Today we had a fruitful discussion concerning the way in which we approach our project. There are so many variables that influence the working environment for as well the younger as the older employees that we should think of ways to approach the situation. One way we found is the ‘easy-way-out’, looking at the working environment and analyzing it through the space, a spatial approach as you will. Solutions result in a Google-like office as Google real-estate and workplace staff show and explain in the Startup Lab Workshop: Workspace Design. What they shortly touch on is the subject of people-centered approach.When connecting this method to our research and project we can see this as a way of trying to regulate the mood of staff and altering their behaviour.
- Source: http://www.decoradvisor.net/tags/office-entrance-interior-design/
Let us backtrack for a second, there are two ways of looking at the problem and especially the solution,
- Redesigning the workplace
- Redesigning behaviour/mood IN the workplace
We can see a change in the concept of the office where the traditional form and shape needs to be re-evaluated. This redesigning can be done spatially as illustrated in the first example above, change the physical workplace. What is more interesting is thinking of the solution not being the redesigning of the workplace but redesigning the way people behave or feel in the workplace and experience the workplace. This way we look at the solution from a people-centered perspective which makes surrounding factors like the layout of the office or the proximity of a coffee place of secondary importance. Note, this is just a way of looking differently at the problem, we do not state that surrounding factors are of no importance because obviously when you don’t experience nuisance if has a positive effect on your experience of the workplace.