| This is the third of a three-part series
on the relationship between workplace design and health. In the previous two articles in this series, I
described how our physical space directly impacts our culture. The dominant spatial form of our times, the
monoculture, has been deployed unrelentingly on our work environments to yield one-dimensional spaces that do
not support diverse settings for work styles. In this final article, I will describe a set of design
parameters that illustrate modern principles regarding space, culture and health to create today’s
collaborative workplace. |
Workplace Design for Health: Part 3
Creating a Collaborative and Comprehensible Workspace
WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL WHELAN
Good design accommodates a huge range of inputs. Even a seemingly simple object, such as a doorknob, must
resolve technical requirements with regard to the latch, key and handle. However, the doorknob will also be
judged by how well the technical aspects connect with the human touch. Does the knob feel good in the hand?
Similarly, the successful workspace must address technical stipulations while making that vital connection to
our senses.
Most design starts with an understanding of basic requirements. Designers and architects call this the
programme, which comprises the ingredient list for the space.
A typical programme might include:
- 100 workstations
- 10 manager workstations
- 2 offices
- 6 small meeting rooms
- 1 boardroom
- 1 small lunch room and
- 1 coffee station
However, there are thousands of ways these pieces could be assembled, yielding wildly different kinds of
workspaces.
There are two critical kinds of information missing from the above programmes: The first is an
understanding of how all these people interact and work. Are there sub-groups with specific needs not
satisfied by the workstations? Are there groups that work closely with each other? Do some job functions
require quiet, heads-down space while others need to occur in an environment that  is open and interactive? The answers to these questions will inform how the spatial ingredients
are combined. A good design must start with an investigation and deep understanding of how work is
performed.
The other critical input relates to the character of the space. Spatial character is an expression of the
workplace ethos. It also stands for the value system of the organization as a whole. For example, an
organization that values interaction will have a variety of collaboration spaces, and a casual visitor will
immediately note that these spaces are heavily-used and valued.
The Basics of the Workspace
The environmental movement is transforming the nature of workspace design. Space must have high-quality
air and natural light. These two factors reduce energy usage while generating measurable improvements to
worker health and productivity. At Stantec’s new offices on Wellington Street West in Toronto, Ontario, for
example, a raised floor allows fresh air to be controlled by individuals. Daylight floods into the space,
because there are no private offices to block access to natural light.
Work Bio-Diversity
People have different work styles and requirements. Even for the same individual, these vary depending on
time of day or business cycle. Research has shown that the more successful companies are inherently more
collaborative and have established workspaces that accommodate this work style and engender a satisfied
workforce.
Workstations
In the past, large workstations could accommodate many work styles. Due to space-saving measures over the
last 20 years, the average workstation size has decreased significantly. Today’s workstation must be
engineered to provide the right amenities for a worker while remaining flexible enough to respond to change.
Additionally, other components such as storage, seating, and task lighting have to be ergonomically
integrated into the workstation.
Collaboration
 In
Canada, typical office workers spend less than 50% of their time at their desks. At their workstations,
however, collaborative workers may still need to sit and work together—even if just for a few minutes at a
time. Supporting this may be as simple as providing mobile stools in the workstation areas for instant
one-to-one meetings. Beyond the workstation, there is a wide range of other collaboration spaces,
including:
Meeting Rooms
The size and distribution of meeting rooms should be based on an analysis of the work styles of the
individuals and groups.
Stand-up meetings
This is a common meeting format in the agile information technology world, which allows for fast and
effective get-togethers. However, many people are uncomfortable standing, even for short periods of time.
Possible solutions include using a coffee counter or taller stools for ‘perches’.
Touch-down spaces
Small, acoustically private rooms provide quiet spaces that support focused tasks and confidential phone
calls.
 Project Rooms
A project team of people is co-located (team members placed within close proximity to each other) and
provided with the physical and technical tools to work together. Rooms can include a central meeting table
surrounded by white boards, video conferencing equipment and projectors.
Work Lounge
Lounges provide an informal setting for brainstorming or quiet conversations.
Café
These rooms can do double duty if provided with the technical support for impromptu meetings—and the
coffee is close at hand.
Technology
Office spaces encourage collaboration, which allow wireless connections for laptop users and provide
roaming telephone service.
Legibility
A good environment is clearly organized. People should be able to move effortlessly through the space and
understand the logical relationship between workstations, meeting rooms, coffee areas, etc. Conversely, a
“Dilbert” cube farm is a disorienting and claustrophobic maze.
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Collaborative Workspaces
Caroline Hughes
of Figure3, winner of the Best in Canada Award for the Design Competition 2008 for her
firm’s design of the new Airmiles building in Toronto, Ontario, knows all about creating collaborative
workspaces.
When Airmiles
decided to move their offices to Toronto’s downtown core, they called upon Figure 3 to collaborate with them
on a design that would provide what Hughes calls “giveback” to the staff. Consequently, the 10% employee
turnover anticipated with the move never happened. Airmiles lost only 1% of its staff, as most workers were
committed to making the switch to the new facilities, which were created with their input.
The Airmiles
site, Hughes explains, duplicates “some of the support areas, so in each of these floors, for example,
there’s the oasis, the heart of the floor, so that every floor has a central gathering space for a community
area or a refreshment centre that is deliberately quite nice, good coffee and refreshments, and it’s designed
to be casual and communal. In addition to that, we also have a large cafeteria in which we built an
interconnecting stair. That stair can service both the call centre and the administrative groups.”
