SBID Accredited Partner, KI Europe has published new Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its portfolio of UK-manufactured products to help customers meet their sustainability objectives. Valid for five years, these documents help to achieve credits towards SKA, BREEAM, LEED and other certifications and standards.
KI’s furniture helps the world leading organisations create happy, healthy, high performing working and learning environments for their people; bringing together good design, advanced engineering and sustainable resources.
An EPD is a standardised and verified way of quantifying the environmental impacts of a product based on a consistent set of rules known as a PCR (Product Category Rules). Conformant with ISO 14025 (ISO 14025:2006 Environmental labels and declarations – Type III environmental declarations – Principles and procedures), these cradle-to-grave EPDs are concise and include environmental information and life cycle assessments (LCA) which have been conducted by Giraffe Innovation Ltd. LCAs cover materials, production, distribution, use, through to end of life; helping specifiers and customers to confidently make more sustainable procurement decisions.
Jonathan Hindle, KI’s Group Managing Director, EMEA, comments: “Sustainability is a top priority for a growing number of public and private sector projects. These EPDs show our commitment to tackling our shared issues such as climate change, carbon footprint and environmental impact. Additionally, analysing the environmental performance of our products over their lifetime can help us to develop even better products and processes in the future.”
KI’s products manufactured in the UK with third-party verified EPDs, published on Environdec (www.environdec.com) include:
Additional KI products including bespoke items have self-declared third party reviewed EPDs that have been produced by using the same calculator and standards.
If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here to find out more.
Work life, and the commercial landscape as we know it, has changed immensely. In as little as five months, the corporate world experienced a mass exodus of workers, who retreated to the safety of their own homes in response to lockdown.
Throughout this time, cloud communication has enabled businesses to continue operating remotely with relative ease. Indeed, many who were formerly reticent about the merits of working from home, are now reconsidering the future of their own workspace environments in a post-pandemic world.
With employees arguably communicating with each other more than ever before through virtual means, it raises the question – can employees still feel part of a team, when physically apart?
This is something employers need to consider before deciding how they recalibrate their offices. For whilst remote working offers verbal, written and oral communication in abundance, it does not offer us the wide spectrum of non-verbal ques that are essential to promoting productivity, imagination, and positive workplace culture.
Facial expressions, body language, gestures, touch, and physical presence are all fundamental parts of the communication mix and if we cut these out completely by working solely from home, then it’s only a matter of time before employees start to feel disengaged, uninspired and demotivated.
The solution is simple. We need to give employees the freedom to work from home or in the office, depending on which is safest and the most productive for them.
For some employers, like Portview, lockdown has presented the opportunity to take stock of work priorities and adopt a more holistic approach to workspace design. Far rather than causing the ‘death of the commercial office’, the pandemic has prompted us to reimagine a new one – one where employee wellbeing, community and culture is the central focus.
Whilst for now it’s important to navigate our way through the pandemic safely and responsibly, Portview has decided to take a leap of faith and invest £2.5 million into new corporate headquarters, which together, we will design, build and fit-out ourselves.
This not only signifies the dawn of a new era for us, but also gives our team something to look forward to during a time of uncertainty and displacement. It’s about empowering our team to collaborate and come up with innovative ideas that will help shape and build the new Portview.
In truth, it’s still too early to know exactly what the ‘new normal’ for office environments will be, but one thing we are sure of, is that a happy employee is a productive one, therefore, organisations must focus their efforts on elevating the workspace experience through thoughtful design.
By providing a functional, comfortable and visually appealing environment, employers will instil a positive workplace culture that employees feel safe, comfortable and proud to work in.
From our perspective, we will incorporate many biophilic elements into the design of our new offices. This includes an external terrace and balconies, glazing, rooflights, and plenty of indoor plants and foliage, to help connect employees to the natural environment – a method that has proven to reduce stress and enhance creativity.
In addition, the new headquarters will feature a nurse’s office for private consultations, and a large state-of-the-art gym, complete with treadmills, spin bikes, training equipment, showers and changing facilities.
The extra square footage will enable us to come up with an effective space planning strategy that will give employees the space they need to follow physical distancing rules. When the regulations are lifted, our team will then have the freedom to work collaboratively in one of one our many formal or casual meeting rooms, breakout zones or creative hubs. For those who wish to work from home, they can easily connect with colleagues through video conferencing facilities.
