Workplaces now include spaces and amenities meant to bring the comfort of home to the office. Image © Gensler

The lines between home and work are blurring. Work, lifestyle and community — once disconnected facets — are beginning to overlap, as people around the world are becoming more focused on health and wellness, high performance, and cultural authenticity. Design must now play catch-up, so that it can support the new ways people want to experience everyday life.

Design is notoriously difficult to define and the benefits are hard to measure. But great design is certainly noticeable. Consider the tendency of people during trips to a new restaurant or hotel or even an amazing dinner party at a friend’s split-level apartment to remark on the incredible design. Many of the spaces we experience on a daily basis inspire us to comment on the influence of space and the importance of design. Unfortunately, our workplaces don’t tend to elicit such conversations. When people speak about their office or workspace, they talk in more functional terms. They describe a sea of workstations or the lack of meeting space and technology. They rarely mention the words spirit, design or inspiration.

It’s time for that conversation to shift. Over the past few years, some of our most forward-thinking clients have begun asking for more than for desks and chairs. They want workplaces that inspire, connect, energize and excite. This shift is positive and not just because it elevates the interest and quality of design. It’s important because design can deliver direct business value. The Harvard Business Review’s blog recently posted an article explaining why companies that lead with design outperform the market. Apple, Coca-Cola, Ford, Herman Miller, IBM, Intuit, Newell-Rubbermaid, Nike, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Starwood, Steelcase, Target, Walt Disney and Whirlpool were identified as businesses that use design as an integral part of their business strategy. And doing so paid off: While the S&P 500 grew by 75 percent from 2003 to 2013, the design-centric companies that were studied grew by 299 percent.

These companies understand the dual performance goals of great design: Provide function and inspiration, performance and experience. People want brains and beauty; they crave the whole package.

But how do we elevate the places where we work to that level?

• Step one: Reconsider the suite of spaces that support how we work in the modern workplace. Break from the standard typologies and start thinking of space in terms of the experiences it supports.
• Step two: Think about a new language that can define the spirit and components of work/life spaces. Develop new vocabulary that can elevate the workplace from a functional environment to one that’s praised and celebrated. Like a familiar neighborhood restaurant or favorite hotel, our workplaces can be comfortable, soothing, transformational, exciting, luxurious, authentic, personal, rustic, lived-in, breathtaking … we just have to think of them that way and then build them that way.
• Step three: Determine a framework for measurement, a specific set of criteria and methods to be used as a structure to design new metrics that quantify the value of design.

We will be diving into this topic in detail at our ASID at the ICFF session on Monday, May 19, and we’d love to have you join us! We are thrilled to have a panel of experts including Ken Pilot, president, and Amy Chender, COO, both of ABC Home, joining us to provide their unparalleled knowledge of home trends, and Gensler’s Tom Vecchione discussing the continuing infusion of those trends in workplace design. We look forward to a lively design discussion at the intersection of workplace and home design, and where the two may meet in the workplace of the not-so-distant future!

This story was originally posted on Gensler On Work. 

Sonya Dufner is a principal in the New York office of Gensler. Dufner’s background in interior design combined with her planning experience leads to an approach that synthesizes strategy and design to create fully integrated environments. Dufner works with global clients to rethink their use of technology, workflow, employees and the influence on company culture, productivity, and the correlation that workspaces have in attracting the best talent. Recently, Dufner has explored what is happening as more and more individuals choose to work in so-called “third places.” Corporate clients have been fascinated with the creative culture of co-working communities and their support of entrepreneurial spirit. Contact Dufner  at sonya_dufner@gensler.com or follow her on Twitter @sonyadufner.