offices

How do you fit 1000 Microsoft employees into an office and achieve social interaction and collaboration? Hotdesking.

Just in time for our earlier discussion on hotdesking, we’ve come across some images of Microsoft‘s Amsterdam headquarters. Designed by Sevil Peach and Veldhoen + Co., a leading activity-based workplace consulting firm, the office space has no assigned desks and no offices for senior employees. The office layout also gives the company a chance to actively show off the flexibility of their software in a working environment.

To enhance working collaboration, the design boasts a variety of types of work areas that include “teamwork benches, enclosed and semi-enclosed meeting rooms, open informal meeting areas, concentration booths, individual work carousels and work lounges.”

Beyond work, employees are also given opportunities to mix, mingle, and relax throughout the space using another set of office design parts; a coffee shop and indoor and outdoor staff dining, as well as relaxation zones and sleep pods. The coffee shop is located on the first floor, in an area designed to hold large numbers of employees to encourage interaction from entry-level employees to executives.

Employees are also given lockers in which to store personal belongings.

Microsoft, in a 2010 press release believes that the space has worked wonderfully. They note that the new style of working has given the following benefits:

• A 30% reduction in real estate costs
• Increased productivity
• Enhanced market reputation and ability to attract and retain top talent
• Increased employee mobility
• Benefits for the environment

What about employee resistance? Microsoft did not just spring the idea onto employees either. The design process took several years, included employee feedback, and was a natural step for the already mobile workforce. [For additional information on this process, read this interview]

Photography by Gary Turnbull, Harold Pareira

Heineken recently opened a new headquarters office in White Plains, NY. Business Insider got a tour (more pics and info here), but check out a few shots below:

I posted a few images of TNT Express’ new sustainable office in December, but recently came across quite a few more shots of the space.  Enjoy!

Microblogging powerhouse Twitter has been on a meteoric rise since its inception back in 2007. Usage is exploding, popularity is exploding, valuations are exploding, and of course with those come a staff that is exploding. The company was started in San Francisco, and as of today, the company seems likely to remain in the city for years to come. Let’s take a look at where they came from.

The Beginning – 164 South Park Avenue

Twitter’s first office was originally located within the offices of Obvious Corp., the company Twitter was born from. The space was a warehouse with tall ceilings and the classic startup look. At this point, Twitter hadn’t been around very long and many people were wondering just what the heck it was and why anyone would want to use it.

Growth Phase 1 – 539 Bryant Street

After some time, Twitter moved into its first office located just around the corner on Bryant Street. This space was similarly raw in nature, though with a style quite it’s own. Wall decals, huge amounts of natural light, and a set of green deer which would continue to inhabit their future spaces.

One important thing to note about this space is that it marks one of the company’s most trying periods that was full of huge service downtimes due to their spectacular growth.

Though Twitter moved out, Xobni has since moved in and made the space it’s own.

Growth Phase 2 – 795 Folsom Street

With their growth, Twitter once again upgraded spaces. While still a startup, they enlisted the help of designer Sara Morishige to help make the space playful, useful, and sustainable. Wall decals are used again, though much more company specific, with the use of a flock of birds. They also used a number of designs from local businesses.

Though the space initially seems fairly sparse in terms of decor and flavor, the space is given another upgrade that fills in many of the gaps. Both sets of images are below:

The Future – Market Square

What’s next for Twitter and its employees in terms of office space? Well it seems like the company decided to stay in San Francisco after famously receiving a tax break as well as agreeing to moving its offices to a less-than-popular part of town.

Their space will be some 200,000 square feet, gives them room for around 1200 employees, and gives them the option of snagging another 200,00 square feet if necessary.

Here are a few images taken from the headquarters of animation company Pixar, in Emeryville, CA. As you can see they have a very large campus, as do many large companies these days, but what I found most interesting was the creativity seen in several of the offices. Working at Pixar sure doesn’t seem like your normal cubicle job.

Last week, we looked at some general information about cost/benefit analysis and office design. In order to keep that discussion going, it will be helpful to have some tools in hand for evaluating the success of office design.

In one study, Knoll essentially defines the goal of office design as being an “…to create office work settings that positively influence desired work behaviors and employee performance.”

Why Evaluate?

• Like any large purchase, if you’ve spent a large sum on office design, you want to protect the integrity of the space and your investment by reducing possible problems.
• It can also help you optimize your office space to peak performance by allowing you to understand the particular needs of your employees. And if your workspace is meeting them.

How To Evaluate

Start by creating a “workplace balanced scoreboard” of metrics. These metrics should be relevant to the intentions of the design and the organization’s business objectives. Include measures that reflect financial, behavioral, work process, health or other outcomes pertinent to the business.

“Less is more.” Select the fewest, highest impact measures possible. Do not collect data unless you know in advance exactly how you plan to use it. Double check to make sure it relates to your Workplace Balanced Scoreboard.

