Tom Polucci is the firmwide director of interiors at HOK and a cofounder of its Product Design division, launched in 2009. A licensed architect, workplace strategy expert, and member of HOK’s board of directors, he has been a principal designer on hundreds of projects over more than 20 years. Polucci talked to Metropolis editor-in-chief Avinash Rajagopal about the many forces reshaping workplace design.
Avinash Rajagopal: You’ve done so many workplaces over the years. What do you think is the most significant way the American office has changed in the last decade or so?
Tom Polucci: For the last ten years, it’s been meeting real estate needs, depending on how an organization is growing or contracting and what impact that has on space. Outside of just the traditional thinking around design and construction, I think there is an impact with coworking sites and with how clients are asking for the delivery of design services and space.
We’re seeing this with certain clients: They’re looking at the competition a little differently. I don’t think it’s just traditional design firms competing for work. We’re competing with real estate organizations like brokerage firms. We’re competing with individuals who are in the coworking space who are providing real estate solutions to clients in a different way. There’s also an interest in the technological advances of how offices are connected. With smart offices and sensor technology, understanding how the space is performing is becoming more important.
AR: In this kind of scenario, where different pieces of the design puzzle are being picked up by different entities, how does interior design stay relevant?
TP: I think we’d better get our heads around this because it is changing. To me, it’s a couple of things: It’s about the quality of the relationship that we create with our clients, and it’s about the level of risk that we take in delivering that space.