Category: Strategy & Planning

While designing an office space requires a lot of creativity, data and analysis come into play as well. You may not think data is pivotal in designing office space, but it is. Going beyond headcount, it’s important to consider everything from typical occupancy numbers, forecasts for hiring, company goals, industry trends, and more. When done properly, data can be used to create an office environment that not only meets the needs of your business but also enhances and celebrates your unique company culture.

Let us dig a bit deeper into how data elements factor into office design.

Occupancy Numbers

Where do you stand in terms of occupancy numbers? You may think that occupancy is simply the basis of your headcount, but it goes beyond that. Do all your employees come into the office every day? For those that intend to come in daily, what is their vacation and sick time allotment on an annual basis? All of this data will factor into occupancy.

If your office allows for flexibility in terms of how people work, you may also see the numbers of people physically in the office drive downward. Is working from home an option for many employees? If so, what is the average number of days people come into the office each week?

The goal here is to figure out the average occupancy within the office at any given time. You may end up with a design where everyone has a cubicle or office space. You could also end up with more of a flex space, where people work in a variety of locations daily depending on who is in the office or not. Why set up and design an office space for 100 people when, on average, you only have 60 in the office? Make use of every inch of your existing square footage with an experiential office design!

Forecasts for Hiring

Do you have plans to either expand or shrink the size of your employee base over the next few years? If you plan to double the number of employees you have over the next five years, go with an office design that meets the needs of that bigger employee base now. If you do not have dedicated space for them today, now is the time to invest in a scalable office design. 

It is important to think about forecasts for hiring as it will help you avoid having to do multiple redesigns over a short period of time. Say you have 50 employees today, but in a few years, you expect to have another 50 join the team. If you design a space for 50 now, but it is not something you can scale, or you lack the square footage to even do so, you’ll need to make big changes when the future new employees join . the team. The major expense of doing a whole new office move and redesign makes what you are doing now wasteful. Plan for today, but also plan for the coming years by considering your intentions for hiring.

Company Goals

What are some of the goals of your company? Who are you trying to attract when it comes to employees? All these factors are important to consider for your office design. If you want to attract and keep the best Millennial talent, for example, you’ll want more open concept spaces. Millennials enjoy having areas to collaborate with one another and so building open spaces where they can come together to share ideas, work through engagement is important. If Millennials are not your target, you may want to go with the different office design.

Your company goals will shape largely where you end up with office design. Technology companies may want a space that showcases their vision. More traditional companies may seek designs that keep them ground to their roots. Ultimately, you’re more likely to design an office environment that aligns with your bigger, overarching company goals by keeping them top of mind throughout the entire process.  

Industry Trends

Are there trends in the industry that will impact your office design in the short and long-term? Likely one of the most common trends that companies must learn to navigate now is work from home. More employees than ever seek this option, so plan for it when it comes to office design. It’s also important to consider other industry trends, such as having dedicated office spaces, cafeterias, common areas, relaxation rooms, and more. Staying up with the latest trends in the industry will ensure your new office environment meets the needs of your employees and help you acquire new talent. 

In the end, data can influence the entire direction of your office design. At the core of our company lies the Aura Integrated Experience, our unique approach to delivering a seamless execution of your design-build project. Taking all the data elements discussed above into consideration, we work closely with you to build an understanding of your needs and expectations; your space and location requirements; and the type of office environment that would best fit your company culture. In doing so, we create experiential office environments that will meet your needs in the short and long-term.

Reach out to us for a complimentary design consultation and get started today!

Designing a workspace in a way that connects to the natural environment is known as biophilic design. The concept of biophilic design includes the use of indirect and direct nature as well as place and space conditions.

The name biophilic is relatively new. However, the idea of connecting buildings to their surrounding environments in a natural way has been noted in architecture dating back as far as the building of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Today, biophilic design is used at the scale of buildings and entire cities in many different types of environments.

The idea of biophilic design continues to proliferate in architecture circles because of its proven benefits to the health, economy and environment of its users.