Each team will have their own office with glass wall partitions to help create a sense of community, openness, and transparency, whilst still maintaining a safe level of privacy and structure.
Research by the Sax Institute shows that replacing one hour of sitting with standing, can increase an employee’s lifespan by at least 5%.
With this in mind, we will be introducing seating options that are more supportive, adjustable, and flexible, in addition to adjustable desks that will allow employees to sit or stand at their workstation. These ergonomic solutions will promote better posture and physical wellbeing.
Carefully crafted, contrasting materials and textures often prompt engagement and productivity amongst employees by adding visual weight to a space and giving them a unique environment to work in.
However, it’s important to remember that high-quality, statement pieces need to withstand the test of time. Choosing the right materials and how to mix them – whether it be reclaimed wood panel installations, exposed concrete or woven fabric – is key to ensuring longevity and achieving an overall polished look.
A bright creative workspace can also make employees feel more productive, lower stress and increase wellbeing. Therefore, we will be looking to enrich our new offices with vibrant graphics to help stimulate the minds of those who visit and act as key points of interest.
Whilst the safest thing for us to do right now is either stay at home, or return to an office with stringent COVID-19 precautions in place, we believe that in time and with the right design sensibility, the office space will make a comeback.
For offices have a much greater purpose than offering employees a desk and computer screen to work from. It’s a social environment that reminds us that we’re not alone in this experience, for we’re surrounded by the same people, working towards the same goals, at the same time, in the same place. We can see, hear, feel and sense kinship all around us through face-to-face interaction and the quieter periods of productivity in-between. Offices give us the freedom to share a coffee with our peers and tell them of our plans for the weekend.
And that’s just something virtual communication can’t replicate.
About the Author
Established in 1975, Portview is a fit-out specialist that works with the world’s leading brands in retail, hospitality, sport and business to create award-wining interiors.
The question that immediately arises is: how could our homes change following the emergency from Covid-19? This “change” doesn’t exclusively come from the need of adopting higher hygiene precautions, but also from the search for home wellness and from the will of maximising the functionality of our internal spaces.
“Staying at home” and “working from home” has given rise to new needs but also favoured the recovery of spaces that seemed to have gone out of fashion. The new total home project therefore starts from the need to exploit even small spaces to bring together various ways of living, starting with the re-evaluation of the entrances. These are the main areas to consider:
1. Entrance 2. Home workspace 3. Kitchen as an extension of the living area 4. Outdoor area 5. Relaxation and wellness area
An example of this shift is evident in the concept for one of my latest projects, showcasing how I was required to update an interior design scheme to suit clients changing requirements due to Covid-19. The first draft was made in January but, after the lockdown, the users needs have changed and consequently, so has the design criteria. Here were the design proposals:
First of all, in this design it was necessary to reconsider the entrance / hallway as a filter room between the outside and the home. In the second proposal made to the client, we designed a dividing wall before entering the living area. This space now offers a place to store everything we bring in from outside (such as shoes, masks, coats, telephone, keys, etc.). The insertion of a table top serves to store hand sanitiser, with the option of a cupboard to install a Samsung AirDresser for antibacterial treatments.
The kitchen returns to offer more functional storage spaces. The 3 fundamental areas, such as the one dedicated to storage (fridge and pantry), cooking and washing/preparation have been zoned, offering each area more operating space. The client also felt the need to separate the kitchen from the rest of the house without oppressing the space.
Sliding glass doors have been inserted to maintain visual contact with the dining room and at the same time contain any kitchen odours but, if necessary, the environment becomes open plan – making it easy to control the use of space for children who may study and play in the living area.
The need to have a private home studio was a must-have request since the very beginning with exclusive access to the studio. An adjoining reception room, where to wait in complete safety, has now been provided. The separation with the rest of the environment is represented by a plasterboard wall with a glass door inserted to let the light filter from the outside, as well as enjoying the views of the garden.
A small intervention was also made in the sleeping area. More and more concerns arise regarding how long the coronavirus can survive on clothes and how to properly sanitise them. Since the clothes we travel into the city in are the same we will return home in, we have also proposed a system for sanitising and cleaning clothes and shoes in this area. By slightly reducing the square meters of the walk-in closet and the private bathroom, a niche has been created in the hallway of the sleeping area, where the Lema wardrobe with Air Cleaning System will be installed.
