What does the future look like? Microsoftis busy figuring it out, in its Envisioning Center, an innovation lab located in Redmond, WA, designed by Studio O+A.
“When a technology company has been hugely successful for decades continuing prosperity depends on an ability to anticipate the impact innovative technologies will have on the future,” notes the project brief. “Given the speed of change in the tech world, O+A believed a prototyping lab should be able to change shape as quickly as a prototyper changes focus.”
O+A’s design challenge?
“Create a fluid, adaptable space in which a company dedicated to making the future brighter could audition emerging technologies in a plausible version of what an office 10 or 20 years from now will likely be.”
At the base of O+A’s design for the space is the concept that the office of the future will make technology invisible.
“At ICFF, I was speaking with people about the democratization of space, how it can be inclusive and familiar, and how technology can be a part of that fabric,” saidPrimo Orpilla, principal and cofounder of Studio O+A, in an officeinsight interview. “In the quote, ‘contemporary workplace,’ technology has kind of taken over our lives. This space takes a different look at the future and the ways we interact with technology.”
Across 1556 gross square footage, users find spaces that shift along with their work, seemingly effortless and by design.
“Microsoft is very open, and they know O+A is very experimental,” said Mr. Orpilla. “They were open to trying new things, and so we wanted to push the boundaries. “In concepting, it took a while to get a hold of what we were creating. The structure of the space is very tech-imbedded, but also malleable and physical. There are spaces for resting, collaborating, for moments of silence. Lighting can be controlled. In any day, minute, hour – you never know what you’re going to be doing – work is all of those things.”
Enter the lab, and your eye naturally travels to a hybrid shelter/meeting/war room space, absent things like a conference table and other hierarchical constructs.
“The whole room opens up like a clam shell, opening up to an auditorium that can hold many people, or can seat an intimate meeting,” said Mr. Orpilla. “It’s a futuristic type of meeting space that’s not so private. It takes away the one-sided, structured, agendized formality of a conventional conference room.”
A futuristic meeting room unfolds, a coffee counter can be opened up or tucked away when not in use, and adjustable furniture modules can shift to current needs – whether it be stadium seating or a counter-height meeting point.
Users experience the benefits of high-tech features like circadian lighting and biophilic design through natural greenery, among many other elements.
O+A worked with SuperFab to build custom millwork and specialty finishes that create an strong aesthetic imprint on the Center, with acoustic fabric from Unika Vaev.
“There’s no old couch, no distressed wood, here,” noted Mr. Orpilla. “Everything feels very new. We worked with SuperFab to get this really honest wood material feel.”
“There’s a lot of stuff packed into the space that you don’t immediately notice. It’s seamlessly integrated to feel that way.”
Project Notes from Studio O+A
“Microsoft’s Envisioning Center is a lab, and like labs everywhere, it makes use of forms and structures unique to its purpose. The starting point here was the traditional office – workstations and meeting rooms – reimagined as technology-enabled super amenities. In the office of the future the workplace will work with you, anticipating and responding to your needs.”
Change Your Agenda, Change Your Office. “The stadium seating in this project builds the capacity for change into the Center’s infrastructure. These modular components may be reconfigured to meet the challenge of each new day, zeroing in, as necessary, on interactive walls, interactive desktops or the physical requirements of specific events.”
Meetings Local and Global in One Place. “The core of the Envisioning Center is the Next Generation Meeting Hexagon. Designed for advanced video conferencing, it allows multi-dimensional interaction between in-person participants, off-site participants and live tech info walls. Colored light cues indicate the status of the space – green for available, red for in use, blue for open and on display. The next step toward a conference room that interacts intelligently with its users, the Hexagon again demonstrates how technology and physical space will increasingly work together to provide seamless services in the work environment.”
Learn by Doing. “If the brightness of this space and the intentional playfulness in some of its shapes suggest a school setting, that’s not an accident. ‘Activity landscape,’ was the description adopted by both client and designer. O+A created an environment that encourages the unfettered thinking and passion for experimentation that animates a physics class or a team of project-oriented biologists. At Microsoft it is understood that the future will be an amalgamation of all the sciences and arts – and that it will be (or anyway should be) a bright and playful activity landscape.”