The Beginning of the Biophilic Idea

Modern biophilic design can be said to have its roots in the biophilia hypothesis. This is an idea that is defined by seminal theoretical biologist Edward O. Wilson as the human instinct to focus on life and processes that imitate life. The hypothesis is based on the idea that humans focus on life and its ancillary doppelgangers as a technique of survival. In higher forms of thinking, human beings also focus on these processes as a means of personal fulfillment. For instance, enjoying oneself in a nature preserve is a form of the biophilic hypothesis at work. Owning a pet or buying a house that stands close to a waterfront are also forms of this hypothesis.

The Kellert Principles

Stephen Kellert is known as a father of biophilic design because of his widely accepted principles and framework around the idea. Below is a short summary of his biophilic framework.

The Direct Experience of Nature

The direct experience of nature designs that have quantifiable contact with common features of nature such as light, air, water, plants, animals and natural landscapes. Contact with these features usually corresponds with a heightened sense of space and connectivity within the environment.

The Indirect Experience of Nature

The indirect experience of nature speaks of a design coming into contact with representations and images of nature. These may include pure images such as photographs or professional paintings; natural materials or colors placed within the building design; natural air and light simulations; simulations of natural shapes within the design of a building; “information richness”; biomimicry; natural geometries; invoking natural changes within the Patina of Time and otherwise evoking nature in a project’s structural design.

The Experience of Space and Place

Biophilic design can also enhance well being through the spatial relationships between a design and its surrounding environment. The concepts that are used to flesh out this idea include Cultural and Ecological Attachment to Place; Mobility; Transitional Spaces, Integration of PArts, Organized Complexity and Prospect and Refuge. It is the job of the building architect to understand which of these concepts is the best fit for a project or landscape because each of them is usually meant to be experienced and considered individually.

Bringing Biophilic Design to a Municipal Scale

Timothy Beatley, an internationally recognized municipal planner and green urbanism author, is an important voice in scaling the idea of biophilic design from buildings to entire cities. Beatley believes that the primary objective of biophilic municipalities is to cater to the residents of the location so that they choose to actively participate in maintaining the biophilic nature of the landscape.

In keeping with this idea, Beatley designed a framework of ideas to help architects build cities around the biophilic notion. The dimensions forming his framework include Biophilic Institutions and Governance; Biophilic Attitudes and Knowledge; Biophilic Activities and Biophilic Conditions and Infrastructure.

The Benefits of Biophilic Design

On all scales, biophilic design has been shown to have certain benefits for environments as well as building occupants. Below are just a few of the benefits that are considered most relevant.

• Health benefits – Medical professionals have found that biophilic elements in an environment may speed up recovery in mental health cases and in cases of physiological stress. For instance, a study conducted by Catherine Ryan, et al. found that aromatherapy use on post-surgical patients reduced the need for morphine and other painkillers by 45% and 56%, respectively. Other studies have found that simply having plants indoors increases pain tolerance and improves stress resistance in patients. It has been found that the presence of water also helps in restoring mental health. Simply putting patients in outdoor facilities helped them increase physical activity, reduce depression, build social capital and even avoid conditions like asthma and infant mortality rates.
• Environmental benefits – It can be argued that building up the environment with biophilic principles allows for better management of potentially destructive environmental elements such as stormwater runoff. Biophilic designs can even turn these elements around to be helpful to the environment, as in the case that excess greywater is utilized to water greenery. Building vegetative walls also help to reduce the instance of polluted water in an environment; plants are natural biofilters. Building these “walls” with enough durability can even reduce carbon emissions and the temperature of an environment.
• Economic benefits – Although the initial implementation of biophilic elements has an upfront cost, these costs are more than negated through the environmental and health benefits mentioned above. There are also direct benefits. Experts predict that New York City could save up to $470 million by implementing biophilic designs. Surprisingly, incorporating biophilic design could also reduce the expense of crime in the city by a whopping $1.7 billion.
• Municipal resilience and sustainability – Beatley has stated that biophilic design helps cities better withstand municipal stressors, especially climate changes. His ideas are beginning to be used in building designs and recognized by watchdog organizations such as the Living Building Challenge and the WELL Building Standard.

