An Interior Design competition that made me reconsider everything.
Fall 2018
Interior Designer
Steelcase NEXT
Just me!
The Steelcase NEXT Student Design competition challenged students from universities nationwide to design a 15,000 sq. ft. workplace environment to support changing behaviors and expectations in workplace design. We were given a floorplan, program and four months to develop our projects.
The Client
Next is a global commercial real estate firm located in Denver, CO. The 25 employees are moving into this new space hoping that it will be designed with an emphasis on wellbeing and increased productivity.
How might we improve productivity and communication while also bolstering wellness and work-life balance?
Research
As I dove into research, I found three areas of focus - Choice, Movement and Wellbeing.
Choice
A Resilient Workplace is an ecosystem of spaces designed to adapt and evolve over time, optimizing real estate while fostering higher levels of employee engagement.
A workplace that gives you options to discover and decide where you work best.
Movement
The truth is sitting isn't killing us, sitting in poor postures for long periods with little movement and few breaks for standing or walking can impact our health and reduce our productivity.
The latest research confirms that sitting smart, when combined with standing and walking options, can have a big impact on worker wellness and productivity.
There is no one best posture. Rather, changing postures is the key.
Wellbeing
The NEXT workplace is capable of reaching the WELL Building Certification on a design level. The management team has the opportunity to incorporate this standard into their workplace if they choose to do so.
Launched in October 2014 after six years of research and development, the WELL Building Standard is the premier standard for buildings, interior spaces, and communities seeking to implement, validate and measure features that support and advance human health and wellness.
The workplace can be a place where people actually leave healthier than when they arrive in the morning.
Concept
Who says recess has to end after the sixth grade?
Movement, collaboration, and wellbeing are promoted when we are at play, so why can’t recess be reimagined in the workplace to foster these behaviors as well?
The NEXT workplace encourages their employees to take a break in order to refresh their minds, improve productivity and communication, while also bolstering wellness and work-life balance.
Bubble Diagram - Adjacencies
In interior design we use bubble diagrams to determine where adjacencies are needed. I categorized this even further by color coding the ecosystem of zones from steelcase research.
Floorplans
Applying the bubble diagram to the floorplan helped me further decide adjacencies and space planning overall.
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B- VR Space
C- Pitch Conference Room
D- Lounge Workspace
E- Workstations
F- Shared Private Offices
G- Phone Room
H- Medium Conference Room
I- Enclaves
J- Resource Room
K- Wellness Room
L- Public Cafe
M- NEXT Workcafe
N- Kitchenette
O- Patio
P- Connect
Final Renderings
Let's get to the pretty stuff...
Interior to User Experience Design
So, if you're reading this, it's obvious I'm no longer in the Interior Design field. I included this project because I believe it demonstrates how I followed a similar design process and empathetic journey, even when on a completely different career path.
After spending about two years in the real world of workplace design and losing my job due to COVID 19, I reflected on this project.
How the project went:
On the first day of studio, our professor gave us a timeline for the semester. Which... I did not follow... at all. We had about two weeks of the semester dedicated to research and concept development. I took two months. I knew that for me, I needed as much workplace environment research as possible to properly execute the project to my standards.
My professor looked at me like I was crazy for those two months. I was severely behind my classmates, who were done space planning and were now picking out furniture and finishes by the time I had finished my research.
A few months later at our final review, where our professors would select two projects to submit for judgement by Steelcase, I had all of the deliverables and more ready to present - and my professor ultimately selected my project.
I think that I was able to pull this off because all of the research and preparation made it so easy for me to make insightful decisions on behalf of my concept and users. Yes, I had a few late nights (who doesn't in design?) but I finished proudly. And I received a Top 10 Honorable Mention from Steelcase (and a shiny new Steelcase office chair).
Back to July 2020:
I looked back at this project and remembered how much joy and satisfaction the beginning stages of this project gave me. I thought, is there a role where I could do JUST that?
I found UX about a month later and everything just seemed to *click*.