Office Building Design

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Office Building Design

“We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us”

University of Groningen

Faculty of Economics and Business

MSc Business Administration

Strategy and Innovation

Author:

Wendy Tempels

Student Number:

1385526

Date:

October, 2009

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Supervisor:

dr. H. Snijders

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Preface

During my study I always wanted to go abroad to ‘broaden my horizon’ and to learn about another culture, but it never really happened. The end of my study was in sight I chose to conduct the research for my thesis abroad. Australia was on top of the list and therefore I contacted organizations that might be interested in a research student conducting a research in the area of Strategy and Innovation. Through an acquaintance I came into contact with Arup and together we agreed on a research topic: the strategic design of office buildings.

Before writing my master thesis I had little knowledge of the design of buildings and the complex process of designing buildings. However, with the help of the experts at Arup I was able to shape my research question in such a way that it would add value for the research in Strategy and Innovation and for Arup as a company. In order to be of value for both I look at the design of buildings from a perspective of my master in Strategy and Innovation and I thereby leave the technical aspects up to the experts in the field.

In order to complete my research, I received help from a number of people that I hereby would like to thank. First of all I would like to thank all the interviewees, without their input this research could not have been conducted. I would also like to thank Caroline Edge, the library assistant at Arup for her guidance in finding the right secondary resources and Robert Hobson and Elli Firestone for reviewing my research and giving valuable comments. Furthermore I would like to thank John Tsoukas for giving me the opportunity to carry out my research at the Management Consulting department of Arup in Melbourne. And additionally I thank Arup and in particular the department for taking me up in their team, especially Gideon van der Westhuizen for supervising me and providing me with helpful contacts in the industry.

Another special gratitude goes to Hendrik Snijders for giving me objective feedback and interesting insights that helped me develop this research, being flexible and taking time for discussions. I would also like to thank Thijs Broekhuizen for his willingness to review this thesis.

My time with Arup in Melbourne was wonderful, the experience shaped me as a person and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Melbourne, July 2009 Wendy Tempels

All the world belongs to me, I’ve all the world

to give Full of beans

Full of glee Gosh! It’s good to live!

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Abstract

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1. INTRODUCTION

During the Second World War in a meeting about the rebuilding of the House of Commons held in the House of Lords, Winston Churchill made his famous observation about the relationship between the two party parliamentary systems and the design of the debating chamber when he said “we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us” (1943). This statement would mean that the way our buildings are shaped, influences the way we as persons and businesses are shaped. This then entreats the question: how to shape a building in such a way that it shapes us for the better.

Designers of buildings have been interested in the overall value added through their efforts and the legacy of design decisions on future generations of users, for a long time. Their ability to ‘prove the value of design’ has been intangible and is a problem not unique to the building and construction sector. It is a familiar issue throughout manufacturing and the world of product design. (Gann et al, 2003). The value that can be added by design to the end-customer is hard to describe and firms often do not know how to define value or even to measure it (Anderson and Narus, 1998).

The construction industry has been dominated by the term ‘cost’, with buildings designed down to a budget rather than up to a value (MacMillan, 2006). There is little if any consideration of the wider concepts of value such as the effect of the quality of the built environment on performance or the well-being of the occupants and on the lifetime operating costs of the building. However, the notion is slowly growing that a transformation of the design and construction industry is required and that its new mission should be: to add value for customers and society by shaping and delivering the built environment to meet their needs (Saxon, 2003).

This research focuses on office buildings and seeks to identify factors that are on influence on the added value of an office building for occupiers. It therefore anticipates shedding more light on how the industry can change to a value adding industry.

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Arup’s vision for the building sector is to deliver a fully-integrated service for buildings throughout their lifecycle: from design, construction, occupation and adaptation, to decommissioning. Within the firm there are several departments and disciplines to support this vision.

1.1 Research Objective

In order for Arup to realize the vision of offering a fully integrated service for buildings throughout their lifecycle, it is significant not only to offer quality but more importantly to add value for clients. Therefore identifying how the design of process of an office building leads to a design that adds value for the occupier, has a direct relation to the business of Arup.

1.2 Research question

What factors have a positive influence on the added value of an office building from an occupier’s perspective?

1.3 Research Approach

First of all the relevant literature will be investigated to identify the factors that might have an influence on the added value of the office building design. From this theory hypotheses will be derived that will accordingly be tested. The theory will be tested using case studies. Cooper and Schindler (2001) state that case studies put more emphasis on in-depth understanding and a full contextual analysis in fewer events. Buildings are place sensitive, and their design is therefore often more context and culturally dependent than manufactured artefacts (Gann and Whyte, 2003). Therefore a few case studies will be conducted in order to gain in depth understanding of every case in their own context. Accordingly, differences between cases will be distinguished and different views of designers and occupiers will be incorporated. This will eventually lead to answering the main question as to how the design process of an office building can lead to added value for the occupier.

1.4 Definitions

In order to continue this study the two important definitions will be provided. First of all it needs to be clear what will be treated as an office building and what not. And second of all a definition of an occupier of an office building will be presented.

Office buildings

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2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In the theoretical background first of all the concept of design will be explained and different design dimensions will be distinguished. Second of all, the concept of value and in particular use value will be further described. When these two concepts are clear, several hypotheses are generated, which will be tested later in the research.

2.1 Design

In the study of Gemser and Leenders (2001) the general definition from Ulrich and Pearson (1998) was used to define industrial design, namely, “the activity that transforms a set of product requirements into a configuration of materials, elements and components. This activity can have an impact on a product’s appearance, user friendliness, ease of manufacture, efficient use of materials, functional performance and so on”. This general definition of design will also be used for this research. And can be translated into the transformation of a ‘brief1’ that states the office building requirements into the configuration of materials, elements and components.

