Designing workplaces for the future

by brittney_cutler | June 9, 2022 4:00 pm

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By Alexandra Waltemyer

The past two years have demonstrated how critical the need is for employers to ensure a safe and healthy work environment for its staff. With many employees nervous about returning to their traditional workplaces, it is paramount to improve indoor health and an increased sense of occupant well-being by implementing or upgrading systems and facilities to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and other airborne pathogens.

As a result, a critical part of re-entry is for employers to prove they are providing a safe, healthy indoor environment to meet occupants’ ongoing needs now and for the long-term. Although the risk of contracting COVID has fallen, it has not disappeared entirely and has spurred heightened awareness of how to stay healthy indoors.

To demonstrate how today’s healthy workplace can function, a major ceiling manufacturer recently renovated 929 m² (10,000 sf) of existing workspace on its corporate campus and named it the ‘Living Lab.’ Created in partnership with architectural firm Gensler, the fully equipped office space is designed with optimal acoustics, lighting, cleanliness, comfort, and excellent air quality in mind. It is intended to test new health-focused solutions and emerging innovations in workplace design. It is intended to deliver excellent indoor environmental quality for office occupants and to test new health-focused solutions and emerging innovations in workplace design.

Company employees regularly work in the space and provide feedback on the functionality of individual and collaborative areas. In addition, sales representatives bring architects, interior designers, building owners, and facility managers to tour the space.

A living, breathing workspace

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According to the facility’s manager, the goal of the Living Lab is to learn how to help make office spaces safer, as well as more comfortable, efficient, and inspiring so employees want to come back again. It is designed to make the office a destination with indoor environmental quality at the forefront.  In the Living Lab, new solutions take shape, from systems creating cleaner air and enhancing effectiveness of HVAC systems to piloting new installation methods, materials, shapes, and design concepts.

The goal was to create a healthy and inspiring environment in which space could be better used to allow more cross functional teams to come together to collaborate and innovate. The space allows products to be switched out and tested as needed. It can even be modified in terms of how the physical space works as strategies change. Feedback and reaction have been very positive. The space allows products to be switched out as needed; it can even be modified in terms of how the space works as strategies change.

Intended to be a testing ground

Gensler senior associate Stephen Freret says the Living Lab is intended to be a testing ground and push the limits of innovation to a workplace model embodying a ‘healthy spaces’ philosophy, which is built on four key strategies:

∞ Elevate wellness and sustainability in the employee experience.

∞ Create a ‘wow’ factor that delivers premium customer and employee experiences.

∞ Optimize for workplace flexibility and digitalization to innovate faster.

∞ Foster connection to community.

Freret also noted how “bringing the outdoors in” is an important design element.

“We believe one of the keys to a healthier and happier work experience is access to green spaces and the ability to easily access outdoor environments,” he says. “In the Living Lab, we designed the space to immediately put this design strategy front and center.”

Freret says one of the biggest changes to introduce more natural light into the space was removing the existing offices along perimeter windows.

Other biophilic design elements in the lab include numerous hanging plants, warm wood tones, and deep, earthy colors evoking growth and well-being.

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An activity-based work environment

Once inside the Living Lab, the first element employees and visitors encounter is a large 1.5 x 6 m (5 x 20 ft) wall-mounted dashboard which displays detailed real-time information about the facility’s indoor environmental quality. Monitors installed on walls throughout the lab track space conditions.

Building metrics displayed include occupancy density, air quality, carbon dioxide level, humidity, temperature, cleaning and disinfecting alerts, and other biomechanical data. The intent is to assure occupants they can feel confident in their surroundings while working in the space.

The lab is an activity-based work environment, meaning it provides a range of spaces to comfortably accommodate a variety of needs throughout the day. Occupants can work on the move, taking advantage of technology to stay connected even in outside settings. They can also use the assortment of team-oriented rooms and informal open spaces for collaboration, or they can use enclosed rooms for focus work. The Living Lab houses eight distinct areas that flow seamlessly.

Main entrance

Measures include touchless entry doors, sanitizer, and wrist temperature measurement scanners.

Work lounge and café

This area was designed for visitors who do not have a workstation and features a variety of furniture options, plenty of natural light, touchless faucets and self-sanitizing anti-microbial drawer pulls, hanging plants (biophilia), and easy access to outdoor workspace.

Twenty-four open office workstations

These workstations feature back-to back or pinwheel configurations along with sit-to-stand ability. They are also ergonomic and physically distanced 2 m (6 ft) for safety and privacy with plenty of natural light from windows and excellent acoustics.

Ideation area

A collaboration space featuring integrated technology capabilities and translucent panels which enhance natural daylighting from a ceiling skylight.

Maker space

A hands-on space designed to allow teams to work on new products for testing.

Huddle spaces and focus rooms

These provide a flexible mixture of collaborative and individually focused work settings. Huddle spaces are for collaboration, whereas focus rooms are touch down spaces with more individual privacy.

Conference rooms

There is one large and one small conference room with integrated technology features in both.

Outdoor working space

This space is a full extension of the work environment, complete with furniture, power, and Wi-Fi.

Lab features safe, healthy products

A myriad of ceiling and wall products are installed throughout the space to reassure those who are going back to work are surrounded by materials and systems that work 24/7 to keep them safer and healthier.

These materials and systems include gasketed ceilings to reduce air leakage through the ceiling plane and self-contained ultraviolet (UV) air purification systems to maintain indoor air quality. Seamless acoustical ceilings which look like drywall but provide a combination of sound absorbing and sound blocking are installed in closed plan offices to ensure speech privacy, as well as to provide quiet concentration areas. Felt products are also installed on many walls for acoustical absorption. Environmentally, all the ceilings meet the highest sustainability standards in the industry today.

A new way of working

As part of their mission, the design teams also leveraged a change management process including focus groups, metric reports, and processes to engage stakeholders and obtain feedback to facilitate a smooth transition to a new way of working.

“Looking into the future, change management programs will be considered to enable forward thinking spaces like the Living Lab to optimize employee experiences,” says Freret.

Upon completion, the Living Lab earned a WELL Health-Safety Rating Certification seal from the International WELL Building Institute. It achieved 17 credits including two innovation credits. The certification provides a framework for organizations to prepare for a safer and healthier future. It also earned an Air Quality Recognition Award for its clean air.

The mission of improving the human work experience through design has culminated in a critical, yet hopeful, moment of transformation. The Living Lab is a dynamic pilot space that provides a holistic and flexible workplace environment to achieve that mission.

Author

Alexandra Waltemyer manages the Healthy Space Solutions program at Armstrong World Industries. She leads research and development of innovative product solutions which create healthier spaces to improve indoor air quality in schools, offices, and healthcare environments. Her background is in engineering and agile project management, research and development, testing, and operations in several industries.

Source URL: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/designing-workplaces-for-the-future/

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