Establish Baseline Measures. Baseline measures establish a reference point against which you can assess the success of changes made to the workplace over time.

• Use a survey to measure employees’ perceptions of behaviors related to project goals, such as comfort, degree of collaboration, quality of group decision-making, etc.
• Collect objective metrics from other sources, such as HR databases for attraction and retention rates, health claims rates and costs, or other metrics that are related to financial outcomes.

Collect data on an ongoing basis (quarterly or semiannually). This will provide an ongoing stream of objective information that can keep the workplace design aligned with employee needs and business goals.

Keep the reports simple. This will enable everyone to understand the results and thus be able to act on them.

Remember to manage the “human side” of the project. A technically successful assessment program can still fail if people don’t buy in to the effort. Thus to assure the support and engagement of employees within the organization, ensure that everyone understands the purpose, approach and benefits of the program.

Was browsing around the image database and threw together a gallery of offices that use wood in ways not specifically named ‘floors’. Basically the idea you’ll see is that you can legitimately find wood off the side of the street, in junk heaps, on log piles, or even your local hardware store, then put it in your office and it instantly becomes more interesting.

Astral is a leading Canadian media company, reaching people through a combination of highly targeted media properties in television, radio, out-of-home advertising, and digital media.

Their Montreal offices were recently redone by lemay associés. Enjoy!

Check out Contemporist for all of the pics and info.

Next week, we will be running a contest for CanvasPop, purveyors of fine print photos on canvas, who will be giving away a colossal $500 prize to the winner. The basic idea is to help spruce up the lucky winner’s office with some great looking corporate canvas art. 

The details:

• Begins next Monday – January 30th
• Requires a submitted image and short description of your office and why you deserve the prize (will provide submission location and details later)
• US/Canada only
• $500 can be used on any combination CanvasPop products

Now go take a picture of your office to get ready!

 

 

Only several years ago, it was normal to see 1:1 ratios between employees and cubicles. But as business practices and office designs modernize, the number of employees per desk is actually going up. One contributing factor is Hot Desking.

The idea behind hot desking is that each employee is not assigned a particular desk, but rather given a variety of places to work within an office that might include desks, casual seating areas, conference spaces, or a cafe.  Many times, there are actually less desks than employees.

Making it Work

It would be incorrect to say that all companies could or need to implement hot desking, but many companies have seen positive results from their adjustment in workstation policy. Let’s take a look at how they did it.

Modernized and Modular Systems

One reason companies have found it difficult to imagine hot desking is because workstations can be jam-packed with personal items and work-related paperwork. In order to alleviate those problems, companies like UVIT have done away with paper files for their mobile workforce. Other companies provide lockers or other spaces to store necessary personal items. [1]

Consolidating Part-Time and Sales Employees

Some employers find that a large portion of their workforce are part-time or sales staff that are regularly out of the office and whose desks sit empty for large portions of the day. Companies like ICL have consolidated those workstations to hot desks to maximize efficiency and floor space. In 2002 ICL had 320 desks supporting 600 people. [2]

Teams

While showing up every day with no desk and no organization might be confusing, some companies have solved the problem with breaking down the workforce in teams. Macquerie Bank’s employees are given a locker for personal storage and an anchor point where they can congregate with their team at the beginning of the day. Then they choose a place to work – anywhere in the building.[1]

Real World Problems

Not trying to paint a rose colored view of hot desking, it is essential that we look at some of the negatives that arise.

TBWA Chiat/Day

In a fantastic article in Wired, we see an interesting approach to maintaining the freshness:

“[Jay Chiat] declared that “nesting” – parking in any one place for more than a day – was strictly forbidden. In the “Chiat High” he’d created, he acted as both principal and hall monitor. Says Rabosky: “Jay would walk around, and he’d give you this look and say, ‘Did you sit here yesterday?’ And he’d make you get up and move.”

It seems like hot desking, at least in this particular environment was either unnecessary or too ahead of its time. Basically, people were uprooted from their personal spaces in one office and told that that wasn’t how it was going to be any more. If we can learn something from this, it is probably that a gradual and measured approach probably works better.

Less Team Cohesion and the Need for Familiarity

A 2008 study also found “that employees that do not have a desk of their own have a weaker sense of cohesion within a team”. [4]

Many employees also feel a sense of belonging and desire to call a space their own. [5]

Balance and Understanding

As you may have observed, hot desking is not for all companies everywhere. Instead it is another unique tool that some companies have used to successfully mitigate inefficient office spaces or spur collaboration. Lets take a look at some tips that might help you when considering hot desking:

• Make sure it makes sense for your line of work
• Find out what employees think of the idea
• Install necessary technology
• Don’t just flip the switch overnight
• Add a couple workstations and encourage employees to try moving around

 

Google’s European offices are the best designed spaces company-wide and the Moscow office is no exception. The office was designed  by Camenzind Evolution to reflect warmth and family, the needs of individuals over corporate standards, and of course, a strong Russian identity.