When designing an office building, four levels can broadly be distinguished that lead to the completion of an office building. In general the building shell and services are part of the base building2 and the scenery and settings are part of the fit out of the building (Worthington, 1994). The four levels are:

Building shell – structure and skin of the building.

Building services – heating, lighting, ventilation and communications. Scenery – Interior elements such as ceilings, dividing walls and finishes. Settings – Furniture and equipment.

Design dimensions

When assessing the literature on design in products and buildings, different dimensions of design arise. The four dimensions this research distinguishes will be discussed in this section. The first known

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A brief is the basis of design and becomes a reference document for the developer, design team and, ideally, the landlord and tenant/occupier as the case may be (Gilliam, 1988).

2

The base building refers to the part of a multi-tenant building that directly serves and affects all tenants. The

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work on the subject of architecture is that of the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius (Rowland and Howe, 1999). He dedicated his work ‘De Architectura’ to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus as a guide for building projects. The work is still one of the most important sources of modern knowledge of Roman building methods and the planning and design of structures, both large (e.g. aqueducts, buildings, baths, harbours) and small (machines, measuring, devices, instruments) (Rowland and Howe, 1999). According to Vitruvius a good building satisfies the three principles of: “firmitatis, utilitatis and vensstatis” which was translated by Morgan (1914) into: Durability – it should stand up robustly and remain in good condition. Functionality – it should be useful and function well for the people using it. Beauty- it should delight people and raise their spirits. The work of Vitruvius forms the basis of constructing the concept of design in this research, which is completed by sustainability that came up in recent years.

Functionality

Louis Henry Sullivan (1856- 1924) is the architect of the skyscrapers. Instead of imitating historic styles, he created original forms and details. He insisted that architecture should be about social life and values in its time and place and not be based on historic styles. This means that structural design and aesthetics should be entirely subject to functionality. Sullivan was the first U.S. architect in 1924 to contend that architecture was fundamentally an expression of social life3 . The one famous quote of Sullivan is: "It is the pervading law of all things organic, and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things super-human, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law." Normann (2004) describes the behavioural design as the function of the product, or how it works. He adds that the conceptual model of the product plays an important role. The conceptual model of the user should comply with the conceptual model of the designer. He calls this human-centred; the designer should understand and fulfil the wishes of the user. Functionality according to Conran (1996) refers to the functions or tasks the product has to perform. Usability is defined as a measure of the product’s potential to accomplish the goals of the user in a pleasant, easy, efficient and healthy way. Therefore usability includes the efficiency in use (functionality and consistency), but also ergonomics (healthy and easy) and to some extend the aesthetic part (pleasant) (Jacobs, 2006). Aesthetics can be used to make the design look easier to use, in order to increase the probability of the product being used. It thereby is not important whether the design is actually easier to use or not (Lidwell, Holden and Butler, 2003: 18).

Aesthetics

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Norman (2004) argues that design should appeal to all the senses, as appropriate, and uses the term visceral design for this dimension of design. An example of this is the taste of bitter, most people do not like this and it is programmed in the brain (because things that taste bitter in nature are mostly toxic). The visceral level of our senses gives us the power to react fast to our environment. The aesthetics according to Conran (1996) is about the visual beauty and appeal of the design. This might for example be determined by the proportion, contours, colours, shape, material and texture. Conran (1996) stated that design is 98% common sense and 2% aesthetics. A lot of products are good for 98% but the products which have that extra 2% have a ‘magic ingredient’ which places them in a whole other category. It makes the difference between acceptable and special. However different appearances may mean something different for one person or another. The ‘object of visual semiotics’ tries to identify the codes, sometimes hidden and unidentified, that connect signs and meaning (Van Leeuwen & Lewitt, 2001). For example, the colour green may have a connection for a person with environmental awareness, nature, permission to pass or the Islam. The designs of brand logos take such connections in consideration (Jacobs, 2004). Kotler and Rath (1984) however, place less importance on the ‘look’ of a product, by saying that most designers honour the principle ‘form follows function’. “They seek forms that facilitate and enhance the functioning of the object rather than form for its own sake” They call this dimension the appearance of the product.

The relationship of functionality and aesthetics becomes clear when looking at ‘design consistency’ as Lidwell et al (2003:46) call it. A design is functional consistent when meaning and action are consistent (the consistent use of well known symbols e.g. a red traffic light). An internally consistent design is consistent with other elements in the system. The design is externally consistent when it is consistent with other elements in the environment of the system. And finally the design is aesthetical consistent when style and appearance are consistent.

Durability

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buildings. If these speculations are accurate, it does not mean the end of building design appraisal but possibly the reverse. Rather than making the building for the purpose of today, design becomes an assessment of the options to be left open, not the options to close. Normann (2004) describes his third dimension as the reflective design. He describes the reflective design as the cultural message the design says about the user. These reflections can be different in different countries and in different times.

Sustainability

Recently, awareness has been growing for environmentally sustainable design or green design. According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) policy brief (2003) ‘sustainable buildings’ can be defined as those buildings that have minimum adverse impacts on the built and natural environment, in terms of the buildings themselves, their immediate surroundings and the broader regional and global setting. ‘Sustainable building’ may therefore be defined as building practices, which strive for integral quality (including economic, social and environmental performance) in a very broad way. Thus, the rational use of natural resources and appropriate management of the building stock will contribute to saving scarce resources, reducing energy consumption (energy conservation), and improving environmental quality.

