A Toolkit for the Times by Lauren Perich
Lauren Perich, a Senior Interior Designer at Studio O+A, specialises in workplace design. Studio O+A’s A Toolkit for the Times delves into a host of spaces and elements in the office, offering recommendations for the post-COVID era. It is part of our recent Hybrid Work Toolboxes curation.
What’s your toolbox all about? Why does it exist? What problems is it aiming to help solve?
A Toolkit for the Times is a two-part series focused on helping communities navigate a safe return to the workplace during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Volume 1 “Studio O+A’s Guide to Healthy Workplaces” is a tactical checklist guide that helps facilities managers in analysing and evaluating how each space could be prepared for their teams’ return by addressing both physical and psychological needs.
Volume 2 “Studio O+A’s New Typologies for the Work Ahead” starts to paint a landscape for the new workplace and what types of space will address our new needs moving forward.
Who developed it? What was the team that you put together?
Studio O+A’s team who developed the toolkit was made up of a diverse range of 10–15 interior and graphic designers. Team members contributed differing skill sets, backgrounds, professional experience, and were from various regions.
How do you practically use the toolbox in your work? And how do others use it?
Volume 1 can be used as a checklist for analysing spaces for a safe return. It includes various solutions and product types to consider in public and tenant spaces. Volume 2 includes concepts for new space types, frequency and capacity calculators, and strategy methods to consider for the new workplace. We use these internally to make recommendations to our clients and develop new concepts for our projects focused on the future of work.
The public can download Volume 1 for free from our website and read about the public and tenant spaces and determine what recommendations are right for them.
What do you think is next for the toolbox? Do you have plans to update or change it?
The more we use the toolkits in our client and project conversations, the more we continue to develop them. The future of workplace strategy is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The more we study unique cultures, operational differences, team needs, and leadership values, the more unique typologies for the future of workplace continue to be developed.
Our teams already have enough typologies to create a Volume 3. We also developed our Eco Playbook in parallel to our Toolkit Series, since we felt that developing a vision for the future of work couldn’t be done responsibly without also addressing our environmental impact as an industry and how it affects our future.
What’s your opinion on the idea of toolboxes in general? At this point everyone seems to have their own! When are they useful and when are they not?
I think toolkits are extremely important. Most people are looking for a roadmap and to understand processes. Where they can start to lack value is when they are too one-sided, lack diversity, or are too prescriptive. There needs to be ways for readers to still carve out their own path, using the framework provided. The more open source, collaborative, and customisable these toolboxes can be, the more impactful they will be as a resource.
As a final note, as part of O+A’s ongoing effort to develop design strategies for the post-pandemic workplace, the graphic artists at our Brand Studio has created helpful, friendly reminders of all the things we need to keep in mind as we’re coming back to work.
Download the complete set of posters here
Thanks to Lauren Perich for the interview. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. Check out ToolboxToolbox.com for more where this came from 🛠
