Taking on Human traits: Intro
THE NEW NATURE OF OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENTS
How spaces and experiences can support us in living as Human Beings and not Human Doings.
A growing number of brands and organizations are aiming to, on some level, transform our way of feeling and being through new types of spaces. Whether these are ultra responsive brand destinations, or soothing environments adopting the simplicity of nature; the overarching intent is to connect people back to themselves, and to others.
By observing new concepts and spaces, we have uncovered a series of human-centric attributes, influencing the shape of things to come:
01: Responsive
02: Natural
03: Attentive
04: Imperfect
05: Emotive
While digital undoubtedly holds a dominant role in the shaping of transformative space, new tech tools should ideally be a means to enrich the experience, rather than a goal in itself. We’ll be drawing on cases to illustrate the merging of on-and-offline realms, arguing that the most meaningful concepts are ones where both physical space and technology take on relatable, human-like, characteristics.
The Whole You
When we define an environment as transformative, this goes ‘beyond’ impacting our state on a positive level. This is about expanding our potential by allowing space for all nuances of being human - sadness and stress, as well as happiness and delight. At a recent co-creative event at Gensler on The Future of Work, discussing how to cater for ‘The Whole You’, a great point was made that we tend to focus on encouraging positive emotions, but it’s still today felt as taboo to be supported in expressing negative emotions. It’s essential to acknowledge that to be our most whole, most balanced, selves we need to be allowed to feel it all!
“The workplace, when it is able to meet the functional and psychological needs of employees, is a key factor in making people feel better at and about work. The most important contributor to wellbeing is a sense of control, but when we are thinking about a holistic approach to workplace design, it’s about creating an inspiring environment that is also a safe space to experience a range of emotions, not just the positive, happy ones.” Namrata Krishna, Senior Design Strategist at Gensler.
We are seeing the most impactful brands at the moment being ones that work hard and stay humble. Consumers are looking for brands that are reliable, and that relate to them on human scale, even if this means not always behaving to perfection. In fact, a 2016 study from Cohn & Wolfe on authenticity and brands, shows that we are more likely to forgive an occasional corporate hick-up if the company is upfront and honest. This same study shows that less than a quarter of Americans perceive brands to be ‘open and honest’, and that amount drops to a mere 7% of those surveyed in UK, France, Germany and Spain.
For people to count on brands, personal and real-life actions have more impact than corporate behaviour at large (including measures like social and environmental responsibility). The same can be said for the future of spaces, where the underlying tendency is a shift towards ‘humanity’. After reviewing the Frame Awards 2018, Frame founder Robert Thieman stated that:
Human-centric spaces that prioritize individual experiences will gain importance, and while technology will play a more dominant role in our future surroundings, it shouldn’t feel that way. (Frame magazine, May-June 108, p.163)
