Understanding the way in which design interventions in an office affect everyday users, and thus
shape organisational behaviour, should be high on the agenda for architects, designers and consultants
alike. Surprisingly, this seems rarely to be the case. Here we aim to help close this gap by studying
a variety of organisations in depth both before and after an office move from the point of view of
design practice. This paper thus aims at understanding how a newly designed office is seen, used and
filled with life by staff, so that planners can continuously and systematically reflect on and learn from
experience, and create effective and well-used workplaces for the future.
The research and reflective practice presented in this paper resulted from a collaboration on 'Effective
Workplaces' between The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies at University College London and
Spacelab architects. Insights from in-depth case studies conducted over the last four years on various
corporate clients in the media sector in the UK will be drawn upon. The studies each compared an
organisation before and after it moved into a Spacelab-designed office.
Two different lines of argument will be presented: firstly, results of the pre-post comparison of
organisations before and after moving into a newly designed space suggest that physical space influences
the way in which organisations communicate, interact, and perform in many ways. Secondly,
the practical side of evidence-based design will be discussed. It can be seen that designers would do
things differently if they had had the specific evidence prior to the design process. At the same time,
difficulties arise in conducting 'evidence-based' practice, for example the problem of time in a business
environment where designers are often asked to deliver solutions within days or weeks, whereas
gaining a good understanding of a complex organisation may take months. These issues will be reflected
on. General conclusions on the use and usefulness of Space Syntax in an architectural practice
will be drawn