This is Part 7 of a 10 Part Series, derived from my lecture at the Boston Architectural College Student Lecture Series “Just Futures”.  My lecture was titled  “The Power of Interior Design to Impact Positive Futures for People and Communities”.  My message was that Interior Design has the power and responsibility to positively impact people, communities and their futures, that this can only be achieved through an equitable and inclusive design process, and that  positive outcomes for people and communities are the measure of a successful design.  I shared this message through stories of our partnerships with our clients and their communities.  This is the story of the MOO in East Providence, RI

This is the story of a very cool printing company called MOO.  You may have seen some of their ads and branding, it’s all very hip and well designed, but they are also a very human centered company with a really great culture.  One of the best and unique things about MOO is their mission and values:

It’s clear that MOO has a very human-centered culture and that they really care about their employees and customers.

MOO is headquartered in London, and we were asked to design their US headquarters in East Providence RI.

The exciting thing about the project was that the space would include both the office space, and the printing / manufacturing.  In this project a big goal of MOO’s was to use the space to bring people together from both sides of their operation – the office (marketing, sales, business development, etc), and the manufacturing side (printing, shipping) – this, along with their beautiful branding, made for an extremely exciting design opportunity.  

We started by diagramming the space with 2 major moves –

• first, that everyone, all employees no matter which “side” they were on, would enter through one door – this was new a new concept
• Second – to create a zone that straddled both areas with shared common amenities

This was all well received, and we set up a meeting to meet with representatives from both the office and manufacturing sides, to get their input.  Here’s an important lesson that we learned.  Everyone loved the idea of the link between, but what was in the link was where we had some lessons learned:

We’ve been designing lots of “amenity spaces” lately, and we brought our experience to MOO’s space.  We had cafes, and coffee bars, and lounges, and fitness spaces, and game rooms – all the things that have become part of the typical office program. So we brought up these ideas, and when the gym idea came up, one man who worked in printing said, “we can’t use that, we are on shifts, and get scheduled breaks  – when are we supposed to use a gym, or a game room?  And after work I pick up my kids, I can’t hang around and use these”.

What we had done was propose something that worked for one group, but not the other – we needed to recognize that not all work methods are the same.  While office workers have flexibility, someone working at a printer cannot “stop the presses” because they feel like working out.

After much collaboration, the principle of the blending was still done, with spaces that all could use equally – the cafe, lounges, a learning resource center, and wellness rooms.  Continued discussions are happening now about additional spaces, and how to culturally and operationally make it possible for some spaces like a gym or game room workable.  There is even talk about a communal art piece being created by all employees, to be located in the cafe and entry.

Another important design move related to equity was to bring the vibe and branding into both spaces, most notably with plants and color.  Where manufacturing spaces usually don’t get this kind of attention, we brought the MOO palette into the open trusses above, for all employees to see throughout the plant, as well as greenery around the spaces.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but in the first year of this phase being open, we are hearing that the blending is happening more and more

If we have any part of everyone in a company feeling included, and where interaction and new relationships can be fostered, people can respect what everyone in a company is doing, I count that as a success