The space is immediately welcoming, warm and inviting, relaxed yet focused, comfy and still serious as it provides functional and diverse work environments throughout. Work environment diversity is probably the most important aspect of the Google Moscow space. Throughout the office you’ll notice a type of workspace that is compatible with every kind of work whether it be group-oriented or individual.

Employee workstations are classic open desk arrangement with one important distinction – a plethora of both casual and formal meeting space at their fingertips.

As far as cafeterias go, Moscow-based Googlers could do worse. Inspired by classical Russian dining chambers, the buffets are clad in exquisite tiles crafted by local monks. While many cafeterias are harsh, bright and uncomfortable, Google’s is warm and comfortable like a diner or home.

In terms of style, this space is one of my favorites because it doesn’t have annoyingly bright tones of red, blue, and green present in some Google spaces. You’ll also notice that the glass walls all have some sort of translucent covering to give the occupant a little more privacy. One of my favorite features are the wooden boards used as wall coverings as well as ceiling panels.

Lastly, the so-called ‘Magic Forest’ coffee lounge is a perfect space for employees to take a comfortable and casual break and relax throughout the day.

JWT Agency Paris by Mathieu Lehanneur http://www.mathieulehanneur.fr/ Photographs by Véronique Huyghes

Cargo containers are legitimately one of the most important inventions in the world. For years they have been using their standard size and shape to help make shipping easier, but who’d have known they would one day be used as a non-standard design element in office design? Probably not Malcolm McLean.

Not totally convinced? Than you should organize with small ceramic versions for your desk.

4c media is an advertising and web agency with ten experienced professionals who live online and know how to use the Web.

Their office is located in an old brewhouse that was converted into the perfect space for inspiration. Employees have well-equipped workstations, with a lot of screen real estate and desk space. And of course to round out the equipment necessary for high performance, the space has a JURA Impressa Espresso machine.

Tons of natural light floods the open work area throughout the day. That matched with the light color scheme, wooden floors, brick walls, and metal accents give the office a clean modern look. The conference space on the upper level looks great too.

Company is located in Bayreuth, Germany.

Fab.com is an incredibly fast-growing flash deal site that focuses on well-designed products. As you can see the office space has a number of items throughout the space that were probably sold on the site.

These images and more at Business Insider.

Earlier this year Wadhwa Developers commissioned James Law Cybertecture to create an office unlike any other in Mumbai, India. Cybertecture Egg, an egg-shaped office building brings together iconic architecture, environmental design, intelligent systems, and new engineering to create a fascinating structure in the city.

The concept of this unique design was inspired by planets and sustainable ecosystems. Elements of the design and intelligence systems will work together to give this office building’s occupants a great place to work.

 

Bates Smart of Australia lead the design of the new Conneq office space. A little from their description:

Conneq’s new offices were designed around a new triple height void and dramatic stair. A shift towards open planning, glass partitions and a generous amount of shared social space and meeting rooms reflect the client’s aspirations for unity, transparency and collaboration. The shift away from old hierarchies is further expressed by allocating the prime views to communal staff spaces rather than private offices.

This project is richer than a typical corporate environment, blending elements of hospitality, residential and corporate design. Hospitality styled furniture, sculptural features, bold lighting and refined detailing were achieved cost effectively and communicate confidence and sophistication to Conneq’s clients and staff.

Photography by Richard Glover

“In terms of design changes that have an effect on the greatest number of people, lighting is probably one of the most important. Why then, is lighting usually one of the only things that remains the same throughout the life of an office?

My guess is that most people just don’t think much about it, let alone know how to improve it.”

Read the rest plus photos of cool lighting designs

Anima Pictures is not the first company office to use pallets in their office design, but they certainly do so with a splash more color than the other, BrandBase. That said, the conference table is just about identical. All temporary, but fun for sure.

A little about Anima: “The concept of design, an open landscape autonomous, was applied in this way: Firstly, the existing space was painted with white, to ensure a homogeneous background for the structure of pallets, accompanied by spots of color that characterize the company logo.

Pallets themselves create a structure which changes its character gradually being adopted in every office space. In the line of original material, to give the necessary privacy dedicated to the meeting area, the division created between two columns, reinforced through intervention with concrete blocks. The last part of the design of the structure contains supplements to the pallet as furniture lighting, furniture and accessories which stand under the black stain. The whole structure is aimed at facilitating more character than compelling.”

As the architect behind hugely famous, titanium-clad behemoths such as Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum and LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall – 81 year old Canadian-American, Frank Gehry and his practice – Gehry Partners, LLP – rarely shy from delivering truly awe-inspiring buildings, that become instant icons.

Unmistakably Gehry, the centre is quite literally a vision of twisted genius, with it’s warped façade carried through into a fantastically distorted interior, this is an icon for Vegas that is truly like no other…..