The Green building council in Australia has established a ‘green star rating’, which rates office buildings on how sustainable they are4. The Green Star covers nine categories that assess the environmental impact that is a direct consequence of the buildings site selection, design, construction and maintenance. There are three different certificates:

4 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 45-59) signifies 'Best Practice'

5 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 60-74) signifies 'Australian Excellence' 6 Star Green Star Certified Rating (score 75-100) signifies 'World Leadership'

2.2 Value

Value is an often used concept, however seldom clearly defined. Due to the fact that this research focuses on ‘value’, the concept will first be described in order to come to a clear definition of value that will be used for this research. The clarification will start with describing value from a resource based view and accordingly the concept of use value will be explained. After this, the value system and valuation will be discussed in the light of use value.

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When looking at value from recourse based view, authors argue that a firm can be regarded as a bundle of recourses that are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and imperfectly substitutable. Therefore these resources are an organizations main source of competitive advantage. A resource is valuable when it exploits opportunities and/or neutralizes threats in the firms’ environment or when they enable a firm to conceive or implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness (Barney, 1991). However other authors defined a valuable resource as either enabling the needs of customers to be better satisfied (Bogner and Thomas, 1993) or to allow a firm to satisfy those needs at a lower cost than competitors (Barney, 1994).

If resources are valuable when they meet or exceed customers needs, it is important to know how customers judge the extent to which an existing product meets their needs, or whether a new product on the market would better meet their needs; in other words, how customers asses the value of a product. This is traditionally assessed by looking at value and customer behaviour and referred to as functionality theory. The theory states that consumers spend their income to maximize the satisfaction they get from products. Total functionality refers to the satisfaction deriving from the possession of a commodity and marginal functionality refers to the satisfaction that people receive from possessing one extra unit of a good or the satisfaction lost by giving up one unit. Now the question remains on how people develop their expectations and how they judge the value of a product as the purchaser has to judge how the products attributes will satisfy needs prior to actual consumption.

Use value and exchange value

In order to describe the concept of value in further depth a distinction has to be made between different kinds of values: use value and exchange value (Bowman & Am). Use value refers to the specific qualities of the product perceived by the user in relation to their needs: the acceleration and styling of the car, the taste and texture of the apple, etc. Thus judgments about use value are subjective; they pertain to the individual consumer. Exchange value refers to price. It is the monetary amount realized at a single point in time when the exchange of the good takes place.

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the price paid is 'consumer surplus. Expressed differently, the price the customer is prepared to pay is price plus the consumer surplus. Consumer surplus (Whitehead, 1995) is what consumers refer to as 'value for money’.

Hence, perceived use value is subjective, and it is defined by customers, based on their perceptions of the usefulness of the product on offer. The total monetary value is the amount the customer is prepared to pay for the product. Exchange value on the other hand is realized when the product is sold. It is the amount paid by the buyer to the producer for the perceived use value. This research will further focus on use value, as the monetary and exchange value are both related to the perceived use value defined by the end-user.

Value system

In order to place value on a certain offer, Jacobs (2006) explains that supply, is connected with the preference of the selector of the product; demand. The relevant economical selectors are ultimately the consumers; however they are not the only relevant selectors (Jacobs, 2006). The suppliers of the product also have to see value in the product they are offering. This means that the valuation of different kinds of customers has to be high enough to make the activity rewarding for each of the suppliers in a ‘value system’. A value system is the term Porter (1985:34-35) uses to describe the chain of activities from developing raw materials into end products.

The value system of an office building in the traditional process starts with the architect and the owner. The owner or property developer would most of all develop a program of their needs and select the site for the building, this often happens with the help of an architect. The architect then assembles a design team of consulting engineers and other experts to design the building and specify the building to the needs of the owner. Then the general contractor is hired to build the building, who is participating in the design phases most of the time, to help providing a more accurate estimation of the budget and scheduling (Gann and Salter, 1998).

The design-build method on the other hand, is a construction project delivery system where the design and construction aspects are contracted for with a single entity known as the design builder or the design build contractor. The design and construction phase are thereby overlapped in the process, and the architects and engineers are assigned by the contractor.

Valuation

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may expect a high level of environmental control and high quality finishes, whereas others may only expect the minimum level of shelter and security.

The technical aspects of design are measurable and could in principle be completed by robots, as they have no personal sets of preferences. However valuation of technical aspects in an economic way is a task remained for the selector. An actor could for example check the speed of a microprocessor; however the selector has to determine beforehand a) that speed makes a microprocessor valuable and b) the type of measurement of speed that is acceptable (Wijnberg, 2004: 1477). The property council of Australia has for example established a document that determines the quality of an office building.5 However, the occupying organization has to determine whether these quality indicators are valuable to them. An office building can for example have an aesthetical foyer, but this does not necessarily have to be of value.

Evaluation on non-technical aspects in the contrary is difficult to objectify, because it is very hard to tell why a person likes for example a certain piece of furniture over another. Even people that agree on the selection criteria might come to different decisions (Jacobs, 2006).

2.3 Adding value with design

Now that the concepts of design and added value are discussed, this paragraph will go into the factors that can positively influence the use value and subsequently realize the exchange value, of an office building through design. According to Conran (1996: 18) “something that is well designed can improve the quality of life of the user”. He thus states that the customer surplus discussed in the previous paragraph can be created by ‘good design’, followed by the comment that well designed products do not necessarily have to cost more than products that were designed without care and thus, creating more customer surplus without a higher asking price.

Integrated design

With his remark, Conran (1996) turned the attention to the processes inside the firm or project group that create use value and subsequently, realize exchange value. Conran (1996) furthermore states that in order for a product to be well designed, the designer has to fully understand the manufacturing, marketing and selling processes, and ensure that the product is efficiently made and competitively priced. The designer must observe what is humanly desirable and technically possible. He consequently suggests that the designer has to be integrated into the whole process of product development. This remark is based on the assumption that in most industries the ‘design movement’

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will first subsist from the inside-out and later from the outside-in (Jacobs, 2006). Meaning that in the beginning the design of a new product will not receive that much attention; see for example the famous quote of Henry Ford about the colour of its first cars: "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black".When the technology begins to level out, designers try to debug the system. Thereafter the design of the product becomes more vital to differentiate from competitors: user friendliness and appearance become more important (Gemser and Leenders, 2001). This is what Jacobs calls designing from the inside-out. Secondly, a more ‘integrated design’ as defined by Conran (1996), will occur. To improve usability and functionality, designers try to simplify the product and its components. In order to do this, they have to start looking externally. And therefore Jacobs (2006) calls this designing from the outside-in.

