Human Spaces — Latest Posts

Sustainability for Beginners: Lessons Learned from 2017’s Living Product Expo

October 13, 2017

There’s no better way to learn a new subject than to immerse yourself in it completely, right? And if you’re on your second week of the job, it makes sense for your employer to just throw you in headfirst. Before I started at Interface, I thought I knew some things about climate change and sustainability.…

West Elm is Where Employees Feel at Home

October 12, 2017

Offering stylish furnishings from globally responsible sources, West Elm grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Their commitment to community initiatives, dedication to personal retail service, and desire to connect global artisan markets to their customers made them a magnet for attracting the millennial shopper. When their business took…

Creating Biophilic Buildings

October 10, 2017

What if we could experience the same physical, psychological, and emotional benefits moving through an urban landscape that we experienced walking through a forest? What if we could right our relationship with nature by transforming the built environment in a way that buildings functioned in harmony with the natural world? This opportunity lies in the…

The True Cost of Noise

September 29, 2017

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,…

Sustainable Plastics: Oxymoron or Responsible Approach?

September 26, 2017

A new vision for plastics: green chemistry, the circular economy, and a climate fit for life. When reviewing recent news about plastic waste filling the oceans, toxic additives leaching from plastic products, and the impacts of fossil fueled global warming, making a plastic product – like Interface’s modular flooring – sustainable can begin to seem…

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

September 22, 2017

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…

Built freedom: the new headquarters of Philips in Hamburg

September 18, 2017

Breaking new ground is only possible by making changes. Initiating the process and successfully shaping change calls for boldness, determination and a new way of thinking from everyone involved. This was the challenge that Philips DACH faced while planning the relocation of its headquarters in northern Hamburg, Germany. A smooth transition from traditional to modern was the…

Design Trends of 2017 from NeoCon, Clerkenwell Design Week, and More

September 12, 2017

From Milan to New York to London to Chicago, spring and summer mark some of the busiest months of our calendar. We sent designers to the Milan Furniture Fair, NYCxDesign, Clerkenwell Design Week and NeoCon this year! So in an effort to capture the essence, I’ve compiled our most notable design moments and trends of…

Singapore’s Khoo Teck Puat Hospital: Biophilic Design in Action

September 8, 2017

Singapore’s Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) might well be the most biophilic hospital in Asia. In no other healthcare institution of this scale are elements of form, space and landscape so explicitly tied to the goal of human well-being—the very definition of biophilic design. The KTPH competition brief, from the onset, asked that the new…

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Mindy O'Gara

With a passion for design and learning, Mindy O’Gara blends both of these talents into her daily role as Director of Product and Learning Experience at Interface.

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