Entering the Fray: Weighing in on the Challenge to Open Workplans
January 25th, 2012 | Published in Alternate Environments, Design, Workplace Trends
Author: Dale.Pozzi (1 Articles)
A writer and editor for HOK’s Strategic Accounts + Consulting team, Dale is inspired by new thinking in workplace design and research. She never ceases to be surprised by the ways in which design can encourage engagement and by its potential to unite ideas, people and processes. Leveraging her background as a research-oriented writer in the financial, commercial real estate, and design industries, Dale specializes in communicating about the design process for corporations whose operations…and real estate assets…span multiple regions and multiple requirements.
The open workplan format is facing no small amount of scrutiny lately as a creativity killer. Among the most recent sources of controversy is the publication of new book, “QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” whose author, Susan Cain, posits that the open workplan may be stifling creativity.
Fortunately, advocates have Paul Wheeler to defend the cause (or at least to define it properly).
On Monday morning, BBC Radio’s Vanessa Feltz dedicated a portion of her program to an interview with Susan Firth, occupational psychologist, who challenges the open work model, citing the noise, interruptions, and spotty concentration associated with large, partionless spaces. All of these, she says, contribute significantly to reduced productivity and raised stress. The interview raises a critical question: Is the open workplace concept merely a perceived good, passing, unchallenged, from one real estate executive to another because it is cost efficient?
Enter HOK’s Paul Wheeler, who, as Workplace Strategist, spends his days helping corporations create innovative new approaches to working. BBC Radio invited Paul to join the program as an opposing view.
Paul, however, agreed.
The open workplan can indeed be distracting and noisy, he says. The problem is in assuming that a collaborative workplace must look (and function) like a warehouse full of desks. As designers, architects and consultants, says Wheeler, we need to listen very carefully to what clients and their end users are asking for… and then help them figure out what they actually need to work productively. In his call to cast aside severe and overbroad solutions, Wheeler reminds listeners that a good designer will create spaces that work well for the people who work within them — which should include providing the right amount of quiet spots for heads-down work as well as opportunities for creative collision.
To hear the BBC interview, click on this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n0dgg
Click on ‘Listen Now’ and pull the bar to the 2hr 02 min where the workplace discussion begins. The link will stay live only until Monday the Jan 30th.
