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What workspace means to your clients Here are some tips from industry experts on how to customize a client’s workspace for their needs. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent people work to understand what ‘the office’ means to them.”
Y ou’ve been tasked with designing a new work- space for a client. Where do you begin? How do you uncover a client’s needs? The right mix of research and communication will result in an ideal workspace. DIG DEEP. At Harley Ellis Devereaux (Southfield, MI), a 290-person architecture and engineering firm, Timo- thy J. Gawel, associate corporate and commercial stu- dio leader, says they believe in the power of the work- space to make your organization work smarter, more efficiently, and more agreeably. “That’s why we dig deep into an organization, giving it the power to simultaneously accommodate every need and inspire the people within,” he says. “Our role as design and engineering professionals is to continu- ously make a net positive effect on the world in which we live and practice, and on the purpose and impacts of our clients’ enterprises.” Gawel says that they seek proof of concept where they can and interpolate where they can’t. “We begin each engagement supplementing what we know and have learned with fresh insights from re- search to inform our analysis and open paths to new thinking. We uncover the data that others have over- looked and the information that will bring a clever perspective on our client’s opportunities,” he says. “We look at our client’s work in all the places that its
They ask questions and reframe the problem. They be- gin their design processes by asking questions about why things are done the way they are and how things that are done differently might be better. “Our objective is to examine the problem from sev- eral perspectives, challenging ourselves to find better ways of doing things and offering options to Google to evoke the benefits of experience or to contribute to the cumulative body of workplace research, knowl- edge, and experience,” Gawel explains. Ray Micham, principal at The Collaborative Inc. (To- ledo, OH), a 45-person architectural and design firm, says that the best technique is understanding. “From industry benchmarking to understanding trends in the workplace to embedding our team with the company employees on a daily basis, we work to become an integral part of the company,” he says. “This process helps to solidify our knowledge of how they work and gives priceless insight to the future de- sign.” EXAMINE DENSITY. Erin Estep, an associate at Ayers Saint Gross (Baltimore, MD), a 140-person professional de- sign firm, says that a client’s growth and space pro- jections determine the program and design combined with their workspace needs and culture.
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