Biophilia vs Biophobia

Just as biophilia exists, so too does the idea of biophobia. The suffix -phobia refers to a fear of something, so biophobia generally means a human’s fear of animals and nature, especially a fear that is inherited in some way.

Contact Aura Office Environments and speak with our design specialists on bringing a little more nature to the scene for your next office redesign!

In the business world, change can come at you pretty quick. When rapid growth happens at the ground level, sometimes productivity and employee efficiency aren’t the first thing your office will need to worry about. Sometimes, the first priority is your office space itself. When an office environment becomes too small, or inefficiently houses your staff and limits the achievability of your company culture and goals, there are a few options.

Continue reading “The Benefits of Leasehold Improvements For Growing Business”

You always want to design office space for today, as well as the future. One constant in the business world is the evolution of your organization. You will have departments going through creation periods, dissolution periods, and modifications along the way. The organization you create today, will not be the same a few years from now. Realizing change is inevitable can assist as you design your office space.

The idea of having a future proof office design is possible. New departments and initiatives within an organization cause workplace strategies and will spark a need for a change of how employees work. The leaders in design understand this, which is why they want to tap into your vision, to share your insight on where you see the company going. Understanding the long-term vision is what makes the discovery-centric office design approach valuable.

Considerations to Make When Embarking on an Office Design

As you embark on an office design for your organization, you want to consider a lot of variables. The goal is to create something which suits your needs now but will also be adaptable to the future. Quality design for the office allows for growth, allows you to maximize every inch of space. Flexibility and the ability to evolve is crucial.

1. Office Size – You need to consider the actual size of your office to start with. If your organization were to double in size five years from now, is there enough office space for everyone? If the answer is no, you may want to re-think even the location of where you set up shop. Why spend on a design and build out an office today, if it is not going to allow for growth? Before you even get into the design, think square footage.
2. Space Planning – You want to plan space and make sure you can adjust on the fly. The layout of your office today may make sense for current departments, current initiatives. As change arrives, though, you need to have space to make the changes necessary. One way to do this is via a shared space, rather than space you dedicate to a team. Office design continues to become more flexible. Fewer private offices exist. The goal is to get everyone out in the open, with collaboration. This also addresses the need for extra square footage, as folks don’t take up as much space in the workplace.
3. Adequate Input – You need to get input from everyone when going through space planning and office design. Allow each employee to have an active involvement in the design process. Get their input on what will work best for each style. If you allow employees to be a part of the Aura discovery-centric office design process, it is more likely they buy into the approach. While you do not want employees to have full control over each decision, you want their voices heard to meet their individual needs.
4. Plan for Additional Future Growth – Do you have any idea on what your employee base will be in 12 or 24 months? You may not be able to predict many years out, but having a budget and thought on where the headcount stands in a couple of years time is possible. Share this information with Aura, your commercial interior design professional. The more information and preparation, the more future-proof the design.
5. Dedicated Space – If you were able to add a new department to your company today, do they each need a desk which is permanent? Do they all need to sit near one another? Would it benefit them to be close to other departments as well? There is a lot of remote work happening in the current environment. Many folks will compress work weeks, all in the spirit of achieving a better work and life balance. The trends are awesome, but it also means they may not need a space 100% of the time.

Understand the Workflow of the Organization

Do you have a good sense of the workflow of your organization? Have you done a value stream map, to see where hand-offs occur from one group to the next? The workflow of your organization, getting products or services to clients, should get a boost by the design of the office. If the two are not in sync, chances are there will be a waste in the efficiency space. Employees who need to collaborate all the time should be near one another. If you were to add a new product or service into the workflow, plan for that in the future. Make sure integrating that new department into the space works.

React to the Company Initiatives

What are the workplace strategies you have set? Do you intend to expand your work from home offerings or allow employees to compress work weeks? Do you see trends where you want to add further spaces where employees can share information openly and collaborate? You want space planning ready to react to any company initiative you roll out. It may even be a marketing or sales initiative, a way to get employees to think differently. All factors can contribute to alterations of space planning. The more preparation put into it, the easier it will be to adapt for what you seek.