Figure I design from the outside in

Source: Fairhead, 1988

Many authors suggest that integration in building projects is highly needed (Turpin, 2007; Prowler, 2008; Puelo, 2008). Turpin (2007) defines integrated building design as: “a collaborative, integrated planning and design process that uses a project team to make decisions in all stages of a project's design and construction”. Puleo (2008) defines integrated building design as “the means by which firms effectively combine and coordinate separate and diverse disciplines to create an organized team that is focused on the goals of the project”. However, integrated solutions also involve the bringing together of products and services in order to address a customer’s particular business or operational requirements (Slywotzky, 1996; Slywotzky and Morrison, 1998; Sharma and Molloy, 1999; Wise and Baumgartner, 1999; Cornet et al., 2000; Bennett et al., 2001; Davies et al., 2001; Foote et al., 2001).

Aesthetic wrap around Shapes, colours, graphics Design as styling Design is about better products Industrial design Engineering Market research

Design shares interface between the company and audience

Marketing

Human factors Communication

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Prowler (2008) also holds the assumption that each design objective is significantly important in any project, yet a truly successful one is where project goals are identified early on and held in proper balance during the design process; and where their interrelationships and interdependencies with all building systems are understood, evaluated, appropriately applied, and coordinated concurrently from the planning and programming phase. He states that a high-performance building cannot be achieved unless the integrated design approach is employed, resulting in the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1: Integrated design will result in an office building with higher use value

Baiden, Price and Dainty (2005) use a literature review and an empirical study, to develop a framework for measuring team integration in the construction industry. The team can be described as ‘integrated’ when the team has a single focus and objectives, is seamless in operations and has no organizational boundaries, has mutually beneficial outcomes, shares information unrestrictedly, is flexible and responsive to change, is co-located. An integrated team should also be able to predict time and cost better, every member should have equal opportunities for inputs, the team should have equitable relationships and a no blame culture should exist.

End-user involvement

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involvement in the service industry: involvement of users was reported to be more intense during the initial (idea generation and screening) and later stages (service design, test marketing, and commercialization) of the development process because respondents considered the beginning and end of a process to be crucial.

Hypothesis 2: Involving end-users in design will result in an office building with higher use value

User involvement will be described using a study conducted by Alam (2002). He uses the basis of a literature review and an empirical study to develop a framework for describing user involvement. Users can firstly be involved in different stages of the design process. The intensity of the involvement can also vary. The first stage is the passive acquisition of input which means that the users take the initiative to provide input into the development process. The second stage is Information and feedback on specific issues. The third level is extensive consultation with users. Common examples include detailed interviews with the users, focus group research, and group discussions. Thus, the intensity of involvement is relatively high. The final level is representation. At this level, the users are invited to join a new service development team, where they contribute to the specific stages of the development process in their capacity as a team member. Hence, the intensity of involvement is considered to be extremely high.

Stating organizational needs

Use value perception does not only apply to final consumers but also to managers that have to make decisions for the organization as a whole (Bowman & Ambrosini, 2000). To the single customer, or in this case the end-user, the need may be fairly easy to define, however for the manager that need may not be so clear. The logical and rational need could be identified as profit making (Besanko et al., 1996), however, this requires the manager to have a great insight into the cause-effect linkages between the use value of the resource and the ultimate delivery of profit. More specifically, the procuring agent has to have the belief that the procured resource will contribute to the profitability of the organization and this belief will accordingly be rooted in a wider set of beliefs about how the firm competes, which may be further bounded by an industry recipe (Huff, 1982,).

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team especially in the earliest phases of the design (the brief), is therefore believed to be of influence on the end result of the office building.

The briefing process is divided in two major stages: the first is a strategic review of the clients’ organizational needs and the second is more tactical in nature and concerned with performance issues. The recognition of the initial need to understand a client's business processes clearly goes beyond the simplistic checklists offered by the more traditional briefing literature (O'Reilly, 1987; Salisbury, 1990). The emphasis given to understanding the client's strategic context directly addresses the criticism of Pena et al. (1987) that often designers give far too little time and attention to "exploring the problem". It is essential to understand the way in which any proposed built solution would impact upon the business processes of the occupying organization. And therefore, when organizational needs are not clearly identified and specified in the brief, the building could have less use value in the end result (Shen e.a., 2006).

Hypothesis 3: Stating organizational needs in the briefing stage of the design of an office building

results in higher use value

2.4 Conclusion

Design is the transformation of a ‘brief’ into the configuration of materials, elements and components of an office building. This will ultimately result in an office building with different outcomes that can be described as; functionality, aesthetics, durability and sustainability. Occupiers value the different design dimensions according pre-determined requirements, their personal and organizational preferences and industry recipes, which can be described as the use value of the office building. The price the client is paying for the building or to rent the office space is the exchange value at a certain point in time. The use value of an office building can be determined by the assessment of the different design dimensions and the value the selector is placing on these dimensions.