Creating
collaborative workspaces means taking into account who people work with, how they meet for collaboration, and
the type of work they do. A workflow analysis initiated by the designers identifies the physical and virtual
touchpoints at which workers connect one with another. Collaborative design directs human movement so that
the people who need to meet are set up to interact deliberately and in passing. According to Hughes, “Certain
groups, certain functions within a company, are relatively siloed in terms of their interaction with other
groups and other people. So, those groups also need collaborative spaces, and we build them into meeting
rooms and lounges; but other groups and business owners, like the leadership at Airmiles, understand that for
innovation to happen, for information to flow more quickly through an organization, you need to start to
break down the silos between groups that should be working together.” Hughes adds, “So, what that means for
us is that we just have to focus on finding the connections between different groups and make sure that there
are reasons for those people to bump into one another. Basically, (we create) spaces… where information flow
can happen because people are interacting with one another and know each other and like one another. We try
to build in those spaces so that collaboration happens naturally rather than is forced.”
Flexibility and
sustainability are hallmarks of collaborative design. Design firms create workspaces that can change with the
needs of the organization and its people. In some cases, this involves non-assigned workstations set up to
accept the identity of any authorized worker. In other cases, it can involve changes to the actual set-up of
the office environment. “What we do is design spaces that are flexible enough that they can change over
time,” says Hughes. “We do have, for example, a kit of parts storefront so that the door and glass walls can
be taken apart and reused somewhere else, so that we can build offices differently from place to place
without throwing them all away.” Workers without their own workstations may maintain a sense of ownership
with assigned lockers where they can store their personal items. What they lose in stability of work location
is often compensated in a flexible work arrangement that can involve working at home part of the time, and
having available to them different workstations and meeting rooms according to the needs of the day.
Far from creating
stark environments, collaborative design directs human movement with the use of colour and graphics. Often,
the motif in some way reflects the culture of the company. This fun and funky approach is especially
appealing to the young workers of today for whom collaborative design seems especially suited. “We also look
at using graphics to imply a function,” says Hughes of the Airmiles workspace. “There’s a series of telephone
banks, for example, and there’s a big graphic on the telephone banks of old-fashioned telephone dials, and
it’s a bit silly and obvious but it’s graphically interesting. You just try to make an association with image
and the use of the space and make it fun. In the case of Airmiles, it’s quite a lot of fun."
PHOTO BY RICHARD JOHNSON
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 Refuge and Prospect
Workspaces should offer some sense of privacy while providing view or prospect to the broader environment.
This is the same spatial need we feel when seated in a restaurant with our backs to the door. A sense of
refuge in individual workspaces can be accommodated by paying attention to the details of the workstation.
Longer views from the workstation satisfy the need for prospect.
Character of the Space
Research in environmental psychology by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan has provided data about what makes for a
feel-good space. In one study, respondents were shown photographs of different kinds of natural places.
Generally, preferred spaces were legible and offered some mystery. Scattered trees on a pasture represented a
legible landscape while a semi-hidden clearing suggested non-threatening mystery. These characteristics are
similar to the findings of researchers interested in biophilia with its emphasis on refuge and prospect.
Regardless of the sources, these are all features of good design whether the setting is Central Park or an
office interior.
Of course, trees and pasture rarely occur in the average office interior. However, humans do rely on
metaphor to connect interior spaces to landscapes. For example, light streaming through a row of columns in a
church can make one think of a row of trees. Designers have used this kind of reference to give spaces
meaning. A row of filing cabinets can function as a “hedge.” While filing cabinets are not hedges, there are
similarities in how they shape space. Often, you can see over them, and there can be gaps so people can walk
“through” the hedge. It is not necessary to label the cabinet array as such. We humans are abstract thinkers
who absorb metaphors and thereby give meaning to our spaces.
 In a similar way, bulkheads can take on a variety of interpretations (“Bulkhead” is design-speak
for a ceiling that is below the main ceiling.). A beautifully designed bulkhead can become a metaphor for a
tree canopy or a cloud.
Visual Stimulation
The use of colour is the most contentious design feature of a work environment. Everyone wants colour,
just not in their workstations. Sadly, beige has become our default decor. However, colour is needed to
terminate long vistas, to provide punch to important places, and to orient people in the space. Materials are
used to add a tactile quality to the space. For example, in Stantec’s offices, the existing wood beams and
ceilings were left exposed. The wood theme was further augmented through the use of reclaimed lumber to
create screens, hedges and fences that add spatial definition to an open former warehouse space.
Mystery and Fascination
Humans are naturally curious and want to know what’s around the corner… as long as it’s not dangerous.
This inquisitiveness can be piqued by only partly concealing spaces. A big splash of wall colour can help
lead the eye around a corner, or a low wall can partially conceal while encouraging the eye to leap over the
wall.
Movement
The encouragement of movement in space has health and ergonomic benefits as well as building the social
capital of the individual and the organization. Several stairs in Stantec’s offices provide opportunity for
chance encounters and collaboration while encouraging people to move.
Paul Whelan is a Toronto-based architect with Stantec Architecture. He has an extensive background in
the design of office interiors and community-focused spaces. Whelan is particularly interested in the
relationship between human social institutions and our designed environment.
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ISSUE 11-2 OF YOUR WORKPLACE MAGAZINE.
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