Workplace

September 29, 2017

The True Cost of Noise

Dead silence can be an intimidating working environment. Some sound in any workplace is generally desirable: pleasing background sounds like the gentle, indecipherable babble of colleagues speaking, one’s own choice of music or perhaps the sounds of nature coming through an open window. However, much of the sound in typical workplaces is undesirable: ringing phones,…

September 22, 2017

Using the BRE Biophilic Office Project to Study the Benefits of Biophilic Design

Biophilic Design as a key aspect of health and wellbeing is moving up the built environment agenda fast – and for good reason. With high rates of urbanisation, a rise in stress related illness and an increasing level of technological proliferation – it seems that we are moving ever further from the natural elements that…

February 13, 2017

Interface moves in to Mies van der Rohe Business Park

In October 2016, Interface moved its German headquarters to the Mies van der Rohe campus in Krefeld, a textile city on the Lower Rhine. Formerly occupied by the textile company VerSeidAG, it’s the only textile industrial campus that THE famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe planned and built. After Mies van der Rohe’s emigration…

December 15, 2016

Attracting New Talent and Maintaining a Happy Workforce

The era of nomadic working is shifting. Recent studies, including Peldon Rose’s Summer 2016 Happy Office survey, have found that working remotely can leave employees feeling increasing disconnected from colleagues and community. 66% of people found that their productivity decreased outside the connectivity of the workplace. With the return of an office-based culture; how can…

October 3, 2016

Feeling Good, Working Well: Meridian Credit Union’s Biophilic Office

In the relocation of its Toronto corporate office, Meridian Credit Union’s transition team worked closely with designers Bullock + Wood and Interface to craft new offices that emphasise and support the well-being of its employees. As Ontario’s largest credit union, Meridian knows well what it takes to help its members grow. And in the process…

September 9, 2016

Top Trends for the Future of Workspaces

These are the big trends we’re seeing regarding the future of workspaces. 1. Co-Working A proliferation of co-working venues with sophisticated and comprehensive amenities previously only found in high-end corporate fitouts. Internationally renowned British designer, Tom Dixon, has recently designed Interchange, a purpose-built co-working space in Camden, London – three shiny glass and metal buildings…

August 29, 2016

The Future of Business: Redesigning for Resilience

Having just finished interviewing senior executives from a range of organisations for a Global Leadership study, and I am struck by the consistency in perspectives even though the organisations are quite different. Every CEO I have interviewed ranks their number one challenge today as dealing with the pace and scale of change now upon us.…

September 9, 2015

3 Vital Principles to Ensure Well-Being at Work

In the majority of cases a workers environment, usually an office, is not catered towards maximising their potential health and well-being. This must change. The World Health Organization describes wellness as “…a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.“. Do most desk workers fall into…

July 24, 2015

Incredible Examples of Biophilic Offices

There is so much evidence about the advantages of biophilic design elements being incorporated into office design. So, we thought we’d share some inspiring examples of office interiors that are putting theory into practice; creating spaces that are teeming with vitality where workers can feel inspired and thrive. Ljubljana Chamber of Commerce and Industry The…

April 20, 2015

Sick Building Syndrome and the Importance of Good Air Quality

We are all familiar with the term ‘Sick Building Syndrome’ as a term that is bandied around to imply an unhealthy environment to be in. But what makes a building ‘sick’? And what are its effects? Sick Building Syndrome affects the well-being of those who spend time within it. The symptomatic effects are a sore…