Articles & Periodicals

Enhancing Productivity Through Intelligent Design

BUSINESS TODAY • AUGUST 2007 • BY FRANK DUFFY
Buildings may not have a life of their own, but they do have a bearing on the life- and work- of their occupants.

Let me say something t hat may surprise you, coming, as it does, from an architect. In a rapidly changing world, I have learnt to be afraid of the longevity of office buildings. Most architects believe that buildings are inevitably long term, an assumption that has resulted in architecture that is rigid and resistant to change. I am much more sanguine about the future of cities because we seem to know better how to design them to accommodate change, especially older cities like London which are capable of infinite modifications without losing out on their character.

Similarly, interior designers know from bitter experience that their work is inevitably transitory and that the challenge of constant change has to be addressed. But when it comes to office buildings, most architects still take permanence as our birthright.

Things change. Ten years ago I published a book called The New Office. By the way, never use the adjective "new" in the title of a book. Nothing dates a book more quickly. In a rapidly changing world, claims of novelty are remorselessly and quickly exposed. For example, my book failed to mention three words beginning with "s" which are now given the highest priority in office design but were then very much on the back shelf. The first of these words was security: look what 9/11 has subsequently done to our complacency. The second was sustainability: amazingly still hardly on the design agenda in the mid-90s. The third was serendipity, defined as the art of taking advantage of unexpected and un-programmed happenings, which are likely to become the most important of the three because they are the key to the justification of "place" in an increasingly virtual world.

So much for my reputation as a prophet . What is happening everywhere today in the world of work is not gradual evolution but a step change equivalent to what happened 200 years ago in Europe during the Industrial Revolution when the old agrarian ways were overtaken by the introduction of the two iron laws that shaped most industrial workplaces, including the office: the need for grouping together and the necessity of synchrony. You had to work in the same place at the same time with your colleagues to get work done. Given the universal cloud of powerful, robust, reliable information technology that now surrounds us all, neither of these laws applies today. We can work anywhere at any time and still be in constant virtual contact with our co-workers. This new condition will change everything we have taken for granted about the design of the workplace- from the shape of t he desk to the planning of t he city .

How can architects find their bearings in a destabilised and destabilising world? We have to face new facts. In a time of change, architects must help clients use their workplaces to get what they want from them. Aligning business needs with design potential demands from clients an acute, accurate and active sense of purpose. Clients must demand to know what office buildings can contribute to businesses. In terms of productivity, offices offer clients three kinds of potential: first, office buildings can be more or less efficient in purely economic terms, e.g. cheap to run, easy to plan, etc.; secondly, office buildings can be more or less effective by adding value to occupiers' businesses, e.g. they can enhance communications between groups and individuals, and thirdly, office buildings can be more or less expressive, broadcasting messages about aspirations and values, e.g. they should t ell people that they matter.

Distinguishing between these three kinds of potential, the three Es of office design, is a powerful way of helping clients determine what they want t heir office buildings to achieve. If clients know what they want, they can set targets. Architects can help clients articulate their purposes and priorities, help them establish reasonable targets and then measure the extent to which their designs meet these objectives. In this way, a powerful feedback loop can be established, making possible continual design development and improvement.