As I travel around the country talking with educators about learning space redesign, I hear of some schools successfully transitioning into 21^st century learning spaces while others are struggling. In the successful schools the educators are seeing positive results in the new spaces; in the other schools the educators are becoming frustrated. In some cases they are even facing opposition. So I began to ask myself, “What are the common points I’m seeing in the schools that are successful? What do educators need to know to accomplish this shift?” Here are some answers.

What types of spaces spark excitement? What about spaces that catalyze action?

At NeoCon 2017, Herman Miller and designer Yves Béhar unveiled the future of office design with Live OS. It’s an app-based system that brings robotics into offices by connecting workspaces to people’s changing needs throughout the day, empowering them to work smarter and healthier. This customizable system consists of cloud-connected furnishings, an app, and a dashboard to gain an understanding of evolving humans that use it. The end goal is to make constant adjustments to ensure a happy, high-performing workforce. At its core, it’s designed to measure the effectiveness of a space and optimize it for workers.

That's a tough question to answer. As the world continues to change, so do our needs. No matter how hard we try to stay up-to-date with new forms of self-directed, creative, and collaborative work, old working styles remain in our lives and in our workspaces. Today, a work team may work in numerous locations across the globe with new and emerging tools and technology to support them. At the same time, those same locations may still have forms of directed, repetitive, and individual work. That's why new solutions for co-creation, display, remote connection, and nonlinear development are either replacing or being layered on existing systems.

Whether you're the one building it or the one who's working in it once complete, most of us have asked ourselves, "How do I stay on schedule with my construction project?" Remember our post about the future of construction? In it we learned the 3 things most say after a construction project is done are:

1. It took longer than I thought.
2. It cost more than I thought.
3. The quality isn't as high as I'd anticipated.

In the world of healthcare, it’s important to consider the holistic experience. That’s why healthcare facilities today are creating environments designed with a compelling selection of settings across the entire health system. Still, there’s a greater need for ergonomic solutions in these spaces, whether that’s providing flexible seating options in the waiting room or sit-to-stand solutions for staff members. Here are three additional ways to make your healing spaces more ergonomically friendly.

We talked recently about when to bring a furniture provider into the commercial real estate (CRE) process. It’s not only wise to bring this kind of provider into the CRE process early, but a holistic workplace environment partner you can trust throughout the duration of your commercial property lifecycle. Throughout the property lifecycle there’s a continual need to work with many partners, from groundbreaking to occupancy and other matters for years to come. No matter what stage of the lifecycle you’re in, whether it’s the acquisition, design, build, or maintenance of your property, your workplace partner should be there to support you every step of the way.

Founded in 2008, Pelotonia was established with the objective to fund life-saving cancer research. To date, the organization has raised over $130 million and 100% of every dollar raised has gone directly to The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. It's a huge part of the Columbus community and of our culture at Continental Office. We're proud to partner with this dynamic organization that aligns with our values and gives in unprecedented ways. We recently had the chance to speak with Doug Ulman, CEO of Pelotonia. As a growing organization, they’re currently undergoing updates to their space. We were able to get a glimpse into the changes happening at the Pelotonia headquarters, and what's to come.

More and more, the line is blurring between residential and commercial design. One noticeable change I’m seeing on both sides today is the reuse of materials in unique and interesting ways. Things we’re used to seeing in residential design, like industrial elements or repurposed materials in the home, are now making their way into commercial office environments.

A recent global study confirms that successful, forward-thinking organizations and their design partners are planning space to a completely new set of benchmarks.