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Modern business requirements change more quickly than the physical workspace can keep up with, but does a new collaboration between Google and AHMM point towards a workable future? Words: Clare Dowdy

It鈥檚 a good idea to start any visit to Google鈥檚 new London HQ by taking the lift straight to the top floor. The building, on the pleasingly landscaped St Pancras Square, was supposed to be occupied by a bank. They had earmarked the top floor as the executive dining room, but so-called 鈥楪ooglers鈥� eschew such hierarchy. The 11th floor now operates as an egalitarian caf茅-cum-restaurant. At 11am one Friday in October, the place is buzzing with informal meetings, groups chatting, and people sitting with a laptop. There鈥檚 even activity on the vast sun-lit terrace, where a sole Googler performs a burst of press-ups.

These are the sights that make contemporary workplace designers鈥� hearts soar. These days, designers see their role as creating a variety of settings to cater for the different tasks, moods and personalities of staff. The sector jargon for this is 鈥榓ctivity-based working鈥� or 鈥榓gile working鈥�, a phenomenon which was born out of a combination of the financial crisis and new technology. The 2008 economic crash made businesses reconsider their expensive office space.

Meanwhile, advances in technology have meant that people no longer need to be at their desk to be at work. The upshot has been less conventional banks of open-plan workstations 鈥� traditionally one per employee 鈥� and the introduction of break-out spaces, semi-enclosed pods,听and short-term meeting areas bedecked with all manner of quirky seating from bar stools to bean bags. Patricia Brown, Chair of the London Festival of Architecture 2016, calls it 鈥渢he whirlwind changes in the demand for new workplaces鈥�.

Remake, reuse, relocate

On the lower floors of 6 St Pancras Square, a novel experiment is underway that could take these 鈥榳hirlwind changes鈥� to another level. Google has installed a series of small rooms within the large floor plates. Instead of being permanent, these are flexible and hence temporary. Called 鈥楯ack鈥�, they can be extended, repositioned or removed completely in a few days. Jack came out of a collaboration between Google and the building鈥檚 architecture firm, , whose founders are Bartlett School of Architecture alumni. 鈥淭he idea was to have a meeting room that would be deliverable to a similar timeframe to the constantly evolving business processes and team structures,鈥� says Ceri Davies, Associate Director at AHMM.

For fast-growing, fast-changing businesses like Google, an office configuration that is 鈥� figuratively or literally 鈥� set in stone, soon becomes obsolete. As subsidiaries and teams evolve, so too does the need for different sorts of spaces.

Reader in Social and Spatial Networks at The Bartlett鈥檚 Space Syntax Lab, was commissioned by Google to write a whitepaper on the system and is now collaborating with the two firms to research the project鈥檚 impact. 鈥淭he inflexibility of space has become particularly problematic in the 21st century business environment,鈥� she says.

Davies echoes this: 鈥淔or all the talk of flexibility, most fit-outs are actually very prescriptive. With Google鈥檚 real need for reconfiguring floor plates several times a year, Jack permits a dynamic fit-out that isn鈥檛 obsolete after the first day. In a wider context, the industry is notoriously wasteful when it comes to the 鈥榗hurn鈥� of tenants that might occupy speculative offices. Jack should help address that: if Google leaves 6 St Pancras Square, then Jack goes with them.鈥�

Best of both worlds

Simon Allford, Director at AHMM, describes Jack as a sophisticated 鈥榮easide hut鈥� that is acoustically sealed, compliant with fire regulations, and taps into air conditioning if needs be. 鈥淐ritical to its success is that it is made of a few key light and easily handled building components that can be endlessly reconfigured to make a single room, or a series of connected spaces, all of which can be linked to address different needs.鈥�

The inflexibility of space has become particularly problematic in the 21st century business environment
鈥�

In the first four months of Google鈥檚 occupancy of 6 Pancras Square, 93 Jacks were installed. AHMM gave staff two layout options: perpendicular or parallel, meaning they could be set out in a line running away from or alongside the atrium鈥檚 glass walls. So far, Googlers have opted for the latter, 鈥渃reating a corridor between the Jacks and the glass of the atrium鈥�, says Andrew Martin, Google鈥檚 Project Executive Lead for UKI & CE Real Estate & Workplace Services.

As a result, sightlines from one side of the building to the other have been obscured 鈥� not, perhaps, what the architects had intended. But maybe this is just what happens if employees are allowed to make these sorts of decisions. As Dr Sailer puts it: 鈥淚s it too much to ask lay people to structure their own space?鈥�

Regardless of the layout choices, Davies is keen that Googlers take ownership of the Jacks. 鈥淲e really want them to be appropriated by the personality of the different user groups,鈥� she says. 鈥淓ngineers, marketing and sales all have different needs and ways of working, and while Jack in its 鈥榬aw鈥� state is a fully functional meeting room, they are intended over time to be 鈥榟acked鈥� and played around with. It would be great to be surprised by their future uses!鈥�

So far, such hacking has included adding privacy to a couple of rooms, by putting screens over the glass walls and adding a lock, and extending two to make directors鈥� meeting rooms (or huddles, in Google-speak).

Dr Sailer became involved in this project after Google approached the Dean of the Bartlett, Alan Penn, on the hunt for an academic to write the whitepaper. The Dean forwarded their request to Dr Sailer, who remarks that 鈥渢ypically our work with commercial partners stems from contacts, networks and word of mouth.鈥�

Jack in its raw state is a fully functional meeting room, but it is intended to be hacked

She is following up her academic analysis of Jack with research into how the rooms are used. This research, which focuses on the 9th and 10th floors, runs from October 2016 to March 2017 and is being funded by the EPSRC.

鈥淭his is a really nice research opportunity to look at what designers design, how users relate to that, and to ask whether what they have done is the ideal solution,鈥� says Dr Sailer, pointing out that post-occupancy evaluation is rarely carried out because it鈥檚 so difficult to change anything. 鈥淢y question is: do the users believe they will ever be changed? And how is it really hackable?鈥�

She explains that the thoroughness of her research will depend on the kind of data that Google will release, beyond who sits where and who reserves Jacks. 鈥淚 would like team performance data. For example, is there a difference between floors, between who is near the corridor or not?鈥� She is keen to carry out a second phase of research with software simulations to test 鈥渋f you place the Jacks differently, do you get a different social and spatial reality?鈥�

In the meantime, Google鈥檚 Martin has another way of measuring Jack鈥檚 effectiveness: 鈥淚f they allow people to work efficiently, they are a success,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey get more successful if they get recycled 鈥� if they have moved once in their lifetime, that鈥檚 a good cost story to tell.鈥�

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