Hierarchy has become a dirty word. As the baby boomers whisk themselves away to retirement, the concept of necessary hierarchy, or the idea to aspire to climb the corporate ladder, seems to be fading with their generation. For years, American workers recognized the importance of hierarchy in their workplace and looked to sharpen their game to be noticed, gain access to promotions, and step into a role of supervision or management.

Randolf Saint-Leger stated in BizFluent magazine that “a company’s hierarchy allows employees on different levels to identify the chain of command and serves as a reference point for decision making. A company without a hierarchy cannot effectively hold its executives, managers and employees accountable.”

The results are remarkable. Senior leaders indicate that the efficiency of the organization has increased and job satisfaction is on the rise. We know that people work best when they can help shape their environment and Ohio Mutual is well on its way to a culture where emerging leaders break through encumbrances to success, which will lead to innovation and reward. In this new model, leaders work their way “out” of a dedicated office as their success is recognized. Under the new paradigm, individual leadership demands a higher level of engagement with reporting staff and the resulting culture of mentorship, collaboration, and innovative problem-solving becomes the reward.

The future may demand hierarchy to hold organizations accountable, but the OMIG example demonstrates how this hierarchy does not need to drive the design of the physical environment. The successful work environment is shaped by the demands of work process.

If you had to guess, what do you believe would be the most important amenity for today’s worker? A well-stocked kitchenette or an area for fitness? How about access to a wellness facility or an on-site day care. Well, I googled this question and found that the highest priority for any employer in today’s market is lease flexibility. Companies want flexibility and do not want to be tied into a long-term lease agreement. However, I don’t really consider leasing agreements to be amenities as much as a state of mind. People just don’t want to make long term commitments and they desire this freedom as a high priority. So, beyond freedom and flexibility, what amenities do workers really seek?

The Need for Outdoor Views

If we dive into the research on this topic, we find that more North American employees rank natural light as their most important element. A September, 2018 article by Jeanne Meister in Harvest Business Review references a survey by Future Workplace called “The Employee Experience” which found that among 1,614 North American employees, access to natural light and views of the outdoors is the number one attribute of the workplace environment, outranking cafeterias, fitness centers, and other premium perks. The study goes on to cite how the lack of light and outdoor views hurts the employee experience and contributes to associates feeling gloomy or tired. Obviously, this study indicates that natural light is important to the overall well being of employees.

At WSA Studio, we recognize the importance of natural light when we design and take extraordinary measures to distribute natural light in the facilities that we design. Since we model our projects using Building Information Modeling tools, we can overlay these digital models with software which determines the natural light levels through spaces at various times of the day. This kind of smart data drives design recommendations and can impact the size of exterior glazing. On a recent primary and secondary school we designed, we were able to use this information to modulate the ceiling treatment which increased the reflectivity of the exterior light on surfaces and elevate light levels deeper in the space. Note that this did not cost the client any additional money. The data simply provided the information necessary to inform the design of the classroom space.

On the same project, we were able to work with our engineering consultants to connect each light to a control system which dims or brightens interior lights to accommodate for the lack of natural light on an overcast day. This helps to address lighting needs and significantly drives energy savings. So, attention to detail regarding natural light can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of space. Since this project has been occupied, district leaders have indicated that the classroom spaces are effective and that student engagement has increased when compared to their previous location. We cannot attribute all this improvement to natural light, since many other factors are different as well, but we know that lighting and access to views is a strong contributor.

Bringing Light into Schools

On a more recent educational project, we adapted an existing warehouse to accommodate an innovative learning environment. The existing space had been used as a warehouse to store light fixtures and equipment and was very dark. The proportion of the space was somewhat deep, which typically precludes access to natural light. This is a very typical challenge in “big box” buildings that were designed and constructed for storage or retail needs. But the Ohio landscape is littered with many of these abandoned buildings and we believe that there is a lot of potential to inexpensively adapt these relics and put them to good use.

The PAST Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to advancing educational outcomes for children, had acquired an existing deep building and located their administrative offices in a portion originally intended to accommodate office workers. So, this area naturally had light and access to view. But, when faced with the challenge to design and construct an educational laboratory, they turned to our team to lead them through this challenge. Our design team was determined to prioritize access to natural light for the students and worked diligently to communicate the value attributed to the distribution of natural light throughout the educational laboratory.

The design positions active educational laboratories adjacent to a centralized “agora” which features three large, overhead lanterns. These skylights bathe the space in natural light and draw students into a shared collaborative space which changes character throughout the day and from season to season. Ironically, when the project was in its development phase, these skylights sat on the chopping block. Their cost was under consideration as the team struggled to meet the limited budget for this not-for-profit organization. But, after much consideration, the team collectively agreed to prioritize the introduction of natural light into the space, and end results benefits considerably. I have never been to the space when I have not seen students using this space, and I cannot imagine the impact that the lack of natural light would have on the efficacy of the project to meet the educational mission of the PAST Foundation.

Access to natural light in our buildings is that important. It can impact the effectiveness of a facility, can increase one’s sense of security, stabilize our well-being, and improve our mood.

For the past few days, I was in Washington DC for a meeting with architecture students, and we walked. We walked a lot. We would walk to our meetings, walk to a lunch or dinner destination, and walk to run errands or meet up with one another in our down time.  Of course, I have my phone with me wherever I go, and the phone has an app which tracks my steps. Over these three days, I walked 13.5 miles, which is an average of 4.5 miles per day. For those of you who measure your days in steps, that is an average of 9,500 steps, which is pretty good. And, I was able to perform all of this exercise even though I was attending sedentary day-long meetings. Based upon my size and age, this means that I was generally burning an additional 657 calories each day. I loved it. I felt more alive when I arrived at meetings and this exercise helped me focus during important moments.