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3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design

Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2003) distinguish between deduction and induction. Deduction is the development of theory and hypotheses, which will be tested with the use of a research strategy. Induction is the collection of data and the development of theory using data analysis. This research uses a deductive research approach. First of all, secondary data, which was found in articles, websites, books and the internal library of Arup was reviewed and discussed. Secondly an experience survey was conducted to seek information from persons within Arup in different areas. Because it was necessary to gather some background information in order to refine the research question. The experience survey was comprised of short interviews with different people within Arup and with the Property Council of Australia (Table I gives an overview of the roles of people that were interviewed). Thereafter hypotheses were formulated and accordingly tested, which classifies this research as a deductive research.

TABLE I Respondents in exploratory research

Position N % Building structure 3 30% Façade engineer 2 10% Project management 1 10% Organizational psychologist 1 10% Fire engineer 1 10% Sustainability 1 10% Property industry advocacy 2 20% Total 10 100%

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process of an office building has in influence on the eventual added value for the occupiers of that building. This study will therefore be conducted in the form of multiple case studies.

3.2 Data collection

Arup is a global firm and worked on buildings in many places in the world. However, this research was conducted in the form of semi-structured questionnaires administrated during face to face interviews with various people who were involved in the building process. And since I was located in Melbourne, buildings in around Melbourne were chosen. Another important reason why buildings only in the region of Melbourne were chosen is that buildings are place sensitive, their design is therefore often more context and culturally dependent than manufactured artefacts (Gann and Whyte, 2003). Second of all,

The data was collected once and is therefore cross-sectional. The other way of collecting data would be longitudinal, which means that the study is repeated over an extended period of time. Since this research seeks to compare the added values of buildings with different design processes, the development of the building had to be fully completed, to first of all understand the process as a whole. And second of all, to measure the added value for the occupiers, which can only be identified after the occupiers have occupied the building.

This study focuses on the early stages of occupation of a building. The reason that was chosen to concentrate on new buildings was that the design process is still ‘fresh’ in the minds of the occupiers and the designers.

3.3 Sample Selection

To test the varying hypothesis, several buildings were chosen. A differentiation was made between buildings occupied by one organization and buildings that are occupied by multiple tenants.

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base building as the organization was not yet established at that time. It can therefore be compared to the CH2 and the Bendigo bank buildings were the organizations were known prior to the projects.

Two other buildings were chosen that were occupied by multiple tenants: the 1010 LaTrobe building and the Life.Lab building at the Docklands were chosen, as they were developed by the same property developer, which thereby levels out the influence of the approach taken by a certain property developer. In the LaTrobe building, two organizations were investigated: one that was involved in the design early in the project and one that was moved in after the building was delivered. Only one of the tenant organizations of the Life.Lab building was chosen as all the tenants moved in after the building was delivered. The two buildings are expected to be a good comparison as it can contrast two organization that moved into a base building. The organization in the 1010 LaTrobe building that was involved early in the process will accordingly be compared with the organization that moved into a delivered building to compare whether the different design processes had an influence on the use value for the occupier in the end.

To compare the results of the studies to other buildings, in the final weeks of the research two more buildings were selected. First of all the Monaco House was included and two interviews were held. The results are however not included in the case study research because the owner and user of the building cancelled the interview and was not able to reschedule. The general perspective, of the interviewed architect and engineer, on the stated hypotheses were however included. Furthermore a property advisor of the Southern Cross building is included. This interview was used to enlarge results on multiple tenants’ buildings and to broaden the perspective as the 1010 LaTrobe and the Life.Lab building were both developed by the same property developer.

Although the response to this research was good, more buildings were selected and actors of the project team were contacted without receiving reply. Both single-occupant buildings and multiple-tenant buildings were selected. The single occupant buildings that were selected without reply were the Melbourne Fire Brigade, occupied and custom made for the fire brigade of Melbourne; the Gauge, designed and occupied by Lend Lease. This building also housed another tenant and it would have been interesting to see whether and what the differences in use value were when Lend Lease and the other tenant were compared. Also, members of the project team of the Freshwaterplace were contacted without reply; the reason why this building was selected was to enlarge the number of multi tenant buildings in the research.

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website about the design and the design process of the building; therefore only two persons were interviewed. In appendix 2 a full list of interviewees can be found and in appendix 3 the interview questions are enclosed. The names of the positions that are used in table II are general names in order to create consistency in the report. In appendix 2, the exact title of the interviewees can be found.

Table II, list of interviewees

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4. RESULTS PART ONE: CASE STUDIES

4.1 Case: Council House 2

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Staff members of the city council of Melbourne were housed in dated office buildings that were nearing the end of their lifespan. The city council decided not to relocate staff to alternative offices but to embark on a plan to construct a new office building, the Council House 2. The building would have to lead the way in the development of a holistic green environment.

Functionality

The functional goals of the city council for their new office building were mainly to create a human-centred, pleasant building that would improve the social relations of their staff. To stimulate this, the operation of the CH2 building was made to look like a termite nest: "I funnily enough spent a lot of time studying termite nests and the reason for that is that they're very much cleverer than we are at manipulating the natural environment. These great mounds that they build in nature, aren't like the castles we build to show off, they're actually lungs. The purpose of them is to extend the organism. The organism is the whole termitery ... and the termites are in fact like blood moving around in it. So they build these mounds and they breathe. They actually allow transference of air, and/or gases through a membrane, which is porous and you can study it from the point of view of diffusion of gases. There's quite a lot of science that we've done that would apply to a termitery” Mick Pearce (Principle design architect, City of Melbourne, 2004). Another metaphor that was used was that of human skin. First of all the skin makes sure that humans are comfortable via complex interaction of temperature, humidity and radiant heat. Secondly the skin is a complex filter that interacts with the environment rather than a tight cover. The outcome of the building is a human centred building with office spaces to stimulate communications and flexibility of staff, which supports the functional goals of the organization. The building management has conducted post-occupancy research which shows that absenteeism has reduced and productivity has improved. “In any organization if you can make people healthy and happy there is a huge savings potential” Rob Adams (Director, City Design, City of Melbourne, 2004).