This post is part of a series exploring the ways that the health emergency of Covid-19 has changed the way we conceive public and private spaces. Click here to read the previous post about public spaces.
Elisabetta de Strobel is an internationally acclaimed Interior Designer and Art Director, originally from Rome. Her studio offers expert consultation services for interior design, product design, branding and strategic market analysis.
The COVID-19 health emergency has accelerated the design process exponentially, pushing companies to respond to new, emerging needs with intelligent and functional strategies, whilst adopting innovative ways to reconnect with the world and make a difference. Moreover, the goal and great merit of the designers lies in the ability to grasp the trends and changes of the eras they live in, and convert them into objects and ideas.
The reopening of public places is the driving force behind the latest challenge designers face – to completely rethink common places in order to recreate new spaces, where all the design elements are in harmony with each other and in which the emotional component reflects the same sense of security and “feeling at home” sensation. All of this is done by involving the consumer in a very conscious way. Enough with the banal and unaesthetic plexiglass plates, we must uncover more client-friendly alternatives!
Whilst COVID-19 is bringing increasing attention towards health and wellness related issues which affect all sectors from food, retail and furnishings to travel and beauty, social attitudes towards sustainability and environmental factors is also still gaining momentum. New products and environments will be strongly influenced by the principles of the Circular Economy, based on concepts such as sharing, reusing, repairing and recycling existing materials and products, abandoning the bad habit of disposable use.
In public places consumers want to feel protected and “safe”, for this reason working environments will have to be organised according to some guidelines.
After months of lockdown, it’s important to return to the workplace feeling at ease and be encouraged to act responsibly. A six feet office has fixed workstations, semi-isolated or limited by graphics that visually delimit the space, making the safety distances perceived. The periods of ongoing isolation at home have questioned societies habits, encouraging them to seek more and more balance between private life and work life – and will be increasingly eager to work in an environment that reflects the home environment, in colours, furnishings and perfumes.
They must have a partially insulated entrance that acts as a filter with respect to the rest of the room where you can carefully sanitise your hands, deposit your clothes and wear disposable shoe covers. In this regard, Samsung has created AirDresser, a sanitising cabinet that eliminates bacteria, mites and viruses through steam jets.
The menu will be contactless and digital: with the Sooneat app, every customer from their smartphone can avoid the queue at the entrance, sit at the reserved table, consult the menu, photos of the dish, order and pay with a simple click.
Speaking of tables and chairs … how will they be organised? Large-sized restaurants will have the opportunity to rearrange the tables according to the safety distances provided, but what about small restaurants? To one of my clients I proposed a shaped table top to be screwed simply to the existing table structure, optimising the space compared to combining two square modules.
It will also be very important to reorganise the outdoor spaces. It will be one of the most important missions of restaurants and bars to guarantee an experience up to the past again.
The visit to the hairdresser and beautician will be much more psychological than one might expect, it will be a 360° wellness and beauty experience with customisable treatments and mainly green products, all bookable through an app. New restyling for waiting rooms where possible, with modular furnishing solutions that are able to maintain a minimum contact between customers but respecting the safety distance. The image represents a typical Martex furniture solution before and after Covid-19. The furnishings can be adapted according to needs and are covered with 100% antibacterial fabric.
This post is part of a series exploring the ways that the health emergency of Covid-19 has changed the way we conceive public and private spaces. Click here to read the previous post about private spaces.
“Design is important because chaos is so hard.” Often quoted in the design community, this line from American satirist Jules Feiffer has never felt so relevant. We are living in a time of great uncertainty and we are all feeling overwhelmed and anxious. But this is only temporary. Eventually we will begin to reoccupy our shared spaces and start getting back to work and school, even visit museums and movie theatres.
As we move forward, the world is going to need the design community to help everyone feel safe and assured – particularly in our workspaces. “This isn’t going to last forever, but it will change the way we experience our built environment, in both the short and long term” says Inger Bartlett, founder of Toronto interiors studio Bartlett & Associates. “We need to be here to help our clients find effective ways to manage new expectations within their existing interiors. We also need to treat this as an opportunity to explore, innovate, and deliver even more adaptable workspace for the future.”