As I was returning to Columbus, I began to muse about the differences among cities like DC, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco where residents can often live, work, and recreate without the use of a car, and the typical car-centric city. Columbus is challenging, if not impossible, to navigate without a car. And, we get lazy and typically choose to drive. So, it is even more important for designers to encourage the occupants of buildings in Columbus and cities like ours to move. Since many of our residents are walking out of their kitchen, stepping directly into a car which transports them to their workplace with little opportunity to include exercise as part of the day, we must consider this sedentary lifestyle when we design the places where people learn or work.

The Importance of Moving at Work

Studies show that sedentary time in adults can drive up the incidence of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even death. In a 2012 research program, eighteen individual studies of nearly 800,000 participants indicated an increase in diabetes by 112% in the most sedentary subjects. The research also indicated a 147% increase in cardiovascular events and a 90% increase in the risk of cardiovascular mortality. These numbers are astonishing. It proves what we have sensed for some time. The desk job is killing us, literally.

Given this enlightening data, we at WSA Studio understand that we just can’t keep contributing to the demise of our health through replicating the designs of the past. We are charting a course of discovery and research to find design concepts which drive healthy outcomes for those who occupy the spaces we design.

How Workplace Design Encourages Movement

So, what is it that we should do through our designs that will improve the health of the occupants? The United States Department of Health and Human Services has issued a report which indicates that adults should move more and sit less throughout the day. Many of our workplace designs have focused on accommodating a stationary posture for workers. Designers have focused on the individual workstation or individual office, and through our many designs, we strive to improve ergonomics, accessibility, privacy, technological access, and comfort. Additionally, employers have focused on the productivity of individual employees, so the combination of employer expectation combined with the design emphasis has driven a complacent environment, where one’s success has been evaluated based upon their ability to sit and do the work that was required.

Over the past five to ten years, as we have designed spaces to ignite innovation, WSA Studio has found that success is often determined through how we come together collectively. The design of workplace environments has shifted towards this emphasis on the collective. Collaborative environments which support shared experience among employees drive the need for quick response and agile workplace environments, and these shared spaces are an alternative destination within the workplace. Often, these designs include standing height tables for active meetings, adjustable monitors, white boards for presentation, mobile technology carts, and lounge furniture. This equipment provides a great break from the typical heads-down posture of the individual office and encourage movement and can even improve productivity according to a major study of workers in the United Kingdom.

As employees move between spaces, we have infused designs with communicating stairs which encourage their use over elevators and can even serve as the destination for collaborative meetings.

How WSA Studio Incorporates Movement in Design

The successful workplace needs to attract emerging professionals, and this generation of workers is not satisfied with individual or collective performance spaces only. Millennials demand “third space” amenities, those spaces where we participate in non-work-related activities. Beginning twenty five years ago, WSA Studio began to program and design fitness spaces, including yoga rooms, aerobic exercise space, and resistance-based exercise machines. For one client, we even included a sprung wood dance floor with ballet bars and mirrored wall surfaces. However, not every client can afford a dedicated gym. So, recently we began to imagine how the design of shared collaborative space could double as a fitness setting.

We design dedicated conference space as convertible to low-impact aerobics space or meditation settings, and now that large group gathering areas may need to support athletic activities. Ceiling heights, air flow, and specialized lighting controls need to consider this use. To increase the culture of movement throughout the greater campus, many of our designs incorporate storage space for bicycle commuters, walking and jogging paths, and even calisthenic stations.

As we continue to advance workplace and academic design, the WSA Studio design team will explore additional opportunities for occupants to move, and we know that often the best solutions are linked to blending individual space with the collective. We encourage employers to invest in the potential to increase productivity and improve job satisfaction and the overall health of employees through design. We design environments that work.

Is it just me, or are things spinning faster and faster and we all seem to run from thing to thing without any respite? I am old enough to remember a slower time when we prepared drawings by hand and talked to one another in person or on the telephone to do our business as architects. It seemed as if we had more time to do our work. Projects took months and months to complete, and we finished projects at a high level of quality. Certainly our work was more linear, with fewer iterations expected and we had time to review drawings, coordinate the work of our consultants fully, and do our best to integrate and anticipate construction challenges.

In today’s fast-paced environment, technological connectivity drives speed and heightens expectations. Smartphones make our work 24/7 and we stay on and connected throughout the weekends. Clients seem to expect a collaborative process with “real-time” virtual reality modeling and detailed renderings. The construction of our projects is delivered by construction managers who often impose a fast-track construction delivery model with multiple bid packages. I can guarantee that the design process is much more complex in our current environment. Additionally, I can also attest that the level and quality of design that we all desire and deliver is much higher. Our landscape environments are richer, interior environments more thoroughly detailed and coordinated, and our teams work to integrate every technological detail.

No wonder we all feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and frazzled! And, we know that what I have described is not unique to the architecture and design industry. All of us are facing these demands. Educators have a higher bar to meet with a spotlight on the results. If a CEO does not meet the Board’s goals, they are quickly ousted. Ad agencies have to quickly turn opinions in a campaign and retailers are working quicker and longer to make up for lost margins from competition.

So, what can we do to help our society deal with these changing and challenging demands as we step into the future? At WSA Studio, we believe that good design can offer tools to building users which will help reduce stress and improve our health. Over the next few months, we will explore how design can impact our health, improve worker productivity and student performance, and advance our society towards a more balanced existence.