Aesthetics

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building was also designed to show urbanism. The proportion and scale of the building show affinity with art deco buildings of the rest of the street where it is situated and the building on the opposite. This makes it more consistent with the environment. The building was also designed to look theatrical; like a magical castle that counters the ‘dryness’ of most modern buildings. The buildings aesthetics says it is different, with the underlying message that there is another way to design city office buildings, showing its innovativeness. But at the same time it is saying that is part of the urban environment showing it is a building that fits in Melbourne.

Durability

The goal of the building was to serve as a long-term office space for the city council of Melbourne. The building was designed to weather and thereby shows natural aging, which makes the visible durability of the building high. The functional durability is somewhat lower as the building was specifically designed for the City Council of Melbourne and because of the avant-garde design, which it supposedly will be associated with in the future. The building resulted in a high quality building that can serve the city council of Melbourne for a long time.

Sustainability

CH2 emerged from a genuine commitment to explore how sustainable technologies could be integrated in every conceivable way, delivering concrete rewards to the property owner and its occupants. The building was aimed at the highest Green Star Certified Rating and indeed received the highest rating of 6 Stars, which signifies 'World Leadership'. It was the first Australian building to obtain the highest rating.

Adding value with design

CH2’s collaborative design process explored and challenged every aspect of a contemporary office design. This focus on collaboration was said to be critical for the achievement of an integrated design concept for CH26. The CH2 design and development process was documented to enable others to learn from the experiences.

Integrated design

The process began with the assembling of an expert team of consultants from around Australia and beyond. Firms were selected for their credentials and potential to work as part of a team. Working collaboratively with Council’s own designers and project managers, the CH2 multi disciplinary project team began by attending a two week workshop, followed by a series of weekly design meetings across

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an eight-month period. The team was named ‘the charette’, which can literally be described as an intense period of design activity. Both the interviewees of the CH2 building implied that the design team of the building was highly integrated. The positive aspects of designing in the charette were, according to the architect, the fact that everyone had ownership over the building in the end as opposed to only their own specialized aspect of the building. Also, every design aspect was taken into consideration. And the project manager added to this by saying that everyone had a say in the design. Both interviewees agreed that one of the downsides of the charette was the long time it took to make decisions, because of the large size of the team. The project manager also said that the industry is not used to designing in a charette which slowed the process down. Furthermore, the architect stated that some people in the team felt ‘left out’ sometimes because not everyone understands each other’s profession.

End- user involvement

The end-user was represented in the Charette and several staff meetings were undertaken throughout the project in order for the staff members to provide the representative with input. A professional organization was hired to lead this undertaking. The user-representative had previous experience in making alterations in the old office buildings of the city council. The end-users were involved in the design of the base building and the fit-out. The project manager stated that involving the end user in the process kept them exited and positive about moving in to the new building. The CH2 building was a very non-contemporary office building and the staff had to be trained to use the new building. He stated that the process of involving users takes more than just asking them what they want. There is also change management involved because people have open up to the change of their new office spaces. People have to be trained and there has to be communication with them so they can understand their new building and the design decisions that were made. This makes them more tolerant for the change. Another comment the project manager made was that staff members cannot all be pleased, and that they like to have power over their environment. The design of the building incorporated this by giving staff members more control over their workspace. The architect of the building added that he thinks buildings should be more like zoos. He thinks that not much is known about human beings and their relationship with offices or buildings in general and therefore the CH2 building incorporated this in the design of the building.

Stating organizational needs

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contemporary office design. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the City of Melbourne did not have as much monetary restrictions as other companies would have during the design of an office building.

Conclusion

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4.2 Case: Bendigo Bank Headquarters

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29 Design

The Bendigo Bank also wanted to relocate all their staff that was now spread over different buildings, to one office building, specially designed for the Bendigo Bank. The mission statement of the Bendigo Bank is: "We will focus on building and improving the prospects of our customers, communities and partners in order to develop sustainable earnings and growth for our business, and thus provide increasing wealth for our shareholders.”7 The building was built to support this mission statement.

Functionality

The functional goals of the building were to deliver a building that is pleasant to be in and creates a social environment for staff members. The other functional goal was the community focus, which resulted in some choices that are not justifiable in monetary items. For example, the choice was made to recycle water in the building itself. Bendigo is a very dry area, and water is therefore even more precious than in the rest of Australia. The installation of the recycling system, would not pay itself back during the life cycle of the building, however, the project team did decide to adopt the system because it would be good for the community in general. The building houses ‘social places’ that for example consist of a barbeque area. Good working conditions also show through the adopted air-conditioning system that works from the floor instead of from the ceiling down. Bacteria do not get spread around this way but get directly sent to the ceiling and out of the building because the air is not recycled but blown out of the building. It can therefore be said that the building is human centred and community focused.

Aesthetics

Externally the building had the goal to send out an ‘open’ image to the community. For this reason the first idea for the design was a glass building. However, this would not have been good for the staff as it would generate too much glare. Therefore the architect proposed another design with sunshields in order for both the objectives (employer friendly and community focused) could be obtained. Internally the building also had to illustrate ‘openness’ to the staff members, which was created by a long hallway that connects the whole building. Furthermore the building is a landmark building in the small town Bendigo and really stands out in its environment, even more than expected as was stated by one the occupier representative. The colours and interior design are aesthetically the same internally as they are externally, making the design consistent.

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30 Durability

The Bendigo Bank Headquarters is a high quality office building and developed for long-term occupation. Therefore high quality materials were used for the creation of the building. The functional durability is also high since the building can be used for other businesses if the Bendigo Bank would decide to move out of the building. However, although the functional durability is high the building might still be associated with the Bendigo Bank if another organization would eventually move in the building due to its apparent aesthetics.

