10: Social corporate environments

The idea of a social corporate environment, where innovation and creativity is fostered through human interaction, breaks in routine and unique experiences, is not a new one. A lot of (mostly young) companies are adopting this same ideology, resulting in interesting and exciting spaces.

IDEO - Chicago

Source: thedailybeast.com via Georgia on Pinterest

IDEO's office in Chicago is a light and relatively simple space, but what draws me to their office is their 'inspiration walls', where employees are encouraged to bring in things that inspire them. There are also many break out spaces for meetings and collaboration that aren't formal at all, so discussion rather than 'reporting' is encouraged.

Skype - California and Stockholm

Source: smokingdesigners.com via Georgia on Pinterest

Skype's California and Stockholm offices are delightfully playful with their bright colours and childlike innocence. Although nothing truly innovative in their use of space or technology, the dynamic feeling of the space must be exciting to be in everyday.

Manchester Square Offices - London

Source: contemporist.com via Georgia on Pinterest

Very different from other examples, the Manchester Square Offices in London have a sense of regality and formality that add a sense of grandeur to a typical office space.

ANZ - Melbourne

Source: chuknum.com via Georgia on Pinterest

With it's open central atrium, ANZ's offices in Melbourne provides a sense of honesty and openness as each floor seems 'exposed' - it creates a sense of equality for each floor, as none is hidden in secrecy, that each level is available for inspection or inclusion. You would never feel isolated or alone in such a work environment, truly feeling like you were part of a team.

Etsy - Brooklyn

Source: cnbc.com via Georgia on Pinterest

Again a sense of whimsy is evident in another young and creative company, creating bespoke spaces that are charming and visually stimulating.

Google

Source: cnbc.com via Georgia on Pinterest

As the poster-child for social and innovative work environments (and one of my clients), Google's offices are full of quirky and invigorating spaces for people to work as individuals or as teams.

Jung von Matt - Hamburg

Source: cnbc.com via Georgia on Pinterest

And finally, Jung von Matt in Hamburg is a more traditional office (in that its not jam packed with primary colours and kooky furniture), but it still provides an exciting environment, with non traditional surfaces providing visual relief, and a relaxed yet professional atmosphere.

9: An idea is a network (trawling through TED)

In this TED talk, Stephen Johnson talks about  "where good ideas come from", and that very rarely will an individual experience a pure "Eureka!" moment; rather that moment is the culmination of a collection of ideas (or hunches), building up and connecting with other ideas. To help facilitate the creation of great ideas, we should therefore find a way to create "liquid networks", where ideas can be connected and shared. Johnson states that most Eureka! moments didn't happen in isolated environments, rather around conference tables. 

On a more abstracted note, Luis von Ahn's TED Talk on "Massive-scale online collaboration" lead me to think how the internet (or the greater community) could help make decisions, or come up with ideas to help Brisbane's future progresses. Could we perhaps use social media to determine what people think about Brisbane/the Big 5, and use that to our advantage? It's absolutely fascinating what reCAPTCHA and duolingo are achieving, and not sure how it can be used in my scenario, but it's definitely something that will be integrated further as technology and society advances.

And finally there is Tim Brown's TED Talk, "Tales of creativity and play", emphasising the need for playfulness within the workplace - allowing people to "think outside the box" and break down their reservations through experimentation. There are a few model organisations that utilise this approach: Google, Pixar, Skype, Twitter, IDEO - all of the new "up and coming" and "youthful" innovation companies.

9: Human Scale

Before I go into too much detail designing, I should probably clarify what kind of work actually goes on within a corporate headquarters! With five companies under one room (and most probably a collection of subsidiary branches all around Brisbane), things may get a bit hectic if I don't clarify in what way these people will be collaborating to improve Brisbane.

In our previous assignment, we established the different areas in which the Big 5 would contribute to Brisbane: GE would provide most of the financial (insurance, banking, grants) and energy support, as well as help support the city's media production/distribution; Google would control advertising/marketing internally as well as externally (tourism), and help develop and improve the city's software (to complement GE hardware); P&G is responsible for beauty and health; IKEA hospitality and accommodation infrastructure; and McDonalds working on hospitality too, as well as medical and entertainment infrastructure.

