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HOK designers Christine Vandover and Komal Kotwal share how a disciplined method to design can result in sustainable, equitable and wholesome new workplaces.
As designers, all of us need to make a optimistic influence. Not solely will we need to profit the individuals who expertise our designs, we wish our designs to learn our communities and the planet. More and more, shoppers additionally view initiatives this manner as they contemplate how their workplaces replicate their ESG objectives.
But, designing areas that promote the well-being of individuals and the planet could be difficult. Mission stakeholders usually have completely different ideas about what qualifies as wholesome, sustainable design. A myriad of certification techniques could make it tough to match the well being and environmental properties of constructing supplies. And at a big agency like HOK, making certain that 300-plus inside designers unfold throughout 26 places of work have frequent assets—and a standard mission—in relation to designing round well being, local weather change and social fairness could be difficult.
The method wanted to be easier. So we applied new instruments and protocols to make it simpler to observe accountable and sustainable design and observe our outcomes.
Sustainable Design Rules, Processes and Instruments
To reinforce our skill to design for sustainability, well-being and inclusion—and observe it at scale—we would have liked a firm-wide platform. This platform (accessible by means of HOK’s intranet) affords our designers a toolkit and information library for vetting and bettering their initiatives at every step of improvement.
A key part of the platform is a end legend template that enables designers to shortly confirm the embodied carbon, inexperienced chemistry and sustainable sourcing of constructing supplies. The template additionally contains an easy-to-use tracker that enables us to measure how properly our initiatives are assembly our inner objectives for decreasing embodied carbon and eliminating poisonous and non-sustainable constructing supplies.
In full transparency, we didn’t obtain our targets in 2021 and 2022, however our inner monitoring enabled us to simply establish the gaps. Use of the end legend template can be gaining traction throughout the agency, with the numbers of interiors initiatives we tracked doubling between 2021 and 2022.
Monitoring the sustainability and wellness of constructing supplies is unimaginable with out enter from distributors. Over the previous two years, we’ve labored with greater than 30 producers to make sure their web sites and product catalogs have the knowledge required to assist designers make knowledgeable selections.
The revised method to sustainable design additionally features a new part for circularity that begins previous to conceptual design. This part features a guidelines that prompts our designers to consider how they’ll incorporate present supplies right into a mission. A sustainability duty matrix, additionally a part of our platform, educates our new hires and seasoned designers on the position they play in selling well being, fairness and conservation at every part of a mission—from schematic design by means of building administration.
Our overarching design ideas for office initiatives complement the brand new sustainability platform. These ideas embody designing workspaces that:
- Join folks to nature and the outside
- Encourage motion and wholesome decisions
- Present a selection of workspace settings to satisfy the wants of workers throughout the neurodiversity spectrum.
Our ideas replicate our perception {that a} mission isn’t really sustainable till it’s sustainable for all customers and stakeholders.
So, how do the processes and approaches mentioned to this point translate into constructed initiatives? The next workplaces supply examples of our sustainability, well-being and fairness platform in observe.
Prioritizing Inexperienced Supplies and Circularity
BBC Studios’ new Bristol office—its largest workplace outdoors London—highlights the sustainability and storytelling discovered inside BBC’s fashionable Nature Historical past Unit programming.
Knowledgeable by HOK’s sustainability platform, the three-story workplace contains non-hierarchal work settings that enable employees to decide on the atmosphere that’s proper for them, from quiet hypersensitive areas to extra stimulating hypo-sensitive environments.
Supplies used inside the constructing replicate embodied carbon, inexperienced chemistry and sustainable sourcing protocols outlined in our end legend template. The mission used solely FSC-certified timber, together with reclaimed wooden and partitions of manufactured from cork, a quickly renewable materials that mitigates noise. Utilizing clay-based paints helped cut back airborne contaminants whereas reusing present workplace furnishings helped promote circularity and cut back landfill waste.
The 60,000 sqft workspace designed in collaboration with Studio B, AECOM, Cath Leach and Currie & Brown just lately achieved SKA Gold certification for sustainability.
Designing for Motion and Properly-Being
We designed the brand new Class A 650 Important Road workplace constructing in downtown Salt Lake Metropolis with an emphasis on health and social interplay—two elements that instantly affect bodily and psychological well being and well-being. The ten-story constructing melds the indoors with the outside by incorporating WELL v2 design methods and HOK’s design ideas prioritizing selection, motion and entry to nature.
Central to this method is the constructing’s energetic courtyard that contains a bocce ball court docket, health and yoga garden, a fireplace pit and a social deck. The courtyard’s sturdy wi-fi and versatile seating choices, enable employees to step outdoors and benefit from the recent air whereas internet hosting conferences or performing particular person work.
Males’s and girls’s locker rooms with showers and altering areas encourage workplace occupants to take full benefit of the health heart that opens onto the courtyard. On-site bike storage and proximity to a lightweight rail station encourage occupants to commute to the workplace through public and energetic transportation. The mission just lately earned LEED v4 Gold certification.
Out of doors Residing
Stanford College’s new Middle for Tutorial Drugs takes benefit of Palo Alto’s gentle local weather to put 20% of the programming open air. Impressed by the coast dwell oak, a local California tree that homes a number of environments, the staff designed the constructing utilizing biophilic and passive design methods.
Situated subsequent to a nature space, the constructing affords medical employees expansive views of the encompassing greenery. Porches, balconies, sky bridges and lined walkways prolong from the constructing to create a treehouse sensation. These out of doors areas have confirmed so fashionable that they’re now out there for reservation through the constructing’s reserving system.
Along with connecting folks to nature, the constructing options a wide range of work settings to accommodate workers throughout the neurodiversity spectrum and an on-site health heart and restaurant-style café to supply employees with wholesome train and eating choices.
Dive In
Creating and implementing new sustainability processes takes time, however we hope the methods and initiatives shared right here show it’s value doing. One final piece of recommendation: Don’t really feel you want the whole lot mapped out to start. Consider one or two methods to enhance the well being and wellness of your subsequent mission, doc the method and construct from there.
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