So what does the post-COVID 19 office look like?
Do we replace the ubiquitous water cooler with a hand-washing station? Will we gather (six feet apart) around the sanitiser dispenser to compare notes on the weekend? Perhaps. There are definitely changes on the horizon, but the good news is that we already have some highly favourable frameworks in place. Inger has long specialised in the design of workspace and is confident that the open office remains here to stay. “The recent trend towards Agile Workspace Design has left many of our clients with incredibly flexible open offices,” she explains. “These spaces are already built to adapt to constantly changing needs, to put people at ease and let them work in a way they feel comfortable.”
Providing Flexibility with Agile Workspaces
For example, the modular open breakouts and Town Hall gathering spaces that are essential elements in agile space will provide the flexibility to maintain physical distancing and still bring groups of employees together. And that interaction is something people will crave after weeks in isolation. In fact, an increased desire to connect and collaborate is one of the silver linings to be found in this crisis. Sharing this challenge is reminding us that we are strongest when we work together!
Mill St Offices
Edelman
Bartlett & Associates designed Agile Workspace for Edelman and Mill Street, both of which complement open office areas with small meeting rooms. Though these rooms will be ideal for accommodating virtual meetings, which we can expect to continue when we return to work.
Though we won’t be packing our existing meeting rooms to the same densities as before, they still have an important role to play. Workforces will emerge from isolation with improved technological capabilities. A higher level of comfort with using digital communication tools will mean these spaces are used as much for virtual meetings as face-to-face. They may also be used to accommodate small teams, as we look to distribute workforces.
Volaris
McCann
League
Breakout zones, such as the high-backed booths featured at McCann, the modular lounges at League and the cozy armchairs at Volaris, offer the option to maintain distance in small meetings. Alternatively, these can become temporary workstations when redistributing people in an open office.
New Ways of Zoning and Interacting
Free-desking or hotelling is likely to fall out of favour. As most clients emerge from this situation with new capabilities for remote work, the Bartlett team predicts this will lead to more rotating work-from-home systems, rather than more workstations, and new ways of zoning space. “Keeping teams that collaborate frequently together in a designated space is one preventative measure to limit the number of unnecessary interactions and potential spread of viruses,” Inger suggests. Should clients wish to define areas for these teams, B|A is ready to offer solutions to reallocate space, reorganise work groups, or introduce design tools such as partitions to modify interactions. We can develop design concepts that support individual corporate protocols for keeping workplaces safe. And by implementing visible changes we can help employees feel confident that their wellbeing is being protected.
While existing flex spaces will help us maintain some degree of distancing for as long as necessary, for the longer view six-foot-wide-by-36-inch-deep workstations could become a new standard for the open office; those dimensions would allow six feet of space between seated employees. Extendable partitions could also come into play for future preparedness: When issues rise, so does the screen.
Sage
Spacious lunchrooms, lounges, and Town Halls will also provide the flexibility to meet in groups and enable social interaction while still maintaining physical distancing.
Additional Health & Security Measures
Some of the biggest changes will be at the landlord level. Enhanced HVAC and air purification systems will be of interest and sanitation protocols will be of more concern to tenants. Entering an office tower could become a process akin to passing through airport security: some buildings will implement screening protocols that include temperature scans and ID checks. In order to prevent these processes from becoming too invasive, intimidating or time-consuming, designers will need to create dedicated spaces that are comfortable, inviting, attractive, and efficient.
Crown Lobby, 5255 Yonge St
The artful screen that defines Bartlett & Associates’ Crown Lobby project could help designate the elevator bay as a secure area. Entering an office tower such as this may become a process akin to passing through an airport. Flexible amenity space could be re-positioned as security zones, where temperature and ID checks occur before visitors and employees can access upper floors.
Utilising Hands-free Technology
New touch-free, voice-activated technologies could quickly replace current systems, particularly in reception areas–where we have already started to see digital systems take over–and in elevators. That’s not to say we anticipate losing the tactility of our spaces. An interior designer’s knowledge and understanding of finishes will be invaluable in creating safer workspaces that remain warm and inviting. Another positive outcome of this crisis is the innovation it is sure to inspire –we can expect new products, new materials and designers need to push for those and contribute to their development.
