Where’s the go-to resource that cracks the code for designing remote-work-friendly, post-pandemic, Zoom-era workplaces? Look no further than the American Society of Interior Designers and their report, “Reimagining Work: Design to Thrive.”
“Over the past two years, Americans have re-examined how and where they work,” said Gary Wheeler, CEO, ASID. “This report provides interior designers with tools they need to navigate these shifting spaces, and it offers designers tools to tap into the core of their clients’ new needs.”
Produced in partnership with Sherwin-Williams, the findings inspire interior designers toward new approaches for conceiving workplaces. These tools relate to on-site and remote officing for reimagining workplaces, whether in high-rises, city lofts, suburban homes, or weekend getaways.
Designing to thrive recognizes the surging desirability of employee choice in where to work, alongside the increasing willingness from a growing population of employers to accept those choices.
New openness at the leadership level to employee choice resets the design professional’s scope of workplace possibilities. That means envisioning where employees desire to work, rather than letting conventional thinking place employees where employers believe they should work. Primarily, that would be on-site at the employer’s facility.
The ASID report establishes a framework that surfaces the critical information designers and those with facilities development responsibilities need to reimagine the workplace.
Although created for the professional, there’s every reason for those working remotely or for interior design faculty and students to benefit from this report’s visioning tools and evidence-based guidelines.
In the report’s Exploration section, ASID covers matters of form and function during programming while adding a few twists.
Questions regarding organizational functions, performance factors, perceptions of place, and real estate footprint surround these issues with inputs from different perspectives. The intended outcome for the designer is a reliably authentic impression of what’s needed for every employee, inclusive of role and accommodation, to thrive in their work.
The framework’s construction mimics journalistic practice in evolving the who, what, when, where, how, and why of organizational intentions and employee desires. Because, as journalists have proven, getting to the reality of a matter can mean disguising questions about a critical issue in creatively different ways.
Having completed a thorough examination of the work and workplace goals, what comes next, according to ASID’s report, is applying evidence-based guidelines and considerations that align with key performance motivators. The report says that doing so with a deft touch can “ensure a thriving atmosphere for employees.”
First among these motivators is Connectedness. The research suggests ways to achieve community, trust, and commitment within a mixed on-site and remote context.
“Technology has become a bigger programming request to provide the capability to connect,” said Jessica G. White. Her emphasis cited in the report is equity of connections for remote workers. Ms. White, RID, ASID, LEED AP, is Senior Interior Designer, Associate, at Group 4 Design, Inc.
One of the Connectedness Design Guidelines calls for accessibility and easy connections with others, eliminating spatial, social, and virtual obstacles.
Increased productivity, performance, and group synergy figure into the Collaboration motivator’s outcomes. The report distinguishes how collaboration styles—virtual, physical, and hybrid—play into the processes of employees working together toward their objectives.
“We need places to have people get their ideas out,” said Maryann Ewing, ASID, Owner, at Beech Hill Studios, LLC. Her guidance suggests varying levels of privacy and an in-between or medium-sized space for small meetings.
As the Collaboration guidelines suggest, spaces function best when employees know how to use them, coupled with the freedom to choose a space that best fits their evolving project and team needs.
In design, meeting what appear as conflicting objectives is a routine occurrence. It will surprise few readers that Concentration is a motivator equal to Connectedness and Collaboration.
Image courtesy of ASID
John Cialone, FASID, is Partner and Vice President at Tom Stringer Design Partners. He frames approaches to Concentration as including spaces that can be open, then be closed down when needed. “The hallmark of design is to give people flexible spaces that allow for everything in one space,” said Mr. Cialone.
Noise control, respite areas, and distraction management are among the guidelines related to outcomes in cognitive performance. The report cautions against flat calm in spaces, saying a certain level of stimuli, modulated to characteristics of individual occupants, activates work momentum.
The final motivator is Comfort, a subjective, nebulous, and multi-dimensional state of being. Doubtless a fundamental asset to working environments, the report suggests that achieving Comfort involves physical, psychological, emotional, and environmental solutions.
“When we link health and wellness with productivity and engagement, and what they mean for the workplace, a healthy interior is often a more productive interior,” said Kate Currie. Ms. Currie, NCIDQ, ASID, WELL AP, LEED AP ID+C, is Senior Interior Project Designer, Associate, at Perkins&Will.
Comfort speaks to mind, body, and spirit. The report’s guidelines address those issues with examples of adjustability, active versus sedentary routines, and controlling acoustic, thermal, visual, and olfactory distractions in the environment.
All these motivators join in creating Place, the locations of work wherever employees create them. As designers engage with clients for on-site and remote workplace projects, the findings and recommendations in ASID’s report provide points of reference against the uncertainties ahead.
Carolyn Ames Noble captured the moment ideally. “This is the time to break open everything, extract and distill what is really meaningful to people at work, and design spaces to nurture them,” she said. “This is the time for a renaissance.” Ms. Ames, ASID, WELL AP, WELL Faculty, is Principal, Interior & Product Design, at Ames Design Collective.
“Reimagining Work: Design to Thrive,” from the American Society of Interior Designers in partnership with Sherwin-Williams, is available as a free download at ASID’s website, asid.org.
A separate addendum providing a six-page annotated bibliography is also available for download from ASID.
Stephen Witte writes, speaks, and consults for the design industry. Contact him at stephenmwitte@gmail.com