Co. employed Wright to help them reinvent the workplace to implement the latest ideas in technology and management then. The result was a totally amazing structure with a long atrium as the main work area.
The design enhances visibility since all rooms on the upper floors lead out to a corridor that overlooks the main workplace. This interconnection of the structural elements creates an overall atmosphere of inclusiveness, something that is very important in an office environment.
The architectural design of the building was actually meant to achieve specific business objectives—to support a commercial strategy, to accommodate innovative work processes and to communicate a specific set of business values. I believe that this level of purposefulness in architectural design is something that cannot be said as true for all properties today, particularly here in the Philippines. Oftentimes, companies lease buildings that have already been constructed and, as such, there is very little they can do in customizing the structure based on their specific needs and objectives as businesses. What they can do, however, is to customize their office configuration within the building to maximize their employees’ efficiency and productivity, thereby enhancing their business performance.
Designing offices that inspire
Work and stress have always been strange bedfellows. They are very often found in the same environment, especially in a landscape of stiff business competition.
The fact that the usual work force sees individuals cooped up in their workplaces at least nine hours day, or more than half of their waking time, is something that companies need to consider in designing their office layouts.
Greater output, increased productivity and improved quality of work are often functions of an appropriately configured workplace environment. Conversely, a noisy, cluttered workplace that’s not optimized to the kind of work that employees do plays a major role in work dissatisfaction and a decrease in individual productivity. I have always believed that the workplace should inspire productivity and excellence. It should be a place that boosts creativity and innovative thought. It must encourage inclusion rather than exclusion. Most important, it should ensure happy and healthy employees.
Differences in configuration needs
The advent of the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry has created a new kind of work environment that mostly requires individuality and focus. We therefore see cubicle-based BPO office configurations that allow employees to be isolated in their own space to focus on individual work.
This kind of office design configuration definitely works for them, considering the nature of their industry. And because BPO companies know that the kind of work that their workers do can be quite stifling and stressful when done at length, they provide ways to neutralize this by providing team areas, pantries, and cafeterias that encourage interactivity and give employees the feeling of spatial liberation after hours of doing individual work.
Marketing communication firms and design agencies, on the other hand, work in a totally different kind of environment. These companies thrive on the free exchange of ideas, teamwork and inclusion.
Although some of these companies also have modular cubicles—which are more for space maximization than anything else—you often see collaborative open spaces or long tables in the middle of work areas and in meeting rooms, where employees often brainstorm, plan and outline strategies together.
Although companies may differ in how their operations are done, one thing is true in all of them—their workplace design carries profound implications in the performance of their business.
Indeed, the workplace is no longer considered just a place full of desks where you locate your employees and tell them to do their jobs. The workplace is a constantly evolving entity that changes with the times to keep up with the demands of a rapidly changing global work environment.