Ark, a new strategic consulting studio based in Manhattan, recently announced its official launch. The consultancy evolved from the strategy and discovery arm of global architecture firm HLW, though it will function independently. Ark provides a range of services, including corporate transformation initiatives, change management, and visual storytelling. I spoke with Peter Bacevice, PhD, Ark’s director of research, about the consultancy and how it is poised to guide firms through the pandemic – and beyond.
Anna Zappia (AZ): Can you tell us a little bit about Ark?
Peter Bacevice (PB): We have a long history of having a strategy practice within HLW, but over the last year with the pandemic, we realized that our clients were coming to us with a broader range of questions about how to transition back to the office, and really thinking about the workplace in a much broader way. Ark was really born out of us wanting to focus more on helping guide our clients through this time of uncertainty. What we’ve been doing is building off of our legacy of workplace and change management.
We’ve begun to really help our clients think more about organizational transformation, not just simply workplace change related to an office redesign. We are helping them think about the future of their organizations, the structure of their organizations, and how they are working in this pandemic and post-pandemic life. That’s really what we’re focused on and it’s how we’re moving forward.
AZ: Are we going to see more of a focus on the workplace and office culture due to the pandemic?
PB: Yes, and now we’re trying to help companies figure out how to maintain equity among employees when people are experiencing work in a different way. The person who’s remote is at a disadvantage, because they’re not seen as much or they are missing out on a lot of opportunities. The pandemic has changed that. Everyone is more or less on equal footing.
I think what we’re going to find is that in the future, when companies retain some degree of remote work, we’re going to be asking different questions. How do you make people feel equally connected? How do you create a more immersive meeting experience? What we’re finding is that because everyone had this shared experience during the pandemic, it creates a teachable moment for how we might increase that remote equity in the long term.
AZ: How are we going to use technology in the future?
PB: The expectation is that more and more people are going to be dialing in remotely to meetings. We’re looking at technology that creates a little bit more of an immersive experience so that the people in the room are experiencing the people on the phone or on the screen in a realistic way. There’s a lot of really great technology already out there. Organizations didn’t always invest in it because there wasn’t a need to. Now that they’re supporting remote workers, I think they’ll realize a return on that investment.
It’s a combination of us just simply being aware of what’s out there, but also knowing when we should bring in a technology partner to help with everything from interviewing potential vendors to having a partner that can work with an in-house IT team to determine what technology meets their security requirements.
AZ: Ark talks about leveraging thick data. What is thick data, and how do you use it to help your clients?
PB: When we talk about thick data, it means having a lot of really rich data on a few key metrics or variables. Because we’ve been working as a team for seven-plus years now, we’ve amassed data across several hundred projects that we’ve designed, that HLW has designed, or even other architects have designed for our clients. If we want to drill into specific trends about workstation size, meeting room size, sectors, and geography, because we’ve amassed so much of that data over the years, we can use that to guide us.
We always want to be careful that we’re not just simply designing to averages because then we’re just sort of repeating the same thing, but because we have a lot of data we can see how things might be changing in specific micro sectors and couple that with what we’re hearing about where things are headed, especially post-pandemic. We don’t think the office is going to look exactly the way that it did a pre-pandemic, but we have those metrics that we can learn from.
AZ: What other types of work does Ark do?
PB: In addition to workplace strategy and change management, we also create environmental graphics. A lot of our projects involve producing collateral, and that can be everything from videos to brochures. We always like to make sure that things are very graphically compelling, but we’re also aligning with the brand of the client. We also do a lot of complex design guidelines, which takes a very diverse skill set. Sometimes those documents are very architectural in nature, and we can produce things with that level of detail if needed.
AZ: How are your clients thinking about the physical space they have now?
PB: If you have a campus and you have half a dozen buildings, and you are considering letting one building go, that conversation is easier to have now. Everyone’s realizing that remote work will likely be part of their strategy going forward. Whereas a year ago, that would not have been part of the conversation.
A lot of people are also just thinking about de-densifying what they have, even if they’re not shedding any real estate. The square-foot per person is going to increase, because people are getting spread out a bit more. These really densely packed offices, we’re seeing clients reconsider that. For example, an area that might have had a quad configuration will now only have three seats. It doesn’t require much. It’s a little bit of a furniture change. But it’s a simple way to de-densify. Clients aren’t necessarily giving up space, and they realize that the additional space allows them to try out new things. It’s less about actually moving furniture, but could be something more along the lines of giving the brand a refresh in the space. Companies still realize the importance of how a workplace can communicate a lot about who they are as an organization, so having a physical presence will always be important.
AZ: How are Ark’s clients thinking about the office?
PB: I think people still want amenities. I think that gives them a reason to want to still come to an office. They realize that the office is a destination. We know that people are going to be remote, and we’re going to have a bit less need to just pack people in. We are thinking about using the office in more of an experiential way.
Office workers value outdoor space, and they still want food, which is really no surprise. People just miss having the boundaries between their work and their non-work lives. People actually miss commuting. Not because they miss the lengthy drive, but because commuting is a transition. It’s a point between work and non-work.
