Proper Amenities

a precondition to function

by Michel Mooij

Working can be done everywhere nowadays. Anytime, anyplace. As long as you have a roof over your head, a shadow on your laptop, coffee, a toilet nearby, a place to leave your belongings safely, an outlet to recharge your battery and of course access to the Internet and a printer. At least if you work consists of handling information, you can work anywhere as long as you have the proper amenities. Therefore such facilities will play a more and more important role in public space and buildings.

The very first office innovations originated from the awareness that workplaces remained unused more frequently due to the reduction in working hours and the rise of part-time employment in the eighties. Surveys and other tools were developed to show how much workspace could be saved if the unused capacity would be utilized. Desk sharing became a means to reduce the number of workstations and thus save square meters and facility related costs as well. Cost-benefit analyses were made, and gradually it became apparent that the investment in a new office with adjustable furniture, mobile phones, and laptops could only be recouped from the savings at the time of new construction or the end of the depreciation period.

Thanks to the state of the arts in ICT it became possible to work independently of time and place. In the early office innovation projects, however, ICT still has been a critical success factor for some time. In the euphoria of ICT expectations often solutions were chosen for which the organization’s state of technology was not ready.

Focus on change

The staff was supposed to be ready for it as well. Most office innovation projects were supported by change management aiming at full acceptance by the employees. Those employees who were not convinced of the added value of the new office were tempted with laptops, mobile phones and beautifully designed furniture to join in nevertheless. This we called ‘buy in’. In efforts to find the best way to convince staff we were constantly looking for new and better arguments. Better communication by offering more opportunities to meet and better possibilities to accommodate collaboration in temporal teams when working on projects. Concepts such as self-managing teams, output management and responsibility for results were familiar.

However, cost saving remained the central argument. However, the scope expanded to include the costs of change. A flexible office concept requires fewer removals and relocations are much easier. Thus a significant saving on the annual removal expenses. In the course of the change process at the introduction of flex concepts, the insight was developed that changing the environment has a significant impact on people. With this insight, the situation was also approached reversed. Not a new working environment as a result of the changed organization, but changing the environment to support or even realize the desired change.

Attractive employer

Meanwhile, we had landed in the second half of the nineties, when the labor market was very tense and bringing in scarce talent was an issue. It was important for some companies to create a modern image. Inspiring examples were shown by the advertising industry and the dot-com companies. The work environment had to be attractive, with lots of funny extras to work in an unconventional way. The work environment should evoke an atmosphere of creativity. Binding of employees based on a work style that suits the lifestyle was an important goal of workplace innovation. The entrepreneurs who opted for an innovative office claimed increased productivity. Researchers, however, could not attribute this unambiguously to the office concept. Opponents came up with all kinds of objections, which illustrated as many adverse effects on productivity. It remained a matter of belief in the idea.

Belief in the concept

Exactly that believe was an important aspect in the development of new office concepts. A belief is a powerful thing that connects people. It is a choice. An organization determines its behavior itself. It is all about the desired image, the self and with a desire to do something in one’s way. Coming from the awareness that it is a choice, the approaches also became more focused on detecting the motivation of choice and how that choice can be expressed.

For the first time, the office environment is seen as a means of communication and as a tool to challenge people. The focus has turned 180 degrees from cost-driven to business-driven. If people want to show who they are, for example in the way they dress, they tend to spend a lot of money for the purchase of a right outfit. It is no longer the value of the product, but the image obtained with the product. We have arrived in the experience economy. Today’s consumer demands more than a product; he is willing to pay for an experience. Belief in the concept is necessary. It is not relevant what scientific studies show. What is important is to share a choice with “believers”. People want to belong to a community and to share their work style with their co-workers and meet in environments of the group’s preference.

Continuity of experience

When the experience becomes a criterion, then its continuity in the wider area also becomes desirable. The continuity of the experience when you would go out of the building. When you go outside with your laptop and keep on talking on the phone, it requires continuity in facilities. You don’t want to end up outside the building disconnected from the world you were working in on the way to your car. This need calls for more attention to the urban coherence between buildings and the availability of amenities in the public space and inside the buildings. The continuity of the individual workplace, common areas and public amenities, such as coffee machines, meeting places, restaurants and reception areas is becoming more and more important. It is the quality of the environment and the available amenities that make it possible to abide in a pleasurable atmosphere and be able to work productively. The amenities make the available spaces primarily suited for the stay of people and hence for multiple functions.

Infrastructure of amenities

A good infrastructure of amenities is a prerequisite for the smooth functioning of an environment, whether it’s to work, to shop, to learn or to live. Just as the appeal of a location is determined, by the presence of amenities, even so, the appeal of a workplace in the building is determined by the presence of nearby amenities. The essential amenities focus on the primary needs of man. Wherever people stay, for what purpose they have gathered, there will always be a need for something to eat, drink and other things. Amenities can be specially adapted to the kind of activity for which one is in that location. But they can also be designed in a universal way. Designers usually derive the requirements for an amenity from the function, the room or the building. It is also possible to reverse this approach.

By providing an amenity, the possibility is created for something to happen. For example, by placing a beer tap on a square, turning music and preparing all kinds of hot snacks, an atmosphere is created. People stay, they eat and drink, get together and maybe even start dancing. Maybe it will be a party. The conditions that were necessary for the creation of this party came first. But if people interpret these situations differently, as a place where you can taste the snacks, ask to wrap, buy and eat at home, then it turns out to be a kind of market.

Although there is a clear link between the amenities and the reaction of the users, there is no direct causal relationship. The user determines, after all, how he wishes tot interpret the amenities.

A Basis for permanency

It is precisely this lack of a direct causal relationship that is the basis to create flexibility. By starting from primary needs of man a permanent basis is available to design a flexible working or living environment. The amenities are no longer supporting the function of a building but are a precondition for different forms of use. It doesn’t matter whether the building is called an office, restaurant or hotel, as long as proper amenities are available for you to function optimally.