It started — where else? — in America where Apple is building a “spaceship” office complex for its developers and designers and Google encourages its staff to scramble between floors using climbing walls.
What started with basketball hoops and jelly bean machines has now matured into a conviction that having fun in the workplace, particularly if you’re a creative, sparks the imagination and makes you more productive. Working in a wacky office, one recent report claims, promotes more than just relaxation and fun.
“Our work supports the notion that funky offices aid creativity,” explained Joe Redden, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota. “The key idea is that a non-conventional office supports non-conventional thinking. One of the challenges in being creative is to break out beyond the typical way of thinking — a less organised office helps people do this.”
On this side of the Atlantic the ethic has, so far, been adopted more as a “social work station” where employees can not only wind down but share ideas and offer suggestions.
Designing its London office, the US-based ticket sales company Ticketmaster gave socialising a high priority and included a metal slide that staff can take to reach the jukebox and table football-equipped bar area. “If a space gives you permission to have fun and enjoy yourself, that is more likely to make you creative than a stiff formal situation,” says Matt Kingdon, co-founder of the? What If! innovation consultancy and author of The Science of Serendipity.
At Innocent Drinks that means covering the entire office floor with fake grass, even under the desks, while Virgin Money decided to turn the entire ceiling of its Edinburgh operations centre into an eye-catching sky; an innovation which won it a British Council for Offices award.
Another example of blue sky thinking comes from Brighton-based public relations agency, Man Bites Dog. Inspired by its seaside location its office has a full-length indoor pier, complete with beach hut meeting rooms. Managing director Claire Mason says it would be easy to dismiss the decor as a gimmick, but argues: “If we look at hard performance measures such as staff retention, engagement, productivity, quality of work and team satisfaction with their workplace, then it’s a clear winner.”
Smaller, one-man businesses are also benefitting from unusual surroundings. Founded by a photographer and interior designer — and inspired by Google and Hollywood’s Pixar — Dark Studios now houses 42 small creative ventures. Co-founder James Abbott-Donnelly so disliked Leeds office spaces on offer that he decided to create an open-plan facility where people were “forced” to speak to each other.
“The benefit of talking to other people is that you are exposed to ideas you wouldn’t otherwise have come across,” says Abbott-Donnelly. “Networking with other people requires extra effort, and that doesn’t come naturally to most people. We have engineered a space where people will meet each other in an informal way without the need for name badges and handshakes.”
But if all this interaction and fun gets too much and you just want to scream, the offices of advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy have the answer — a leather padded cell. Staff can shut themselves in and let off steam without disturbing their co-workers, explains creative director Tony Davidson. “By chance, we also found it has great acoustics for conference calls.”