Sustainability

The sustainability of the building is reflected in the mission statement and is therefore very important to the business of the Bendigo Bank. The building received a 5 Star Green Star Certified Rating, which signifies 'Australian Excellence'. The sustainable office building that is created is therefore valuable for the bank. Not only ‘give back’ to the community but also to show to clients and provide a healthy work environment for staff members.

Adding value with design

The Bendigo Bank building is the result of a collaborative design team process and a willingness to look at new ways of doing business.

Integrated design

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like water recycling and solar hot water. A lot features were additional and were not in the plan in the first place, which suggest less integration.

The users were represented in the design team and were involved from the beginning of the process. They were also intensely involved in the fit out stage of the building and several steps were undertaken by the Bank. The first step was a needs-analysis to establish for example how many desks were needed, the growth of the organization, storage space, meeting areas etc. Following this, an analysis was done to determine the interdepartmental dependencies and links in order to determine where all the departments were to be located. The third step involved the determination of the furniture preferences of the users. Then the users were asked for their wishes in the new building. The fifth step involved creating relocation scheduled and timing, the sixth step involved the establishment of the IT equipment and the final step was the introduction of the new building which consisted of a morning tea with a presentation of the building. The end-user representative stated that it was important that the users were represented in the design team to address the ‘smaller issues’ as the user perspectives and needs are not always considered by the design team. The assigned project manager mentioned that end result of the building shows that the employees are important to the Bendigo Bank and that real attention paid to their needs.

The manager of the Bendigo Bank who was in charge of the project was knowledgeable about the business of the bank and he was part of the team. The manager believed that believed that good design can add value for the organizations’ business. The property advisor agreed that the manager saw the value that a building can bring, he said that the Bendigo Bank believes that they became a better organization trough their building. Three of the interviewees mentioned that the vision and the flexibility of the bank contributed to its success. Two of the interviewees stated that value in the end result of the building was seen as more important than the design and construction costs.

Conclusion

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4.3 Case: Eastlink Operations Centre

The Eastlink Operations Centre (ELOC) is a set of three buildings that provide commercial space for ConnectEast, the governing body and operator of the new EastLink freeway; EastLink is electronically tolled with no cash booths. The predominant of the three buildings, The Administration Operations Centre, houses 2165sqm of commercial space over two stores. This building was specifically designed to incorporate the latest international technology for freeway systems and surveillance. The two supplementary buildings consist of a single storey maintenance building and a single storey garage building. The main building is used as an office building and is therefore subject of this study.

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33 Design

The EastLink Operations Centre was intended to establish a strong and identifiable corporate identity for Connect East, it needed to be sustainable and the complex internal systems needed to function well.

Functionality

The form of the ELOC building is curvilinear, which is not very functional, storage space had to be given up and the windows in the building are small and therefore parts of the view are missed. The internal function of this building is very important as the business of the organization is to operate the EastLink freeway. The internal systems are working for the organization, but could have been better due to time and money constraints in the design and construction of the building, which will be discussed later. The fit-out of the building is however believed to be pleasant and the occupiers are happy with the design.

Aesthetics

The bright coloured and rounded façade of the building is part of the surrounding sound barrier system and leans over the freeway below, providing styling between the surrounding landscape and the company. The façade draws upon a green colour scheme that unifies the entire EastLink project and was designed to reinforce a strong, cohesive corporate image. Even though the building is attractive and recognizable, the initiative to reinforce a strong image was a hard task as the image of the organization was not clear to the architect. The colour green was for example chosen to show the sustainability of the organization, but in the end the organization did not even receive a Green Star Certified Rating. The building is however consistent with its external environment. Internally and externally the aesthetic design is also consistent as the colours are matching and the curvilinear forms are coming back in the settings of the office space.

Durability

As the building was especially designed to operate the EastLink Freeway, the functional durability of the building is low. The visual durability of the building is moderate; the building was designed to be low-maintenance because sustaining it is a hard task due to its placement. Due to the fact that the building had a low budget and had to be delivered in a very short time, the quality of the building could have been better.

Sustainability

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34 Adding value with design

Connect East is the sole occupier and owner of this building in a joint venture with the builder. Connect East communicated with the builder and the builder communicated with the design team. The building had to be established before the road was finished and was therefore under time constraints.

Integrated design

The contractor formed a joint venture with the owner of the building, and was assigned before the architect. All the engineering services were performed by the same company and were assigned by the builder. The architect was assigned by the builder as well. Since the office building was specifically built to provide operation services for the freeway, it had to be finished before the road was completed. This put enormous time constraints on the project and therefore the builder had a low-cost and fast delivery focus. The architect and engineer that were interviewed felt that this made them less open minded for design suggestions from them. The occupier also felt that the focus of the builder was on low-cost delivery of the building. Because of the time constraints and complexity of the internal systems of the building, all the engineering aspects were performed by Arup. The ‘fast and furious’ project did result in everyone at Arup pulling together to deliver the design according to the interviewee. The architect and engineer also stated that they worked together pleasantly.

The end-users as a group were not involved with the fit-out or base building design because the organization was not yet established. The project leader of ConnectEast did work closely together with the interior architect that was of the same organization than the base building architect.

The person of ConnectEast, who was experienced in a previous project in Sydney, was assigned to lead the project in Melbourne. However, as a joint venture was formed with the builder, the builder was the one that communicated with the architects and the engineers. Therefore there was no direct contact between the manager and the design team. The manager mentioned that the brief for the building had to be established in a week and was therefore imperfect. All three of the designers affirmed that the requirements and vision of ConnectEast for their building were not clear and that less value could be created for the occupiers. Both the organization and the design team would have wanted more contact with one another and a clearer vision for the project.

