Architect 2016-01

“Workplace has become more of a place to
be with other people.” —Carlos Martinez
we brought to the table. Companies were very
vigilant to make sure the vision of the designer
was maintained, either through protocols
like clean desk policies or maybe a facilities
group that made sure there were standards
that had to be maintained.”
But Martinez thinks it’s the other way
around. “I think now we need to create
places that actually are lived in. People in
those spaces need to own them,” he says.
It’s so inevitable that employees will
adapt their work environments that designers
can often figure out design solutions simply
by observing the ad hoc adaptations workers
have already made.
“I always say many of the solutions that
we’re asked to solve are already there, and
it’s what I call ‘user work-arounds,’” Martinez
says. “If you pay attention to how the user has
totally made do with what the space doesn’t
give them, that’s where the good stuff is.”
Of course, these user work-arounds
may be quick and dirty—like uneven tables
pushed together or chairs crammed into a
conference room that’s too small. For Martinez,
the designer’s opportunity is to integrate
those necessary adaptations in the office
design in a graceful, beautiful, or clever way.
Looking at it this way, Martinez sees the
relationship between office designer and
worker as analogous to that of urban planner
and urban resident.
“Why do people say, ‘I love Barcelona’
or ‘I love London?’ It’s because the framework
[the urban planners developed] has
been visionary,” Martinez says. “A city is very
spontaneous. We’re not controlling every
single thing that gets built in a city; what you
do is create a system that allows that city
to grow in a very healthy way, almost like
an ecosystem.”
If urban spaces are planned but malleable,
constantly changing shape based on the people
who inhabit them, offices can be as well.
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