Selection of Materials and Surfaces
In the meantime, we must implement more seamless surfaces, antimicrobial fixtures and coatings, washable fabrics, and other finishes that are easy to maintain and durable enough to stand up to frequent sanitisation. “There are a lot of transferrable lessons to learn from healthcare design right now, in terms of surfaces, textiles and even furniture,” Inger says. “And that’s not a bad thing. Our offices are not going to end up looking like sterile hospitals. This situation presents a unique opportunity for different sectors to work together to find the best solutions. We are going to come out of this with stronger, more resilient communities and more beautiful projects.”
Bartlett & Associates is dedicated to innovation and excellence in interior design, incorporating creative design solutions across hospitality, workplace, retail, institutional and speciality projects.
This week’s instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features the complete transformation of the lobby area of a 30-year-old office tower. Once a series of dark, awkward spaces lacking in a clear axis or flow of movement, the lobby is now a bright and airy volume defined by a graphic screen that emphasizes 30-foot-high ceilings. Toronto designers Bartlett & Associates were commissioned to reimagine the space as a welcoming amenity that would attract a stable of noteworthy new tenants. The design team took an architectural approach to the project; removing a disused storage space made way for a public café, while the custom-designed screen was added to anchor the front desk and delineate the elevator bay. The striking black sculptural screen plays off against a dazzling white wall with a surface of subtle peaks and architectural texture.
Practice: Bartlett & Associates
Project: Crown Lobby – 5255 Yonge Street
Location: Toronto, Canada
What was the client’s brief?
The mandate from our client, Crown Realty, was to reposition a dated office tower’s lobby for the 21st century. The building is right on Toronto’s north Yonge Street, a prime location that offered the potential to create a significant destination. Crown wanted a space that would inject new vitality into this rather tired building and position it as a desirable location for a more vibrant class of tenant. Our design transformed the lobby from an uninspiring entrance to an energetic amenity that makes a compelling impression on visitors – including prospective leaseholders.
What inspired the interior design of the project?
It’s the challenges of a project that typically inspire the best ideas and in this case we were dealing with a modest budget and an awkward space that was completely covered – all the floors, all the walls – in a very dated and dull granite. Tearing it out was cost-prohibitive, so the new surfaces were something we put a lot of thought into. Nature is also a constant source of inspiration for us and adding biophilic elements is something we try to do with all of our projects. As we spend more and more time in our urban office buildings, immersed in digital worlds, it feels increasingly important to make those connections to nature wherever possible. This is often achieved through very subtle interventions, but with this project the scale of the space presented an ideal opportunity to do something big – something a bit more direct, really impactful. So of course that was the screen, and beyond that we used a lot of wood- and stone-look low-profile surfacing that was applied right over the granite to avoid spending a lot of time and money on demolition and to avoid creating a lot of waste.
What was the toughest hurdle your team overcame during the project?
Resolving the awkwardness of the space while keeping the budget in check was huge. Originally the effect of the high ceilings was all but obliterated by this bulkhead wall that sort of cinched the walls inwards about a third of the way up. It loomed over the elevator bay, feeling very heavy with its stone cladding, and made that space feel a bit ominous. And then the corridor running off the east wall was this dark, narrow tunnel – it was all very uninviting. In the end we tore out a single short, angled wall to open up the corridor and make space for a public café. Then the screen was an amazing solution that both masks that bulkhead and transforms the elevator bay into a cozy little annex. Walking behind the screen to access the lifts offers this sense of discovery, which is a much nicer way to start your work day than trudging through a dark hall. Overall it feels like a cohesive sequence of usable space now, rather than a patchwork of hallways that were strictly for moving through, not for stopping or spending time in.
What was your team’s highlight of the project?
The screen is definitely the highlight for us – it won an award for the project before the space was even finished and it was also reimagined as an installation piece for the Design TO festival, which is part of Toronto’s Design Week in January. It’s obviously a stunning feature that is also functional, but there is a bit of hidden genius going on there as well: Not only does it hide that awkward bulkhead, but it’s actually supported by a mounting system originally installed for the granite cladding. Most of the granite was left intact and simply covered with low-profile materials, but by removing a bit of stone from the bulkhead, we were able to avoid creating customized brackets to hold the screen. That was a big cost-saver and just one of those eureka moments that you want to have on every project.