Conclusion

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4.4 Case: 1010 LaTrobe

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37 Design

The architect used the Green Building Council to see why commercial tenants choose one space over another, how they use the space and how they assess their own productivity in a feedback loop with the building itself. The property developer also researched what organization of these days want out of their building and included this in the building. The main aspects were flexibility of office space because organizations experience churn, sustainable buildings because organizations want to be environmentally friendly and affordable office space because organizations do not want to have high costs.

Two out of the three occupying organizations were interviewed for this research, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and the Bureau of Meteorology. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, manages the security and integrity of Australia's borders. It works closely with other government and international agencies, to detect and deter unlawful movement of goods and people across the border. The agency is a national organization employing more than 5500 people in Australia and overseas, with its Central Office in Canberra8. The main role of the Bureau of Meteorology is “to observe and understand Australian weather and climate and provide meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic services in support of Australia's national needs and international obligations”9.

Functionality

To give reach the goal of a flexible office space, the building is internally flexible in the buildings’ overall configurations; the building has no ceiling plates and an open-plan layout. This means that internal services remain exposed and no acoustic tiles are used. This had the twofold benefit of the occupier to refit the floor up to their needs at a specific point in time and it reduces the energy usage. It also feels more spacious without the ceiling plates.

The fit-out of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service was integrated with the base building, this resulted in higher functionality because design decisions could be made or changed early in the process. Specialized high security rooms could for example be configured with internal systems in order to operate 24 hours a day.

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www.customs.gov.au

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The bureau only became involved when the base building was fully delivered and had to make some changes in order for it to fit their organization. For example, ceilings were placed to hide the extensive cabling and simple things like emergency signs that are not placed in relation to the fit out of the space.

Aesthetics

The building is a reconstruction of the Munsterberg illusion which is a visual pattern that was discovered on the tiles of a café in Brisel in France. The aesthetic appeal of the building was not said to be very valuable by both tenants however, there were no extra costs involved in this design, as the building was kept simple ‘with a nice wrap around’. The aesthetics thereby created extra value, without extra costs. The building was built to be sustainable, but it was designed not to look sustainable. The architect of the building believes that green buildings should look however you want them to. Furthermore, the design of the building was kept very simple, in order for the building to stay cheap. The ‘wrap around’ however, was made special, so that the building is aesthetically interesting. Another thing the interviewees mentioned was the stunning view in the building. Because the base building design is quite special and standing out, it becomes very obvious that the fit-out does not have that same aesthetics, making the aesthetic design for the building as a whole inconsistent. This can be seen on the pictures at page 37; the aesthetic design of the corridor is obviously different than the design of the office space.

Durability

The building was built simplistically, and the focus was on low-cost. One of the occupiers of the building stated that the quality and the finishes of the building could have been better. The functional durability on the other hand is very high. Due to the flexibility of the base building, various different organizations can move into the building and fit it out up to their wishes. Furthermore, the building is sustainable, which is also attractive for future tenants10.

Sustainability

The 1010 LaTrobe building received a 5 Green Star Certified Rating as was one of the objectives. And also, one of the most important aspects of the three governmental organizations to move into the building was the sustainability. The use value of the sustainable aspect of the building is therefore high.

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39 Adding value with design

The design process can be classified as a design-build process which means that the builders are on board long before the design is completed. This allowed the builders to make suggestions in the design and provide ideas for cost cutting.

Integrated design

All the interviewees described the relationships amongst the team members as pleasant and regular team meeting were held. The architect was appointed first and was open to suggestions from the builder and the engineers, which was confirmed by the interviewed engineer and builder. The architect stated that most value is created when the architect does not act in a vacuum but in collaboration with the rest of the team. The builder agreed by stating that having contact with the engineers was important for them because the engineering disciplines are interdependent with the work of a builder. The builder also stated that the experienced architect made the process go smoother. And the property developer said that he liked to work with this architect that he had worked with before because it ‘worked’.

In the fit-out of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service end-users were involved through focus groups. The groups were asked to specify the needs of the end users and this was incorporated in design decisions. The organization used an integrated fit-out approach which made it possible for the end-users to be involved in part of the base building design as well. The manager believed that consulting end-users resulted in a better change process of the move to another building. This was especially important in this case because the employees were very happy with the location of their old building and not keen on moving. However due to the involvement the resistance to change was believed to be lower.

In the fit-out process of the Bureau of Meteorology, end users were involved by organized staff meetings to discuss major decisions, and there were focus groups of users for the day to day decisions. The Bureau of Meteorology also experienced more willingness of staff to accept the change of the office building by including them in the fit-out design.

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interviewed organization, the Bureau of Meteorology did not choose for an integrated fit-out and differences can be seen in the two office spaces. The Bureau of Meteorology had to make changes in the office building prior to moving in. Some walls were demolished and ceiling plates were installed. The flexibility and spacious look of the design as was anticipated by the property developer was thereby reduced. It also makes this office space less consistent with the rest of the building according to the architect. However the interviewee of the Bureau of Meteorology stated that the ceilings were placed to hide the extensive cabling that is needed for their services. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Services did integrate their fit-out with the base building and they did not have to make any changes in the structure of the building as this was already incorporated in the base building. The interviewee stated that there was intense contact with the builder and engineers, although communications were not directly with the intended person. This sometimes resulted in mistakes in the structure that could not be changed in the end-result.

Conclusion

The main aspects that the property developer and the architect established to be important in the building were flexibility of office spaces, sustainability and low cost. And all those objectives were reached. The sustainability aspect was the most important for the two organizations to move into the building. The office building is functional because it is flexible in its configurations and extra value is created with the low-cost aesthetic wrap around, the durability of the building could have been better.

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Office Building Design