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Since companies examine the future of the hybrid work again and determine requirements for employees who return to the office in 2025, they are also with new questions about upgrading rooms or creating new ones, which set a new tone for corporate culture and morality. Architects, interior designers and project planners play a unique role to help companies determine what should be included in their work areas in order to meet the developing requirements. In order to create a job where employees want to spend time, it is important that new and improved offices are designed in a way that focuses on employees. People centered design principles form the basis for the creation of work environments that offer a feeling of productivity, security, wellness and creativity.
Design planning
The employees themselves are really the key to designing a well -planned, appealing workplace. Surveys can be an invaluable instrument to find out what employees need and want, both from their surroundings and from the corporate culture. Feedback can help architects and designers to understand the operational needs of different departments, teams and people who share rooms, resources and amenities. It can also provide Intel for various usage patterns, activities and recurring events in the building and inform about which rooms may remain flexible or have to adapt to future changes. Companies that openly discuss the design process with their employees can often benefit from increasing morality.
Architects can use surveys and focus groups to uncover the actual problems by finding out or evaluating what it is most important. Sometimes the management of the companies believes that it has to move into a new building, but in reality the workplace can require a cheaper renovation, which ultimately contributes to the fact that employees are valued and strengthened.
Company brand
Human-centered design can take a company brand out of logo, slogan, colors and mission statements and reinterpret it as an important ally in a work area. For example, the colors of the brand were used in a renovation of the office space in LRS 'Design for Kindercare Learning Companies' Corporate Headquarters in Lake Oswego. This included the increasing liveliness in areas of the whiteboard cooperation and lounge rooms to support creativity and spontaneous meetings. Forms from the KinderCare logo were used to create lighting in the employee café. Biophilic design elements have invited nature through planters, living wall art, conference rooms and lobby areas to create calming elements in busy work environments.
And as a bonus for biophilic design, natural light and green, sick days are reduced and even showed that employees report an increase in 15 percent more productivity, creativity and well-being, together with 78 percent who feel happier and feel healthier, according to a study on the workplace.
These types of branding elements help employees feel connected to the company and its mission. Architecture and design play a crucial role in the storytelling history in a job, and Branding is an area in which companies can breathe new life into their many years of identity.
Segmentation through use
The satisfaction of the employees can be improved by the creation of various “working neighborhoods” defined by use. Some companies create districts of the department while others focus on activities. An “energy district” can be assigned for areas in which more social activities include. Think of a work lobby, a café, an outdoor area outdoor and pressure stations. These are places that are enthusiastic about activities, and the employees can feel more involved in things such as public holidays, appreciation days or routine activities in which design can increase their mood.
Neighborhoods for the cooperation must be designed in such a way that they inspire conversations, inspire and accompany and accompany them how different teams or departments bring things together. Some may need whiteboards, while other flat screen TVs with technical add-ons need, and there is often a mixture of people who sit and stand. The accessibility is the key to these rooms, and their placement must be intended so that the neighborhoods have sufficiently available.
Focus and rest zones should be interpreted with fewer elements to minimize distractions, and calming visual clues help to distinguish them from high areas with high trade. The creation of acoustic and visual privacy is important for employees who use the office as the goal of focused working hours. Designers can test the adaptation and use virtual reality software to model concepts and elements before they are ordered or constructed. This can make a long way to prepare a job for employees who want to commute the company and be successful.
Healthy jobs
The satisfaction of the employees is also increased if the design enables employees to self -evident in the support of neurodiversity, the inclusion of different generations and the inclusion of different personalities. Architects and interior designers can help with strategies for change management and take part in start-hall stick-off meetings to invite employees into new or redesigned rooms. From colored information to graphics and paths, a tour day with the employees feel that the company creates the red carpet and invests time to ensure that the employees understand the intentions of the design and how the new functions and resources can use each room.
Employees Wellness includes physical, ecological and emotional factors. While the pendulum of long-distance and hybrid jobs with open concepts have grown to everyone on site, intelligent employers will never lose sight of how a building and its rooms can positively shape their employees, customers and communities in the long run.
Darcie McConaHha is interior project manager and senior association at LRS Architects. Contact them at 503-221-1121 or [email protected].
Britney Hale is interior designer and associate at LRS Architects. Contact them at 503-221-1121 or [email protected].
The opinions, beliefs and points of view that are expressed in the previous comment are that of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and points of view of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its publisher. Neither the author nor the DJC guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information published here.