Questions answered by Inger Bartlett, lead designer and president, Bartlett & Associates.
We hope you feel inspired by this week’s Office design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
If you missed last week’s Project of the Week featuring a contemporary loft apartment situated above the famous Soho Theatre, click here to see more.
This March is all about employee appreciation! As work environments are one of the biggest factors companies are addressing to make sure their workplaces are designed with wellbeing in mind to help keep staff happy and healthy at work, we’re sharing a selection of our favourite projects from the SBID Awards 2019 with inspirational office designs!
The design concept for the project focuses on combining industrial-chic style elements with a cosy ‘Soho House’ residential vibe and contemporary workspace, with an added tech-y feel. 5mm Design introduced the concept of zoning to the space, and each zone was named after a continent and assigned a colour. The design theme is translated into the space through furniture upholstery fabric, pop culture and illustration wall art that reflect the continent; the use of different plant species in each zone; and the naming of meeting rooms after artists from that particular continent. The zoning concept, combined with the introduction of breakout areas, and the collaborative shared work island act as the firm’s engine room. This is a fresh workspace that improves productivity through design and encourages different teams to interact and socialise together.
An art déco decorative style combines with the cultural customs of old Shanghai and contemporary features to create a modern and stylish urban space. With blue and orange colours merging into the geometry of the flooring tiles, the space is charged with a stately, luxurious feel. The organic, fan-shaped and radiating elements of art déco are combined with walnut, black and gold marble, monochrome wood and other materials in the furniture to compliment the aesthetic. This creates a look that perfectly suits the preferences and taste of the urban elite.
Rockwell Group’s design concept for Warner Music Group’s new headquarters celebrates the record company’s history, its vast catalogue of work, music making, and performance. Bright, contemporary, and concise workspaces span across the five-storey main building and an adjoining two-storey annexe. The contrast of old and new, hard and soft, and warm and cool materials creates a dynamic, future-forward home base for WMG’s 800 employees.
Squire & Partners designed this first social workspace and private members’ club by Ministry of Sound as the antithesis to a nightclub environment. Housed in a former Victorian printworks in London, light-filled flexible workspaces for 850 people are as suited to morning coffee and lunch meetings as evening networking and social events. A concept of ‘premium raw’ was established, with stripped-back raw elements of the existing building contrasted with a layer of premium finish including refined furniture, artwork and lighting. The bold aesthetic delivers a distinctive and desirable offer for different sized organisations and pushes the boundaries of current workplace culture. Combining the creative and social aspects of a members’ club with dynamic workspace for those in music, film, arts, fashion and technology sectors, the aim was not just to offer a place to do business, but to provide an environment for a convivial and creative way of life.
Uncommon is a flexible workspace provider, whose spaces are carefully designed to make its members work smarter, not harder. Using innovative design inspired by activity-based working (ABW), carefully curated ergonomic furniture, biophilia and sensory elements, Uncommon aims to deliver a holistic and mindful experience. With four unique spaces across London, Uncommon draws inspiration from Italian and Scandinavian design, with rich textures and tonal colours handpicked to help stimulate productivity, promote wellness and evoke creativity in its members. Located within an exclusive gated development, Uncommon Fulham offers 26,000 square foot of flexible workspace arranged over four floors; perfect for entrepreneurs and freelancers, start-ups and long-established businesses. Uncommon Fulham is adorned with a warm and muted colour palette, enhanced with hand-selected ergonomic furniture from Italy and over 500 living plants including a striking 3.3-metre Ficus nitida tree.
From the tiny cubicles and bland colour schemes of the early 2000s to the ping-pong tables and sleeping pods of modern times, the interior design of offices has evolved dramatically in the past 20 years. At the beginning of a new year, and the start of a new decade, the focus of office interior design is shifting once again. Office interior design is now becoming more and more centred around the wellbeing of staff members.
Work is one of the biggest causes of stress in adults. In fact, national statistics from 2019 state that 602,000 people suffered from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2018/19 and 12.8 million workdays were lost due to the same reasons.
