Keep Bricks - Adapt Behavior

From functionality towards new concepts of housing

Drawing by Henk Mooij 1930–2015

Customer focus and effective building management are hard to reconcile sometimes. Customer needs are constantly changing which it makes unavoidable to adjust buildings regularly. By starting with the possibilities of the building itself next to the customer needs, both customer as well as the organization is being served better eventually.

Have you ever wondered which buildings people will take action for when its demolition is announced? Which buildings have those special qualities that cause people to forgive old functionality? Such buildings exist. They often have an authentic quality due to a unique history or a particular architect. Functionally they may not fulfill, but they have a uniqueness that makes people want to work or live there. For example, I recall an old church in which an architect’s office resides or the old Esso office building in The Hague which is now in use as a law office. Such a solution can not be created anew, but you can learn from it. Becoming more aware of the possibilities of a building you can provide housing solutions that make better use of the strengths of the building and thus become less dependent on changes in the organization’s behavior.

Form Follows Function

For years buildings were designed according to fixed rules. Patterns of use were steady over time which led to lasting building types, such as a church, school, hospital, dwelling and so on. Such building types were used for many years and had been passed on to subsequent generations.

It is Modern Architecture that finally has put to an end using prescribed building types. As a result of a fresh and critical look at the relationship between use and form, function became the central concept in new ideas about design. This lead to abandon historically established concepts and to achieve new shapes and design based upon use. The credo ‘form follows function’ became popular and so ingrained that it appears to be a kind of universal truth.

Continuous Change

In designing offices, for example, it is still accepted practice to deduce the design of a building by analysis of its use. Based on the number of people and their way of working it is derived how the building will be furnished. Through interviews with users, it gets determined how much cupboard space and how many conference rooms are needed, how large the company restaurant should be and whether to choose fixed or flexible workplaces.

This method sounds very logical and seems very customer oriented, just as if it implies some service which can be re-adjusted to every new client’s request anytime. The problem, however, is that customer needs do change very often and very fast. Due to reorganizations, mergers, project work, part-time and flexible working, customer needs are continuously evolving. Nowadays a building layout is often out of date at the building’s completion already! Which leads to costly and time-consuming relocations and renovations. Moreover, users withdraw themselves more and more from planning. With laptops and smartphones, employees can work anywhere. At home, while commuting, in a roadside restaurant, anywhere. Work patterns therefore no longer provide a sufficiently stable basis for making a sustainable design.

New Strategies

Smarter strategies to create the appropriate supply of buildings, layouts and workplaces must be developed. We have to think in concepts to serve customers well. It is no longer possible to directly translate demand of the customer into square meters of building and places. The client often poses the question only when it’s too late or is not even aware of his future needs. The client may also not want to commit himself to a contract for a longer period to keep his flexibility.

Thinking in concepts is hot. Especially real estate developers increasingly talk about concept development, meaning a coherent idea about the functioning of location, construction, and exploitation. In general, a concept is accurate in broad terms but allows for variation in the details. A concept is more than a blueprint for the building. It shows how the building, its operation and management are functioning together.

User Engagement

According to such a concept, the building is not the outcome of the user requirements, but there is an interaction of the building with its strengths and weaknesses on one side and the user (organization) with its working style and the professional understanding of this interaction on the other side.

Concerning the building it is important that management knows the capabilities of the building, regardless of the wishes of the user. Management must visualize the potential contribution of the building to the joint performance. Concerning the user, it is important that management envisions how the available places and atmospheres in the building can be used, in the most productive manner.

In the long run, it is key that management oversees that user needs and opportunities do not tend to diverge over time. So the volume of supply and demand must be kept in alignment. Therefore adjustment will still be required but not immediately in reaction to the very first change of the user. A building layout designed in such a way optimally adapts to both the specific possibilities of the building as well as to the desires of the user. Therefore the resulting plan is likely to be less criticized by the user.

Outcome

With this approach, one not only has a better story to the customer but also towards the Board of the organization. An optimal alignment of the building design and user behavior connects customer satisfaction with the company’s economic goals. Because the layout no longer follows every change in the de organization, the company’s flexibility is augmented, along with a significant reduction of cost. This approach provides a way to adapt behavior while keeping the bricks.