For DLA Piper’s Chicago office, the law firm selected an elliptical floor plate profile with a 42’-0” core-to-window column-free planning zone. Geometrically, an elliptical form encloses the same area with 10 percent less perimeter circumference than the same area enclosed in a rectangular form. Combining a 4’-9” perimeter module, in lieu of the marketplace norm of 5’-0,” with a universal office philosophy for all functions meant DLA reduced their occupancy footprint by 34 percent while still growing staff capacity. Photo: Steve Hall © Hall+Merrick.
This is the first entry in a two-part series exploring how the design dichotomy of the smart and the beautiful plays out through the example of our Legal and Management Advisory clients.
When looking at the future of workplace design, the central challenge that confronts progressive organizations is one of continuous and transformational change. To stay ahead of change, the next intelligent workplace must move beyond collaborative environments towards providing a more immersive, tailored experience. For tomorrow's workplace, the prime differentiator will be realizing a firm’s cultural promise through the physical form and sequence of its space.
Designing workplaces always involves bringing together two complimentary perspectives that shape the impact of market forces on the final space: the business/strategic and the cultural/experienceperspectives. This is the dichotomy of the smart and the beautiful.
The “smart” business/strategic perspective focuses on driving effectiveness.
The “beautiful” cultural/experiential perspective focuses on framing identity.
This two-part blog series explores what each means and how this dichotomy plays out through the example of our Legal and Management Advisory clients. This first entry explores the “smart” business/strategic perspective, looking in depth at the three drivers behind business/strategic perspective (area, innovation, change) and the design imperatives that correspond to them (smart geometry, deliberate improvisation, embedded adaptability).
Smart Geometry: The footprint drives the deal
Every project has its genesis in small, probing questions that are inevitably more complex than they appear to be at first. Key among them is “does my project have an ideal shape?” This is where smart geometry comes in—that is, the optimum balance between geometric and proportional characteristics that inform planning utilization. As fee pressures drive productivity and utilization targets higher, there is a need to reduce fixed costs, such as real estate. Building geometry is only one factor in a real estate decision, but unlike financial terms and lease durations, a building’s geometry does not change—using it well can make office both more efficient and more effective—and even lead to progressive planning and the adoption of alternative officing strategies.
Smart geometry’s key design criteria include:
Perimeter window modulation
Floorpate profile
Core profile
Floor plate proportions
Core-to-window dimension
Smart geometry is the first step towards ensuring an adequate level of flexibility in design performance and opportunity. The role it plays in enabling or inhibiting growth, organizational dexterity, and design potential is crucial and permanent.