DCS Design is continually striving to create spaces which embody wellness, health, and safety for employees, while at the same time maintaining an uncompromising standard of design. As people return to the workplace, it is now more critical than ever to create spaces which inspire a feeling of wellbeing.

What is Biophilic Design?

Humans have an affinity for the natural world and thrive in environments where nature is prevalent. Biophilic design is the idea of reimagining the workplace by incorporating nature-inspired solutions and materials. This can include the use of wood, stone, and a variety of greenery, along with exposure to natural light, outdoor views, and imagery of nature throughout the space.

There are of course many benefits to Biophilic Design. Using live greenery inside helps improve indoor air quality, which in turn promotes health and wellness. Bringing natural light into a space by maximizing views increases productivity and mood. And being surrounded by plants, water and nature-inspired flooring, walls, and ceilings can be calming and rejuvenating for employees. Finally, enhancing outdoor space which connects to the indoors can also result in the same benefits.

As designers focused on bringing people back to the office, as well as wellness, DCS Design incorporates a variety of biophilic attributes to our spaces — from green walls made of moss, to featuring organic shapes within our designs to reflect nature.

“We are all navigating new ways to think about the workplace and tools to bring people back,” explains Wendy Feldman Block, Executive Managing Director for Savills, a commercial real estate advisory firm. “Incorporating biophilia is a key means of achieving this. Many folks during the pandemic, including myself, got used to being able to see outside while working from home. I felt calmer and more productive. Now I look for similar attributes when searching for buildings and spaces for my clients.  The biggest challenge with biophilia? The word – which is unfamiliar to most. To me, it is nature at its best – incorporating it into design and material selection and complementing the building selection process.”

See how DCS’ biophilic designs is helping bring people back to the office.

Caywood at Woodland Park

The reimagining of the outdoor amenity space at Caywood at Woodland Park inspires and motivates people to return to the office. The activated outdoor patio and meeting/gathering spaces serve as a visual connection and landing space for tenants in the office campus’ two buildings and throughout the property. The space features a landscaped patio area with gathering tables which connects to the interior through a large movable wall; a walking path; and individual meeting pavilions fully wired with Wi-Fi and other technology connections. The large outdoor space is also ideal for community gatherings and events, creating local brand recognition and good-will within the larger community.

American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)

The live moss wall at AOTA brings nature into the space and connects staff to the outdoors.

The Ellipse at Ballston

At The Ellipse at Ballston, a fully activated outdoor fitness area and yoga studio features movable equipment, large, mounted TVs for interactive virtual and in-person classes, turf workout areas, and a large open-air trellis lounge. When not in use, moveable exercise equipment can be stored away, and the outdoor area can transform into a tenant event or lounge space – a unique experience unlike any other in this office submarket.

The post The Importance of Biophilic Design in a Post-COVID World appeared first on DCS Design.

The design of the organization’s new headquarters, located in North Bethesda, MD, embodies AOTA’s uncompromising dedication to helping create full and rich experiences for people with occupational challenges, the OTs and OTAs who serve them, and the dedicated AOTA staff who support and facilitate the organization’s mission. “Inclusive and Accessible Design” is the central goal of the new headquarters space. The challenge was to design the space to reflect the diverse needs of OT patients, and to reflect the principles of occupational therapy in the design.

Concurrently with the office redesign, the organization also undertook a complete re-brand. Because these two identity-centric efforts are highly interconnected and needed to be engaged nearly simultaneously, AOTA chose to work with DCS’ branding division on the re-brand effort.

Working closely with on-staff OTs, DCS Design ensured both the space design and branding elements met the diverse needs of people with physical, sensory, and cognitive challenges, while also creating an open, flexible, mission-representative work environment.

Inclusivity and accessibility began at the planning stage with creating wider circulation and corridors to accommodate wheelchairs and other movement and mobility challenges. All public doors throughout the space utilize hands-free openers for accessibility. Furniture was chosen to achieve maximum accessibility including ADA-height cushioned bench seating in the reception area, extended bench seating in the resource library (instead of standard table and chairs), chairs with and without arms and castors in all the conference rooms, adjustable height work surfaces throughout the space, and a custom reception desk which is entirely ADA height with wheelchair accessibility. Light values and access to natural light are also extremely important in creating fully accessible design. Views to the exterior or interior building atrium are visible from any point within the space and are enhanced through glass-front offices positioned on the perimeter, glass conference, meeting and huddle rooms, and a large open collaboration and meeting space placed on the interior building atrium.