The rise of work-related stress and the emphasis on the importance of mental health has caused many businesses to re-evaluate the way in which they support their staff. Many businesses are aiming to actively improve the health and wellbeing of their employees.
Although improving the wellbeing of staff through interior design is not a new concept, it is becoming a very popular one. The working environment has a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of employees. A quality workspace that’s designed with health and wellbeing in mind can boost moods, increase productivity, reduce stress levels and nurture a positive atmosphere.
Natural Lighting Is Essential
Sunlight is good for our health. Our body needs Vitamin D, sunlight and a supply of fresh air daily to release endorphins and serotonin – the chemicals that boost our mood and give us energy.
However, for office workers, spending eight hours a day indoors is often unavoidable, which is why it is important to expose your office to as much natural daylight as possible. When designing your office space, consider adding skylights or floor to ceiling windows. When considering the interior design, keep large furniture away from the windows as to not block out any light. Avoid dim lighting as this can strain eyes and try to avoid glare.
Consider The Flow Of The Office
Many businesses think they have to choose between two types of offices; an open-plan office or an office with enclosed spaces for privacy. When in reality, a combination of both will be more effective for staff wellbeing.
An open-plan layout encourages the movement of employees, which is great for increasing activity levels. In addition, an open-plan office will also encourage communication and teamwork. Adding smaller, private pods will be beneficial for those employees who prefer privacy and quiet when working. When improving the wellbeing of staff through interior design, you should also include a creative space for brainstorming and team meetings.
Top Tip: Whichever office layout you choose, remember to include space for water coolers. Having easy access to cold water is great for the health and wellbeing of employees.
Bring The Outdoors In
Studies show the wellness of employees who work in an environment enhanced with natural features is 15% higher than those who do not. Add natural elements to your office by having a variety of indoor plants or a living wall. Plants clean the air and are known to reduce stress levels, boost creativity and increase productivity. Perhaps you could even include an indoor flower garden. Another way to add natural elements to your office space is by choosing surfaces made from natural materials, such as wood and stone.
Choose The Right Colours
Different colours create different moods. Soft tones, such as a brown and terracotta are known to evoke feelings of warmth and relaxation, which is why they’re often found in bedrooms. Whereas bright colours, such as blues and oranges are known to energise and yellows are great for promoting creativity.
When improving employee wellbeing through interior design, you should carefully select the colours. Colours that stimulate productivity and creativity should be used in the office area and meeting rooms. Softer shades that evoke calming feelings should be used in break rooms and relaxation areas.
Areas Of Relaxation
To improve employee wellness and reduce stress levels, you should provide your employees with somewhere to relax. Unlike other break rooms, these areas of relaxation should be designed with peace and quiet in mind. Your employees should be able to meditate, read or simply relax away from the bustle of the office.
Michael Lawrence is CEO at YourWellspace, a health and wellbeing tech start-up who focus on data-driven wellbeing for teams and workplaces.
This article was written by Michael Lawrence, CEO at YourWellspace.
Sponsors of the SBID International Design Awards for the Office Design category reveals how they help to create happy, healthy, high performing working and learning environments with their range of smart, contract furniture solutions for office, workplace and healthcare spaces. Jonathan Hindle, Group Managing Director E.M.E.A of KI tells us more…
What are the origins of your brand?
KI (Krueger International, Inc.) is headquartered in Wisconsin, USA; was founded in 1941, and has been a contract furniture manufacturer ever since. Fully employee-owned, KI has grown to become one of the world’s largest, most respected furniture manufacturing groups. KI’s EMEA headquarters and showroom in Central London is supported by an established network of manufacturing facilities and distribution partners across the UK, Europe and the Middle East committed to providing customers with smart solutions for Workplace, Education and Healthcare Sectors.
How do you work with interior designers?
KI engages with interior designers and specifiers both directly and through a global network of showrooms and resellers. It has offered a unique Market of One manufacturing philosophy for many years and supports specifiers with the opportunity to design and build the furniture the want quickly and cost effectively through its Infinity programme. There are many online tools to assist designers such as See it Spec It, CAD and Revit Symbols, Image Libraries and Finishes options libraries to assist with Specification and Planning.
What value does your sector add to the interior design industry?
