Know what a Millennial is? It’s someone who was born after 1982 and spends 18 hours a day online. The Millennial mindset is that there has to be a way to make this faster, easier, more reliable, more flexible, more efficient. Optimise is their favourite word. Millennials want the way we interact with the world to be more personal, more inclusive, more intuitive. Technology is not an added extra, it is not an option; it is expected. It is all-pervasive in every aspect of a Millennial’s life.
By the year 2020, 50% of the global workforce will be Millennials. But what is the impact of an ‘always connected’ workforce on the office real estate sector, and how does it influence the fit out and construction industry? Designers and builders of office spaces must prioritise the confluence of employee work and social life; their health and wellbeing. The design must be driven by the tenets of the Triple Bottom Line – People, Planet and Profit. Daylighting, fresh air, and having a view of a TV screen are basics that the tech companies insist upon. The vast majority of corporate occupiers’ costs go on salaries and benefits, not rent, and it has become accepted wisdom that wellbeing is vital in sustaining productivity. The role the built environment has in this cannot be underestimated. Companies are competing to hire these tech-savvy Millennials, who like to work in collaborative spaces, where they can share ideas, inspire and motivate on teams with like-minded professionals.
RKD Interiors brought the design concept to fruition wherein it is acknowledged that people have different needs throughout the day – times they want to collaborate and times where they just need to think by themselves.
It was important for HubSpot that their Dublin hub would look like their office in the states. They leased 2 floors in One Dockland Central – a building where mac-interiors are already contracted to carry out extensive upgrade works for the landlord Hibernia REIT. The contract to fit out the HubSpot space was awarded to mac based on the quality of the landlord works. We built multi-functional social spaces where a coffee or a beer can be chosen as appropriate to the meeting. The staff each have small desks with screens all around them, to where they can retreat and concentrate; or nomad tables in the social area with data and power if they want to work in a buzzy atmosphere. We installed phone booths for small meetings – some with an armchair, some with a desk – another meeting-appropriate area that optimises the use of the space and the ubiquitous technology.
Our favourite is the library space with its gothic arched door. It redefines the word ‘multifunctional’ – it is a shoot location where the HubSpotters make video content for their blogs and internal meetings; it can be used as a quiet research area; or a place for boisterous collaboration.
Optimisation by Millennials. Fit out by mac.
