Steelcase Applied Research works with clients to ensure that architectural outcomes facilitate alignment between business, social and environmental goals. In a well-honed process, Steelcase supports clients in identifying and sustaining a strategic design intention from inception to building completion.
Robyn Baxter is an interior designer and applied research consultant with Steelcase Canada Ltd. She deploys the Steelcase process to lead clients through the pre-design stage. She is also involved in measuring whether design strategies have been fully realized in the completed building. Clients typically fit into one of two categories:
- They are looking to make changes to their real estate portfolio to accommodate growth, contraction or change (this can include renovations, relocations or new build).
- They are in a cultural transition and want to reinforce the change management process with effective design.
Baxter’s team acts as interpreters of a client’s strategic plans, translating business goals and processes into easily comprehended design principles and strategies.
Three Step Pre-Design Research Process
The Steelcase research methodology is composed of three steps to get at explicit, tacit and latent knowledge leaders and employees possess about business objectives and workplace processes. Baxter asks big questions to get at some of this knowledge, and what cannot be discerned through questions is drawn out by the Steelcase process. The process in a nutshell consists of:
- Ask: Using surveys and interviews to get at explicit knowledge people have about their work process. Typical questions include: What is your role in the organization? What do you do and how do you do it? Other survey tools include interaction surveys that track how much time people think they spend interacting with other people, when they do so, where, etc. A network analysis unearths who the connectors and knowledge brokers are in the organization, to measure the health of trust networks and identify key players.
- Observe: The Steelcase team takes dozens of photos of how employees currently use the workspace in order to understand what is going on in their world. Employees are often surprised by the inefficiencies of their work area as depicted in the photos. This brings out their tacit understanding of what people really do and how well the current setting supports them. Other observation techniques include shadowing of employees and video ethnography: documentaries of people using their natural environment for specific purposes.
- Experience: Discovery workshops unearth latent knowledge as people meet to talk about the nature of their organization’s business. This process engages a cross-section of employees and helps identify behavioural changes that may be necessary to achieve business goals. Out of this step, the project’s vision is developed.
Why Pre-Design Research Matters
When pre-design is given short shrift and the process leaps into the next stages of programming and design, end users (employees, customers) are shut out from discussions. Lacking information from pre-design research, constant revision becomes necessary as the design progresses into concept form and then detailed drawings. Steelcase has found it is worth investing in the upfront investigation; results improve when end users are involved in a meaningful way early in the process.
Baxter stresses that clients benefit from examining the interactions between four factors in design: people, process, space and technology. A comprehensive design strategy identifies the interactions between these factors and accommodates not only process but cultural considerations.
Her team collaborates with architects, quickly moving into a support role once the design process is underway—but only after there is clarity about the client’s strategic design intention. Steelcase remains involved as the guardian of that intention so that the client’s vision is not lost in translation from research to built artifact.
Andree Iffrig - Andrée Iffrig LEED AP is a writer and award-winning graduate architect. She uses her broad background in environmental design and ...