We provide a valuable furniture engineering design and manufacturing resource for workplace, education and healthcare interiors. KI’s furniture helps the world’s leading organisations create happy, healthy, high performing working and learning environments. We strive to improves productivity through the design and manufacture of furniture solutions which both optimise floor plans and stimulate users. We also know how diverse furniture requirements can be, so by working to understand what our client’s need, we can deliver the ideal solution.
How does your offering enhance an interior designer’s projects?
As above. Not only do our products represent cutting edge solutions to furniture requirements in workplace, education and healthcare environments, KI brings together good design, advanced engineering and sustainable resources to produce products that are durable, flexible and offer excellent value.
KI products can help designers meet client needs by improving productivity of the end-user through the design and manufacture of furniture solutions which both stimulate and provide efficiencies; meeting the demands of evolving workplaces. Customers throughout the world come to KI, not just for high-quality contract furniture but for the knowledge to make the right choices. Working with KI gives you access to our wealth of experience and innovation, so we can help you select the perfect furniture for the desired application.
What are the latest trends you’ve noticed in your client’s requests?
KI Europe has recently introduced the 800 Series Shelving System, designed to offer a flexible platform for designers to divide space in open plan offices with shelving systems providing a domestic aesthetic. We have introduced a new seating range utilising the latest injection moulding techniques to provide flexible comfort and a lightweight aesthetic called Grafton, a new injection moulded dining chair called Hatton an enhancement to the market leading education seating range Postura+ providing fully recycled plastic options and a new generation Sit/Stand Collection of desking and benching called Work 2.1 to meet the evolving requirements for enhanced wellness across major organisations.
Why did you want to become a sponsor for the SBID Awards?
We wanted to engage with the SBID in order to better promote KI’s capabilities and desire to work with the world leading design practices which the SBID attract.
Sponsorship for the SBID International Design Awards 2020 is now open.
To find out more about becoming an SBID Awards sponsor next year click here or email [email protected]
This week’s instalment of the #SBIDinspire interior design series features a warm and welcoming co-working space with a unique approach to office design and the structure of workplace environments. Beyond Design Architects designed a diverse space for a client who is in the business of operating co-working spaces. Although an office space at heart, the ambience feels more like one of hospitality. The use of beige, ivory and light brown, coupled with warm lighting throughout help to create this friendly, welcoming atmosphere. Elements such as the decorative white screen dividing the space, work-bays, plants, planters, wall graphics, artefacts and the use of Italian marble for column cladding enhance the warmth of the space. A meticulous mix of seating styles and various types of seating arrangements – conventional, pods, high tables, community tables and loungers – give a varied choice to the end user depending on their needs for the space.
Sector: Office Design
Company: Beyond Design Architects
Project: Redbrick
Location: Hyderabad, India
The client wanted to have a contiguous space for reception, waiting, hot desking and cafe. This will mean that right at the entry space, the ‘mood’ of the place is set in the user’s mind which is then carried forward in the bays and workstation area that follows this space. Also, the space had to be welcoming and warm, not dull and cold.
The design team came with with the idea of treating this space on the lines of a hospitality project look rather than a typical office reception space. Hence the entire colour scheme was based on a beige and light brown theme rather than the usual greys or whites. Also in terms of use of materials, it was Italian marble cladding, wooden flooring, use of decorative screens, texture paint on the exposed ceiling etc, giving it more of a cosy, welcoming feeling.
Integration of the look and feel of the front, reception area with the back of the house area – which was the pure co-working space, was a challenge. However, this was achieved by continuing the wooden flooring in the passages connecting bays behind, thereby visually connecting two seemingly different functions.
The successful amalgamation of two distinct look and feel areas, was the highlight of the project for us.
Why did you enter the SBID Awards?
We won the Best Office Design Award in the SBID International Design Awards 2016 and we are aware about the immense recognition that it gets worldwide.
Questions answered by Alhad Gore, Managing Partner of Beyond Design Architects.
If you missed last week’s Project of the Week featuring an immersive exhibit designed to create sensory experiences to simulate a body’s heartbeat, click here to see more.
We hope you feel inspired by this week’s office design! Let us know what inspired you #SBIDinspire
SBID International Design Awards 2018 Finalist | Office Design category sponsored by KI Europe
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