Working Sustainably

Working Sustainably

Harriet, designer and director of the architecture firm Young & Richards, talks about her working space and the challenge to design a sustainable design studio office.

In our studio space we have only one desk, twelve chairs and, at any time, between two and 12 people beavering away on a wide range of design projects.

Having worried about this layout initially, we’ve found that a long, very narrow office space with a wall of windows on one side and one long desk running along it works perfectly in the fast-paced daily life of a busy design studio where anything can happen daily.

This ‘one-long-desk’ office design provides us with an egalitarian space to collaborate and, for part timers and visitors, a place to hot desk on the end of our long working plane.

We are currently in the ultimate position as designers – designing for ourselves! We’re in the throes of designing and building our own office space for a site in upper Queen Street, Auckland City.

Right now we have designed the building in principal and we are working out the details of how it will be built and frantically trying to get it all together to submit to Council.

Our challenges are extreme.

Time is now critical!
We are rapidly running out of time on our existing office space lease meaning the pressure is really on now. We nervously ask ourselves can we get a commercial building design through Council and built in only six months?

We’re running on a shoestring!
The budget is tight and our ideas are prolific. Now finally we are our own client and having to reign ourselves in!
We have designed and re-designed three times over each time stripping the building back to only the very barest of essentials. We’ve even had to forgo an air-conditioning system in the hope that we can design with natural heating and cooling.

Our brief is impossible!
We are proving to be difficult clients. We have an ever-expanding and contracting team and we don’t know how big or small our needs will be in the future. This means we need a very flexible space that can grow as time goes on.

Our response to this is to design a building that initially will have a one-floor office space but we have designed a structural system that will allow for two or three floors to be built on top of it at a later stage.

Our site is a challenge!
Our site is steep and narrow and the ultimate gritty urban site, closed in by other buildings on three sides and a busy street facade.

We can take these conditions in our stride. Much more of a challenge, however, is that sometime in the future the land may be developed to its full potential, meaning our building and our office would have to go!
So, in response to this, we also want our building to be demountable, meaning that in the future the entire building can be dismantled and put together again on another site. We think this is the ultimate in sustainability.
Our fingers are crossed for a more sustainable future at work.

Harriet Richards
www.youngrichards.com

Key sustainable design features incorporated in our office design
-Natural cross ventilation and natural thermal mass heating and cooling principals instead of air conditioning.
-Desks designed around access to natural daylight.
-Use of non-toxic materials in paints, flooring and furniture for a healthier indoor breathing space.
-Good location for public transport facilities.
-Outdoor communal deck area for having lunch and a breather from the office.
-Large communal tables and benches to allow for social interaction.
-A non-hierarchical open office desk system to encourage collaboration and equality.
-Green walls outside office windows.
-Flexible space that can be added to for changing future needs.
-Demountable building system that can allow for the building to be taken apart and moved to another site in the future should the need arise.
-Use of recycled and recyclable materials.

Sustainable in-house office policies –
-A ‘power off’ policy – lights and power turned off where not needed.
-A ‘think before you print’ policy, and using electronic communications where possible.
-Promotion of eating in – in-house coffee machine and dining in areas.
-Use of recycled paper for printing where possible.
-Use of eco-friendly cleaning products.
-Recycle stations for rubbish.
-Bicycle storage and small car spaces to encourage employees to integrate and use eco-friendly travel options.