Design schools once focused on a numerical approach when planning spaces, measuring out how many people need to be accommodated and square feet allotted for each employee. Now, that is not so much the case.
Joyce Bromberg, chief design officer at coworking firm Convene, has adopted community-based planning that pivots away from the antiquated numerical approach.
While numbers will always play a role in building out an office, they are no longer the primary factor they once were.
“It’s really about using the techniques that come out of cultural anthropology, which are about asking people questions about what they do in the context of where they do it, about preserving what is best about what they do and looking at how they interact with the objects around them and their tools—whether those are analog tools or digital tools—and then asking them to engage in a participatory design activity that allows us to tap into what we think of as their explicit, passive and latent needs,” said Bromberg.
Bromberg said that Convene’s CEO Ryan Simonetti is wholly committed to improving each space, even testing out concepts with bricks and mortar before deploying it further.
Convene offers numerous services and amenities including: farm-to-desk food, in-house IT support, on-site concierge services and technology-fueled customizable workspaces.