You need to have an office design which can adapt and evolve over time. Setting up a bunch of cube walls and offices is not going to cut it. It is all about adapting to your millennial employee base, offering the space to collaborate and share, create efficiencies and knowledge transfers. Office designs which include space planning for today and the future equate to big net gains. Working with a company like Aura and their discovery-centric design planning approach allows for revelations before any cube walls go up, to prepare for what’s to come.

Have you ever gone for a walk around the office to analyze if it has met your expectations? When you think about your company, your brand, does your office design represent what you are selling? If you are a modern company with high-tech aspirations, do you have a modern office that showcases those traits? If the answer is yes, good for you! The majority of organizations, though, will find that their brand lacks representation in their office design.

The office environment plays a big role in conveying a brand. Employees need to buy into the brand the same way customers do. Employees, though, need to buy in with the basis of the office design, where they work every day. Customers get more exposure to commercials, marketing campaigns. Employees spend time in conference rooms, offices, open areas within the office. Your brand should have as much representation in the office as it does on a commercial for customers.

Enter a Discovery Phase to Act on a New Office Design

You need to take action when it comes to a new office design that represents your brand and your company culture but remember, it is not always a matter of changing things up.  You may need to go through a discovery session with a design & space planning firm to understand the needs of your company, where things may lack from a design space, and how you can improve. A powerful tool as part of this is the Aura Office Periodic Table of Office Design. Looking at each of its categories can help you better align your brand with your office design.

Style – Think about the style of your office and what lifestyle your brand represents. Do you have a brand that aims for a more retro vision, or is the gears more in the modern space? Do you cater to the millennial or urban crowd more than the traditional? Figure out what style works best.

Atmosphere – When you think about your brand, what is the atmosphere that comes to mind? Is it a bold brand, playful, vibrant? Figuring out the proper adjective can help with the design of an office to nail the feel. If you have a brand that is social, for example, you want an office design that has employees working in a very collaborative, open space.

Environment – What is the environment you expect from your office design? Is your brand one that will cater to the professional or the creative individual? Is it a cozy brand or a sophisticated brand? Think through the environment you seek with the office and how it meshes with your brand’s message.

Areas – What areas need to be a part of the office design? If you are going for a social atmosphere, areas that immediately come to mind include lunchrooms, lounge areas, and more. If it is more of a professional environment, having a reception and conference area will likely be a key need.

Features – What features would you expect in an office design? Again, for the social or unique settings, you want something like a rock climbing wall or pool table to get people in a creative mindset? If it is a sophisticated style your brand screams, going with glass walls or an exposed ceiling may be the way to go.

Texture – It may seem trivial to think about texture, but it says a lot about your office. It is as basics as whether or not you have shiny leather chairs or informal chairs at each cubicle or work station. The minor texture change can say a lot about the branding of a company.

Lighting – Lighting can make or break an office design. Does your brand aim more for the bright lights? Would lamps mesh better with the style, atmosphere, and environment you aim to achieve?

Furniture – Furniture is another key area that is very dependent on style, atmosphere, and environment. The furniture needs to meet the needs of employees, think ergonomics. You also have to have the furniture mesh with your brand as well.

It is the office design process of Aura that allows for the connection of a company’s brand, and the way the office looks. The design is not how it looks in the end, it is how it feels, how it works day to day, and how it meets the needs of employees, as well as clients and customers. By talking through the design using the periodic table, you will discover what will engage employees. Involve everyone at all levels, to give an opinion before you put any design thoughts into action.

Identify Your Company’s Culture

Do you know what culture of a company you want to set? Are you the type of company that is going to push the envelope, have a culture where engagement is important and employee retention high? You need to figure out the identity you seek. Branding your office around that identity and driving forward company culture is pivotal as part of the designing process.

The awareness of your company culture and how it links to your office design goes beyond employee perception. You likely will have customers and clients making their way into your office from time to time. When they enter the space, they want to experience your brand, your company culture from top to bottom. If you have a disconnect between the office design and the culture you push, there is a major problem there. Customers or clients may end up turning away from your product or service due to the impression the office space left on them. Do not let this happen to you!