Ennead Partner, Peter Schubert, FAIA, authored an article "To Fix the Office, Go Back to College" published in Commercial Observer, which discusses how office environments can take programmatic cues from academia to create spaces that encourage communication, collaboration, and camaraderie, and ultimately make the office a place workers want to be.
Peter details the productivity benefits a curated campus environment can have for office workers. He also notes that changing the physical environment alone is not enough to recreate the atmosphere of collective challenge and active learning present in education facilities, where built space works in tandem with the curriculum. “Physical space alone isn’t the answer, and this is a place where most offices fall short. University spaces are deeply programmed, with orchestrated community learning events and curated thought opportunities available at all times of day. This kind of curation can’t be replicated at home, and when coupled with well-designed, diverse physical spaces, can help achieve the type of innovation we experienced on campus.”
To read more about taking the office back to school, find the full article here.