As a lot of these areas overlap or complement each other, it is imperative that these companies collaborate with each other to achieve harmonious results for the city, which remains the primary program of my architectural design. The main collaborative fields are Tourism and Advertising, Hospitality, Health and Funding.

Due to this cross-interdisciplinary approach to running Brisbane, the spaces must remain flexible and adaptable: different teams will be working on different projects at different times. There would be no way to predict how many people/which specialisations would be needed for any given project as Brisbane grows.

As well as providing flexible workstations, allowing people to rearrange themselves depending on the project and team, more formal meeting spaces would need to be provided so that information gathering and conclusions can be drawn from individual works. One idea is that people can transport their workstations into a meeting room (rather like your iPad acting as your computer screen, then detaching for you to bring to your meeting). This however still relies on the individual collection of information, where I believe that an 'uploading' of information onto a central server/device would be more beneficial. Considering that most decision making within this building would be based around the improvement of the city, an interactive panoramic view of the city may be a way to translate and collate information.

If not used as a 'working' tool, it could definitely be used as a communication tool for final approvals/client meetings/community engagement.

8: 'Greening' isn't necessarily sustainable

Just wow.

The whole notion of adaptability and disassembly has become really inspiring - due to the versatility of my design brief and the amalgamation of 5 very different companies, such a responsive building may be required (Ruwan suggested a USB for inspiration).

I also really like Tom Chudleigh Yellow Treehouse Restaurant - a collection of 'treehouses' nested in giant redwoods. Maybe the Chifley could be my redwood, with 'growths' engulfing it, enclosing it.

http://kailossgott.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/green-architecture-did-i-tell-you-i-was.html

The thought of a parasitic building is then another possibility, tying in nicely with mobility. Architectural extensions on to the existing Chifley hotel that speaks as a metaphor for how Brisbane is changing.

And perhaps not in such a sci-fi alien way, but in a cute and playful way like Mark Reigelman project Manifest Destiny! where a cute little cabin is parasitically attached to the side of the building. Perhaps a collection of 'pods' (like within Google's Zurich office) could be attached to the side of the Chifley as break-out spaces?

http://popupcity.net/2012/02/parasite-cabin-on-the-side-of-a-hotel/

 +

http://hackedgadgets.com/2009/04/12/google-zurich-office-tour/

7: Investigating headquarters

As I'm designing a centralised headquarters for the Big 5 to run Brisbane from, I should probably investigate what their current headquarters look like:

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-05-19/tech/30018066_1_googleplex-marissa-mayer-sushi

 Googleplex - San Francisco, California
Google's current headquarters (the Googleplex) is pretty much the inspiration for the social structure of the Big 5's Brisbane base: encouraged collaboration, creative break-out spaces, breaking down of corporate hierarchy, and the injection of fun and whimsy.

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ihynz/3918364048/

McDonald's - Oakbrook, Illinois
McDonald's headquarters is a rather low-profile affair (in other words DULL). My guess is they've already injected so much branding into their franchises that they want to have a more 'professional' and traditional approach to their business (this building was built in 1971). Maybe McDonalds needs a new corporate face.

http://www.iliai.com/pages/Commercial_Crescent

P&G - Cincinnati
Well...this just screams capitalism and POWER. So P&G obviously like to celebrate their success through masculine and imposing architecture. This could be arranged...but it makes them rather unlike-able. It also seems a highway is leading directly to their offices, so they like easy access (or exclusivity - you don't have to leave your car until your on the premise). Still seems a bit uptight though.

http://pix.alaporte.net/pub/USA/New+York+NY/Rockefeller+Center/

GE - Rockerfella Centre, New York

(I have no idea why this photo refuses to be the right way round).

Prime location, staple of the New York skyline, screams of power and affluence (but in a much nicer way than P&G). Also the home of NBC studios, so a bit of excitement mixed into the works.

And no matter how hard I tried, I could not find an image of IKEA's headquarters. All I ever found were IKEA stores. So anonymity maybe?

So with their powers combined, can I create the ultimate headquarters? Some conflicting methodologies - some corporations screaming power and affluence, others wishing for simplicity and normality, while some are playful and expressive.