Working side-by-side, the branding and design teams ensured the organization’s new space was designed to fully reflect the new brand, and vice-versa. Displayed throughout the space, the new AOTA logo uses letterforms which overlap to create a multi-color palette symbolizing the rich diversity of practice, practitioner, and client. Letters also intersect to express connection and support between OT practitioners and clients. Features of the space were intended to be healing and therapeutic to reflect the work of OT practitioners, with an over-all neutral color palette coupled with strategic pops of AOTA’s new brand colors. The team also worked with an occupational therapist specializing in low vision to ensure visually impaired people can fully distinguish the over-lapping letters and colors.

The space is designed to be open, flexible, and encourage mobility throughout the workday. In fact, upon moving into the new space, AOTA issued each staff member a laptop to make it easy to work from various spaces throughout the day. Common areas such as the lunchroom, reference library, huddle rooms, and the large open meeting space positioned on the interior building atrium, are all designed as multi-functional spaces. Natural elements such as a live moss wall, rustic reclaimed barn wood, and stacked stone are used throughout to bring the outdoors in. A curved cove ceiling detail winds throughout the space connecting all individual areas, symbolizing AOTA as the connection source for practitioners, educators, students, and patients and clients receiving OT services.

Artwork is extremely important to both the feel of the space as well as the mission message. All artwork was created by persons who received occupational therapy services, with his/her story of art as a form of therapy accompanying the various pieces. Additionally, colorful books and artifacts displayed along a publication wall opposite the large conference room, and professional reference books displayed on ends in the public-serving reference library, all serve as purposeful artwork within the design.

AOTA Executive Director, Sherry Keramidas, PhD, FASAE, CAE, shares, “Through the design, you see and experience AOTA’s life-affirming message at every turn in our new space, and we’re reminded of the people we serve. It makes for a very inspiring and satisfying place to work.” 

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While the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, more companies and organizations are beginning to bring people back to work, and life is normalizing a bit. Now more than ever, awareness of the benefits of creating safe and healthy work and living environments has become more prevalent and wide-reaching. To address both immediate and long-term wellness benefits, DCS Design has extended our Human Wellness Design services to include full-service assessment and coordination of WELL Building Standard Certification and WELL Health-Safety Rating.

This recent extension of our Human Wellness Design includes assisting clients achieve the WELL Health-Safety Rating and subsequent Safety Seal which focuses on operational policies, maintenance protocols, and emergency plans to address health and safety-related issues. Additionally, WELL Health-Safety creates an accessible pathway to certification and serves as an access point to full WELL certification.

Many factors account for healthy living and working environments. Humidity levels, air ventilation, temperature, lighting, plumbing, and accessibility to contaminant-free water are a few of the determinants affecting a space’s over-all health. Further, we spend 90% of our time indoors. By improving the health of our interior environments, we can reduce health care costs, and substantially increase productivity and attraction and retention of employees and tenants.

Also, what better way to show our commitment to creating healthy environments than to pursue WELL Health-Safety Rating for our own office space? Led by our WELL accredited professional, Joanna Adams-DeCastro, we have officially registered our space and are now diligently working towards the required 15 points to achieve the rating.

“It’s so exciting to be going through this process ourselves,” Joanna shares. “And we felt it was very important we ‘walk-the-talk.’ We believe so strongly in the future of healthy living and working spaces. Now having embarked on this journey for ourselves, we have even greater knowledge and ability to assist our clients!”

 Let’s get started!

Click below to learn more about our Human Wellness Design Services. Or call us today to talk about how you can get started! Call Marcia Calhoun 703.556.9275.

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DCS Design continues to help our clients immediately focus on getting people back to work, and now we are extending our wellness services to focus on critical, long-term health and safety for the workplace and beyond.

What path to healthier living and working
is right for your organization?

While WELL Building Standard (WELL) remains the leading tool for advancing the health and well-being of buildings and workplaces globally, two recent certifications are now available to ensure businesses, large and small, have access to science-based health and safety best practices and third-party certification.

WELL Health-Safety Rating

You have most likely seen the public service announcements featuring a variety of celebrity ambassadors, and soon you will be seeing more and more buildings and spaces proudly displaying the WELL Health-Safety seal. The WELL Health-Safety Rating is focused on operational policies, maintenance protocols and emergency plans to address future health and safety-related issues, with a focus on sanitization, emergency preparedness, health resources, air and water quality, engagement and communication, and innovation.

