Trends + Tensions Presented By Bhdp

Holly O'Driscoll of Ampersand Innovation (former Global Design Thinking Leader at P&G) joins Drew Suszko of BHDP to discuss Design Thinking—what it is, and how to do it. "Shamelessly human-centered" design takes experience to a new level in this conversation that stretches beyond architecture and crosses into all levels and types of design.

We focus on how Universal Design can benefit all users of a space, not just those the accommodations are made with initial thought towards. Since what needs to be accounted for in Universal Design is not always visible or easily understood, Universal Design can also help create a better experience for individuals with anxiety, internal sicknesses, or mental handicaps. By engaging with the users and designing with them as opposed to just for them, you can develop the best design solutions and the perspective that can you can utilize in the next project.

Eric Puryear and Dominic Iacobucci of BHDP Architecture discuss and define Universal Design. While the ADA requires minimum requirements to be met to accommodate people of various disabilities, Eric and Dominic posit that a good designer would go beyond the minimum requirements and look at other solutions to provide the best for all people.

In Part 2 of The Great Open Office Debate, we discuss what we think Good design is, and why there is no "One size fits all" approach. Instead, each space should be based on the organization, the work they do, their culture, and the activities that make that organization successful. What works for Google may not work for you. 

In this episode, we take on the hottest topic in workplace design: the open office. Our own Dominic Iacobucci, Drew Suszco, and host Brian Trainer throw their hat into the ring, looking back at the history of office design and taking a deep dive into the literature, specifically the study done by the Harvard Business School, which came to the conclusion that despite the best intentions, the Open Office may actually decrease the desired spontaneous collaboration. Check out our blog at bhdp.com/blog for a few posts with some of the images mentioned in this episode.

With shoppers, especially millennials, desiring individuality and personal choice in retail, a trend of mass customization can be seen. Andrew and Declan explain how BHDP develops an understanding of the shopper and their habits in order to cater to them without overwhelming them with too many choices and causing analysis paralysis. It’s no longer expected that we see innovation in retail in cycles, it’s a constant.

Andrew McQuilkin, Retail Market Leader and Declan McCormack Retail Client Leader at BHDP Architecture sit down to discuss the evolution of retail. Despite predictions of an impending retail apocalypse, Andrew and Declan discuss the history of retail trends and how stores are not dying, they are opening differently with the new challenges retailers are facing with the internet as a shopping platform and millennials moving from the suburbs back to the city.  With tensions arising between shoppers and retailers with the conflict in shopper demands and retail locations, stores need to find ways to keep shoppers engaged despite the convenience of online shopping.

Tim Steigerwald, President of Messer Construction, and BHDP's Barry Bayer and Tom Arends continue their conversation about the design of Messer's headquarters and how it's impacted the company's culture and how they work. You can check out some pictures on our website at the address below. https://www.bhdp.com/work/workplace/messer/messer-headquarters/

In September of 2017, construction of the new Messer Construction Headquarters was completed, updating the previous outdated repurposed data center space that lacked daylight and collaboration and breakout spaces. Tim Steigerwald from Messer, and Tom Arends and Barry Bayer from BHDP discuss how Messer’s workplace transformation design was driven by Messer’s culture through creating a lean, productive office environment that instills pride, reflects Messer’s heritage and reputation, encourages collaboration, allows for anticipated growth, and enables employees to best fulfill Messer’s mission. The new headquarters reinforced Messer’s work culture, specifically the branding elements that speaks Messer’s identity and story.

Valerie, Ervin, Dominic, and Brian continue their discussion on how employee experience drives the future of work. In the design of Fifth Third, having places where people can connect in work and as a community is meaningful so employees can collaborate over work, personal life, and community. Like working at home, you want people in the office to be comfortable.

Valerie Garret with Fifth Third Bank, Ervin Pervis from JLL and P&G, and Brian Trainer and Dominic Iacobucci from BHDP discuss a studio with UC students on the future of work and what it means. Reflecting upon how the students were critiqued on their understanding of habits and behaviors and how habits and behaviors affect trend and predict what will happen in the future society, these veterans in the design field challenged students to contemplate how they would design a future workplace.

Patrick Donnelly and Rex Miller continue their discussion on workplace wellness, explaining the Domino Nudge Theory behind the Healthy Workplace Nudge and how small changes like utilizing choice architecture or reducing friction points can make a more long-lasting impact than a Sandcastle Solution push that may get washed away with change in leadership. Creating a work culture centered around individual wellness is important because culture is individual behaviors rolled into a universal truth or universal way of looking at the world and expresses what is important to that company’s culture. In order to sustain workplace culture, organizations must focus on individual behavioral change, so people understand the new and established norms. Through creating architecture that embraces the culture of an organization, stress, wellness, and wellbeing can change over time. By using design thinking and strategy to engage in conversation, you can uncover what is at the core or a company and the needs of the people ther

Rex Miller, principal of Mindshift, author of “Change Your Space, Change Your Culture” and “The Healthy Workplace Nudge” joins us to discuss how we can live and work healthier together using wellness and design. After studying organizations that displayed what a trust-based workplace system looked like, Rex wrote the book which became a catalyst for early collaborative trust-based projects in integrated project delivery. He began to build a toolkit for organizations and found that understanding teams and people were the central issue in all the issues they’ve tackled. Like Mindshift, BHDP focuses on people and experiences and how to create systems that cater to their needs. Patrick Donnelly, principal and lead strategist at BHDP, discusses how we’ve moved beyond just wellness and that while many of BHDP’s clients already provide wellness amenities, the topic has graduated to also look at the emotional wellbeing of employees, how the vision and mission of the company and employees align, and how wellbeing conn