Your space says who you are before any brochure does. It always does – even when no one designed it to. The difference is whether it speaks coherently or in contradiction with what the organisation claims to be.
Values can be read in places
An organisation that claims to believe in collaboration but distributes everyone into enclosed rooms contradicts itself in space every day. One that speaks of transparency but reserves the top floors for management asserts – implicitly – a hierarchy its words deny. Culture can be read in the layout: in the proportion between open and enclosed areas, in the quality of the reception spaces, in the care – or neglect – shown to the support areas. Space enables or hinders the behaviours you want to promote.
Identity as a design choice
Translating corporate identity into space means working at a deeper level than aesthetics. Work settings say which activities the organisation considers a priority. The quality of the support areas – kitchen, informal spaces, transition zones – says how much the company values unstructured time. The welcome reserved for a candidate or a client speaks of how the organisation relates to the outside world. All of this can be designed – and should be designed with intention.
Synthesising needs before drawing
Our process starts with interviews and surveys that bring out the stated values, the actual behaviours and the culture management wants to enable. We synthesise these needs – expressed and latent – into a spatial strategy that guides the project: the relationships between areas, the work settings to include, the level of care to guarantee in each zone. Community Based Design takes this logic to its extreme: space as a place where a community recognises itself.
Identity on the factory floor too
A company's identity does not stop at the offices: the façade of an industrial building, the entrance, the representative spaces tell clients and candidates who you are. We discuss this in The production site as the image of the company.