NEXT Real Estate Office
The NEXT Real Estate Office Workplace, located in Denver, CO, is inspired by the Rush surrounding the new office. Just one block away from the office is Cherry Creek, and eight blocks away is the South Platte River; these two streams are filled with Rushing water, and these two bodies of water mark the location where Denver’s Gold Rush began. Because there is a certain sense of urgency in the real estate market, there is often expected to be a Rush around the office as well. This Rush will appear in NEXT through a plan that leads occupants swiftly through the space, textures and colors inspired by the Gold Rush and the waterways where it began, and flecks of “gold” scattered through the space to keep employees engaged with the company. Rough, gritty textures reflect the harsh rapids;
this is contrasted with soft, smooth textures of the calmer waters. This also serves as a constant reminder that when things get tough, you will always be able to ride through the Rush to reach smooth sailing.
NEXT needs an office that can accommodate their daily Rush. The company needs a space that flows smoothly to ensure that those who are in a Rush can move swiftly with ease, while those who need to be anchored in one place can get their work done without winding up in someone’s way. The office also needs to make sure that any Rush of clients does not disturb employees’ work. NEXT is looking for an office that is prepared for any Rush that the real estate industry brings their way.
The Virtual Reality Room/Client Zone functions as a space for NEXT to show clients and potential clients what the company is doing. The space has three screens on the back wall that show news about what is happening within NEXT including projects, major changes such as new offices, and awards won by the company or its employees. Two larger screens show NEXT projects on loop when not being used for client virtual walk-throughs, which utilize both virtual reality headsets and the screens so that everyone in the room can see on the screen what is happening on the headset. The front wall of the room uses cloaking technology to hide any top-secret projects from anyone walking through the hallway that should not see the images. When clients are out, this room can also be used for employees to take a break and watch a movie or play video games.
The WorkCafe is surrounded by carefully considered features. The non-structural portions of the wall between the WorkCafe and outdoor patio is made up entirely of glass, allowing natural light to flood through the room and into surrounding spaces. Windows into the conference room fill the space above the cafe’s cabinets, as well as allow natural light to reach the conference room, which not only saves energy, but helps to improve the wellbeing of employees who must stay in the conference room for long periods of time. The wall defining the WorkCafe from hallway space also allows the natural light to filter into other spaces including the Virtual Reality Room. This light is filtered through a waterfall wall, which serves not only as a calming reminder of nature, but also creates white noise and a sound barrier to make the WorkCafe more private from the hallway space. Additionally, vining plants grow up on either side of each waterfall in order to bring more nature into the space, and help to purify the air. The wall across from this contains a super graphic reminding the employees of their importance to the company. A gold pan like those from the Gold Rush is the background of the graphic while the phrase “You are the gold” is written across the wall.
Celebrating Communities is very important in office design, and is of particular importance to the NEXT client. Engaging employees with the office community helps to keep them engaged in their work. By keeping the employees connected with their coworkers as well as the community of the city in which they work, NEXT can help to make sure that their employees feel at home in the workplace. This also helps employees feel that they are each important to the team, and are contributing to something larger than themselves. The Connect Zones at the front and rear employee entries promote this engagement by showcasing employees who are involved in the community, volunteering opportunities, and local events to help celebrate employees and the Denver community.
Although community engagement is very important to making people happy in the workplace, so it personalization and physical comfort. By offering a variety of seating types including lounge furniture, residential-feeling tables and chairs, and more traditional office work stations, employees are able to work how and where they work best each day. Employees can personalize their spaces by choosing to upload their personal photos on the electronic frames placed at many workstations, and select their folder of images on the frame at the workplace they choose to use on any given day. Employees are also encouraged to bring small “flecks of gold,” which are small items that show an important part of who they are, such as figurines, small statues, or art pieces, to help show off office culture and individual employee personalities.
References to nature offer numerous health and wellbeing benefits to occupants of a space. Many types of plants are able to remove toxins from the air, and all plants add extra oxygen to their environment. Plants combined with natural materials like wood, clay, or water features can create a natural-feeling environment that has calming and healing effects. Even natural colors can help to improve wellbeing. Yellow is recommended to improve creativity, green reduces stress, and blue helps promote focus, all of which are beneficial in the design of workplaces. For these reasons, greens plants are incorporated frequently throughout the workplace, and blues, yellows, and natural materials are used throughout the space. Additionally, natural daylighting and views to the outdoors are very important in office design. Employees with views to outside are up to 25% more productive than those without outdoor views, and are able to process information from calls 10% faster. Additionally, those workers exposed to natural daylighting are 18% more productive, and have their work rates increased by 23%.
