Office doesn’t have to be a stuffy place that stifles your creativity

If Virginia Woolf was right in that having a ‘room of one’s own’ is vital to nurturing a woman’s creativity, then female business owners should certainly take note. Our own observations have cemented the inkling that a traditional mindset governs how offices look, feel and perform, with many workplaces internationally designed by men, for men. Challenging these traditional norms, Silicon Valley has in recent years sold us on a futuristic and genderless ideal of the modern office, with open layouts, dynamic kitchens, removable walls, mini golf courses, standing desks and privacy pods geared towards employee happiness and productivity. Despite the undeniable perks of these eccentric and forward thinking spaces, we argue that what most employees want and need is a “feel good” space that is convenient, enables productivity and is conducive to focusing, self expression, collaboration and good health.

As entrepreneurs with concerns for the wellbeing and productivity of our team, people often ask us, what do you consider the perfect office for a happy workforce? With years of experience between us working around the world in different companies, we can attest that the perfect environment has to be one which does not feel like ‘work’. It is a place so well designed that it doesn’t look complete; it gives the final user an opportunity to add that final, personalised touch to their space. It is an environment filled with opportunities to become creative. A space that nurtures potential, a place where both ourselves and our team can both focus and get distracted. A place which sounds, smells, looks and feels good.

Over the past decade, the dialogue surrounding design and its impact on productivity and creativity in the workplace has continued to gain momentum in the fields of architecture, interior design and psychology. We know from designers and architects that there are many aesthetic and practical elements that have a direct impact on the mood, mind-set and well-being of an individual or team.

People want to feel comfortable at work, not intimidated by aggressive impersonal environments. Future Laboratory released a report exploring how offices will evolve to meet the needs of a diverse workforce. The report presented contemporary working life as a monoculture created by and targeted at men between the ages of 25 and 40. Further, the report predicts a positive shift towards “sensitive workplaces,” that are more reflective of an individuals’ needs, using smart technology to adapt everything from local temperature to lighting preferences.

We believe the limitations of the current approach to standard office design may essentially lie in its maledriven approach. Spaces designed for men, by men. With this in mind, before designing our office, we tried different working arrangements — cafes, home, coworking spaces — to see what we could take from and what we could improve. The result was an office designed with one of our clients with multi-faced functionality at its heart; areas for hosting client lunches, lounges for networking, work benches for collaboration and a private room for confidential meetings. Proximate wellness and beauty facilities were also considered, including a pilates studio in the building for easy access during and around the work day. The mix of ambience — light and dark, open and enclosed, formal and informal — promotes creativity. Additionally, we looked for easy access to supermarkets, green spaces, walking tracks and metro, to ensure individual lifestyle choices could be easily incorporated into the work day.

We are seeking to create the best possible environment for the modern worker — flexibility in the return to work for new mothers, an open door policy for little ones in our team to visit, etc. We have channelled our frustration with all the worst aspects of office life — its sedentary nature, the culture of presentation and sterile environments — into designing a space that works with our natural instincts instead of against them. Desks are not segregated and allow for open conversation and easy brainstorming sessions (that don’t need to be planned!); and everything from lighting and temperature to the background music can be controlled. We also have scents to evoke a particular mood (lemongrass for concentration, lavender for relaxation) and there is a spectacular view with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the transient Dubai city landscape.

Environmental psychologists say design affects mood. To quote the Harvard Business Review, “via a chain of psychological reactions, mood influences worker engagement, with more positive moods linked to higher levels of engagement”. Therefore, we must focus on designing for engagement, to make those positive moods more likely. Thankfully, more and more companies are beginning to take notice of the real impact workplace design has on a company’s bottom line. Recent research from Gensler, a global architect and design firm, revealed that poor workplace design was estimated to cost US businesses $330billion in lost productivity each year.

Successful design needn’t hinge on huge budgets making way for indoor putting greens, slippery slides, foosball tables or giant hammocks reminiscent of Google’s global offices. In fact, we are beginning to see more offices seeking to become more mature. The trend of having the “coolest” office space is being replaced by the desire to create more sophisticated work environments, reflecting the brand and organisational ethos, as opposed to focusing on trendy yet potentially superfluous ‘bells and whistles’ best served as fodder for Instagram.

Fluid hospitable spaces suited to work, rest and play are key. Outdated practices such as hot desking (allocating desks to workers when they are required or on a rota system) will give way to a more thoughtful approach, like promoting skill sharing by seating an older employee next to a millennial colleague — something we strongly advocate. Employers need to provide environments that bring people together. That’s when the best and most inspired ideas happen.

Poor workplace design cost US businesses $330billion in lost productivity each year... People want to feel comfortable at work, not intimidated by aggressive impersonal environments... (They want) a space that nurtures potential, a place which sounds, smells, looks and feels good