Culture & Society

How Can Design Shape Office Culture?

Award-winning author Rex Miller, an expert in workplace team performance, will discuss design as a key element of creating and transforming office culture.
September 30, 2016

modern designed officeAward-winning author Rex Miller, an expert in workplace team performance, will discuss design as a key element of creating and transforming office culture in “Scaling the Magic — How Space Shapes Culture and Engagement,” the keynote address of the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s 18th annual faculty research symposium.

The keynote is scheduled at 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24 in Preston Geren Auditorium, building B of the Langford Architecture Center.

The symposium is a daylong event showcasing the college faculty’s recent research on issues relevant to the natural, built and virtual environments in a series of fast-paced presentations abbreviated from talks they have previously delivered at scholarly gatherings around the world. The 2016 symposium includes invited or refereed presentations and papers from the 2015-16 academic year.

Rex Miller
Rex Miller

(ArchOne)

The event is open to the public and there is no fee, but due to limited seating, registration is required. A continental breakfast, lunch and refreshments will be served to all symposium registrants, and classes at the college are cancelled so students can attend the presentations.

In his address, Miller will detail how cost-conscious company executives often treat office design as unimportant, creating soul-killing work environments of stressed, fragmented, and disengaged workers.

In a study investigating how design impacts office culture, Miller and two colleagues, after research and fieldwork with more than 60 organizations, found that employees in flexible, open and engaging workplaces reconnect with work. They detailed their findings in “Change Your Space, Change Your Culture: How Engaging Workspaces Lead to Transformation and Growth.”

“Office space must be designed to inspire a desired culture and workflow – if it’s not properly designed, no program, training or rules will be effective over time,” states a publisher’s summary of the book. “Environment can inspire dread or enthusiasm, distraction or focus, collaboration or isolation.”

Continue reading on ArchOne.

This article originally appeared in ArchOne.

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