FUTURE TALENT November - January 2019/2020 | Page 42

FJORD'S LIBRARY ROOM
OFFERS A CALM SPACE
O
ON TOPIC
STAND-UP MEETING ROOM
LIT BY A SODIUM LAMP
Fjord’s culture of cultures
42 // Future Talent
Some of the
best offices
are open plan,
and so are
some of the
worst
Speaking at a recent New
London Architecture event,
Bruce Daisley, vice president
for EMEA at Twitter and author
of The Joy of Work, described
open-plan offices as a “drain
on our productivity.” He cited
a 201 2 s t u d y, w h e re
researchers compared 600
computer programmers at 92
companies. Performance was
not distinguished by the
experience or pay grade of
individuals
between
organisations, but rather by the
privacy, personal workspace
and freedom they enjoyed.
Some 62% of the best
p e r fo r m e r s s a i d t h e i r
workspace was sufficiently
private compared with only
19% of the worst performers.
Rothe does not, however,
believe that the blame can be
levelled at open plan as a
concept; rather that poorly
designed open-plan offices
have a negative effect. “It is a
ve r y b ro a d te r m , ” s h e
points out . “It can mean
anything really.
“The criticism stems from
research, especially single
case studies, that have looked
In 2017, Fjord, Accenture Interactive’s design and innovation agency,
was seeking a new space in London. The site chosen was a
1980s-style open-plan office, tucked between the train lines leading
into one of London’s busiest transport hubs, Farringdon station.
The space, re-designed by Studio Jenny Jones, was intended
to reflect the London office’s role as the original site of Fjord prior
to its global expansion and to embody the agency’s values. As Abbie
Walsh, Fjord’s managing director for the UK & Ireland, describes it:
“Our philosophy is to put the human at the centre of everything we
do. We are a culture of cultures, working better together.”
Jones aimed to create a multi-layered and functional space
that would allow staff to engage in many different types of work,
whether collaborative or private. Open-plan banks of desks enable
project teams to work together, while sound-proofed phone booths
allow moments of privacy. The kitchen, a key space of socialising
for ‘Fjordians’, is demarcated by a “semi-permeable threshold”, a
wrap-around shelving unit.
Complementing the office’s abundant natural light, Jones has
used artificial lighting and colour to signify different moods and
methods of work. A library, situated in the far corner, features blue
walls to offer a calm and relaxing space for quiet work. “The colour
and light nudges you,” says Jones. “Immediately your response to
that space is to be quiet.” Walsh agrees that the library elicits a
“mindset change; you feel calm, reflective and cocooned, as if the
colour is psychologically softening sound,” she adds.
Taking inspiration from Olafur Eliasson’s 1997 light installation
‘room for one colour’, Jones installed a stand-up meeting room
bathed in the yellow hue of a sodium lamp. The mono frequency
light reduces the viewer’s spectral range to black and white. Jones
accepts that this room is “challenging” to some, but it is designed
to be so. “We wanted somewhere where the thought process would
be, ‘let’s try something different’.”
Jones’ mantra was to make the space “feel like another member
of the team” and Walsh feels that this goal has been achieved. The
office now houses some 100 employees (and Bob, the office pug),
and Fjord’s people are putting its stamp on the space. Walsh
concludes: “It’s important to encourage people to own the space
in order for it to truly reflect a culture.”