7: Project Direction

During Project One, our group discussed what architectural outcomes could emerge from our proposed future scenario. We developed a character each, which lead us to think about how we could respond to their needs architecturally, and as a group decided that Brisbane would need (at least) four new architectural entities. My character, Parker, needed a new corporate headquarters, where he can help collaborate with the other four companies, and efficiently run Brisbane.

Building type

Figuring out our building’s type was therefore quite straight forward; it just needs fine-tuning and scrutinizing. So on the surface (my thoughts so far), my design will act as a corporate headquarters, housing offices for general workers as well as the big-wigs, with unique meeting spaces to collaborate and discuss the running of Brisbane. The headquarters will also need to act as a ‘show room’, providing a public façade to the city of the power, affluence and compassion of the Big 5. It should also be able to showcase the successes of Brisbane’s transformation, and allow sweeping views of Brisbane so that those working there can feel a part of the city they’re working on. Another element to the headquarters is providing accommodation and support to visiting investors, allowing them to see Brisbane in the luxury that they are accustomed to.

As Google is one of Brisbane’s 5 investors, I had to remember how they run their business; with the approach of “do no evil”, the company’s office environment is social and fun, an approach which could be translated over to Brisbane. Because most people may be skeptical and pessimistic that giant corporations are now running their city, the companies may take this opportunity to ‘do good’: their priorities could shift from monetary profit to social profit, and have a transparent work structure, where people are treated like people (rather than worker drones) in a healthy and positive environment.

Building scale

The chosen site for this headquarters is the current Chifley on Lennon on Queen Street. This site is perfect for a headquarters as it is close to the new metro station (underneath the Myers Centre) on a high elevation so it is seen from the river. Its scale is therefore determined by the current hotel, which is on a 30x42.5m block, reaching 27 floors. The headquarter may chose to go higher than this current height due to more relaxed planning restrictions in the future, but it would be a case of necessity or to contribute to Brisbane’s skyline.

Target users

The corporate headquarters will primarily be used by people working for the Big 5 in running and organizing Brisbane. Hundreds of workers, ranging from secretaries and interns to CEOs and VPs, will use this building 9am-5pm Monday to Friday (if not more often). Visiting investors will also use the site, as well as community consultations and any member of the general public who wants to have a say/learn about the changes in Brisbane.

Possible scenarios

There will be many different experiences within the corporate headquarters depending on why people are visiting. A few possible scenarios to be addressed in the architectural design are:

·         Parker: As P&G’s Brisbane executive marketing officer, Parker lives in the city and walks to work every morning. His office is on one of the top levels, as he is very important within the company. He must supervise all the work being done by his employees to ensure that P&G’s interests are maintained in the running of Brisbane. Because he is a very busy man, Parker doesn’t have time to go into the city for lunch, so he has it with others in the building’s cafeteria.

·         Susan: working as a community liaison, Susan’s job is to ensure that the local community is happy with whatever changes the Big 5 are implementing in Brisbane. She therefore has to attend a lot of meetings with everyday people of Brisbane, as well as corporate leaders. Susan lives in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, so has to catch the metro in to work every morning, or to visit community centres for consultations.

·         Stephen: Stephen is a free lance online journalist and is skeptical of the Big 5's sponsorship of Brisbane. He therefore goes to visit the headquarters to see what they’ve been up to. He is welcomed in the lobby and allowed in as a guest; as the building is open to the public to promote honesty. Stephen can see a display of all the amazing things the Big 5 have done for Brisbane, as well as look over the city from their amazing sky-line views.

·         Jackson: representing a potential investor to IKEA’s booming hotel industry in Brisbane, Jackson is given the full VIP treatment. He is given accommodation in the headquarters’ luxurious visitor’s suites, and meets with very important corporate members to discuss very important business. He too sees the display of Brisbane’s progress as he must be convinced that the Big 5 are going a great job, and that he too should become part of the deal.

I’m really excited to get involved in this project – the way of thinking about the architectural development through the individual experiences of different people in different scenarios is going to be an exciting challenge, which will hopefully result in some unique and inspired architectural outcomes.