Future of the Workspace

For my first project of third year we were ask to look into the future of the workspace.

The company I am designing my interior for is Flexitricity. They are an engineering firm based in Edinburgh that monitors the flow of electricity to homes. They store electricity for when there are peek periods that it then sells back to the national grid. They have a staff of about 30 people, but 10 of these are contracted workers meaning they are not in the office all the time. Each staff member is given their own work laptop and desk.

From the beginning research presentation, I became really interested in how the work force of the future is changing into knowledge based workers. In the future we are all going to get paid for how we think and problem solve. The café is the original ‘thinking space’, born in the French Revolution there were designed as places people could come together and discuss different ideas or simply contemplate their own thoughts. Nowadays we are seeing a rise in people choosing to work in cafes, with the increase in mobile technology making it easier than ever.

There appeal is based on the relax and friendly vibe. There has also been research done that suggest the noise within cafes is the perfect mix for people to work at their most productive, not to loud, not to quite. Aspects from the café designs that I wanted to bring into my space were there use of long tables to allow multi use. People can use them for there own work or come together for informal meetings there, how people had spaces to just relax in, and how the table and seating within the space did not have a defined use.

Taking my main inspiration inspired by the company from the electrical pylons and the artist Ruy Teixeira. His work using thin square walls to help define the space, that allows the space to have defined areas but also allow it to free flowing. These shapes I then reproduce within the piece, playing about with them through my model making and drawings.

I wanted the employees to be able to flow round the interior of the space, just like you would be able to do within the cafes. The flow allows employees to be able to move all the way around the space without doubling pack on themselves, leading to increase stimulation for employees.

Within the space the meeting room remain slightly open giving them flexibility to be used as quieter places of work when not used for meetings. There are no assigned desk for employees and they have the flexibility to work where ever they desire. They instead would be giving lockers that sit within the walls that could be used as spaces for them to store their belonging and keep their work laptops. Lighting is important to the overall feel of the space, it is provided through the skylight and sides during the day, at night hanging wire triangle will light up the space. As well as this lights would be positioned into the floor that would reflect light on to the triangular shapes.

The workspace remains completely open planned with no doors blocking the space up, however the people appear more cordoned off and out of view there are spaces that you can not easily see it to.

For the exterior of the building I wanted to remain sympathetic to the buildings original design. To do this I designed only the front and back differently from the back and repeated the structure of the entrance hole at both the front and the back. The yellow triangle shapes then appear to explode out from the interior, giving the outside world a sneak preview of what is going on within.

I think this space would really appeal to the company, and I have tried to factor in their individual needs and designed it based around them. The design may appear slightly wacky and unconventional but I think this would add to interest for employees with the space. Overall I hope that the link to a café space would help make my workspace an enjoyable place to work.

***RENDERS TO COME ****