Fitwel

Created in partnership by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the General Services Administration (GSA), Fitwel provides guidelines for designing, constructing, and operating healthier buildings, and focuses on health areas including building location, outdoor spaces, indoor environments and workspaces, accessibility to healthy food and water, and emergency procedures.

Fitwel Viral Response Module

An offshoot of Fitwel, this distinct certification was developed specifically to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and other deadly diseases and pathogens in the workplace.

 What is the cost?

The cost of certification varies by program. WELL Health-Safety Rating and Fitwel are designed to be more accessible and affordable than the more comprehensive WELL Building Standard. WELL Health-Safety also serves as an access point to full WELL certification.

 Let’s get started!

Our team of experts, including WELL accredited professionals, are here to help you understand which rating is best suited for your business, and guide you in implementing short and long-term health and safety practices. Call us today to learn more! Call Marcia Calhoun 703.556.9275.

“As designers, we thrive on providing functional and beautiful spaces people enjoy living and working in every day. To also be able to ensure those spaces are healthy and increase their overall wellbeing…that’s the ultimate beautification.”

—Joanna Adams DeCastro

Joanna is a LEED AP and WELL AP with over 30 years’ experience in commercial and multi-family spaces. To see some of the project Joanna is working on at DCS, follow her HERE on LinkedIn.

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In this changing work environment, long gone are the days of window-lined offices and high-panel workstations. Instead, many if not most companies opt for some degree of open workspace. But is an open, collaborative work environment right for everyone?

The Appeal of Openness

Millennial and Gen-Z workers are quickly becoming the target demographic for company recruitment. As the workforce becomes younger, more progressive, and more flexible, forward-thinking companies are doing their best to keep up. Countless offices across the United States are a physical reflection of their employees’ work preferences—teamwork, informality, and a flattened hierarchy. And, the age of an open work environment has only just begun.

What’s the big idea behind open offices? It’s simple. By removing physical barriers between team members, the psychological barriers are removed, too. A lack of walls is thought to help boost collaboration, creativity, and interpersonal communication. Instead of shrinking down behind their respective partitions, coworkers can easily share ideas, work together, and collaboratively solve challenges. The result, companies believe, is a productive, more motivated staff who enjoy coming to work, and who therefore work harder.

Possible Drawbacks

Are open work environments the secret to a hyper-productive and satisfied workforce? Well…maybe not in every case. The extra activity generated by this openness creates its own unique set of challenges.

According to a study performed by the Journal of Environmental Psychology, open offices lead to an increase in noise, distractions, and an overall loss of individual privacy. All those collaborative discussions can get pretty noisy without walls to muffle them. For those who need silence to focus, the constant buzz of sound…or a couple of very loud-taking co-workers…can be a real challenge to overcome.

The lack of privacy can be a hassle, too. Need to take an important client call? Have to participate in or run an important meeting? In an open workspace, you have to move to another location if you don’t want others listening in—or rolling their eyes because they’re forced to hear your entire conversation.

Research suggests that open workspaces may actually make workers less productive and interactive. A recent study by Harvard professor Ethan Bernstein cites increased psychological pressure as a major unintended consequence.

Bernstein notes that “If you’re sitting in a sea of people, for instance, you might not only work hard to avoid distraction (by putting on headphones for example) but—because you have an audience at all times—also feel pressure to look really busy. Indeed, all of the cues in open offices that we give off to get focused work done also make us less, not more, likely to interact with others.”

Compromise is Key

Open workspaces aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. A 2019 workplace study revealed that a mere 7% of respondents prefer totally open work environments. Instead, approximately 28% of respondents prefer “mostly open” offices with a few private spaces, while another 20% prefer “somewhat open” offices with a mix of private offices, meeting rooms of various sizes, phone rooms, and open collaboration areas.

In most cases, however, some degree of openness is a much better alternative to restrictive, self-isolating offices. A mix of open space and privacy is a much-needed solution to addressing the needs of a younger, diverse and specialized workforce.

As Thomas Edison said, “Different isn’t always better, but better is always different.”

Check out our design blog for more design trends and insights.
Take a look at current projects by DCS Design for more information and design inspiration.

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