Moving People with +Positive spaces
At Interface, we are convinced our modular flooring solutions have the power to move people. With the expertise of architects and designers, the floor can contribute to a space that lets its users thrive, letting them live, work, learn and regenerate. We think the health and happiness of a building’s user is a core responsibility of owners, architects, designers and business leaders – both from an ethical point of view, and because it’s good for business.
+Positive spaces™ are environments that have positive impacts. These impacts result from the attributes of the space and the people who use it. It’s important to understand that a space is not the same as a room. A space can be as small as a favourite seat in a library or as big as a city or even the whole planet. It can even be your favourite online hangout. Applying it to built space, it refers to the ability of an interior environment to provide a range of specific, spatial moments that offer people the choices, tools and permission to work as they see fit.
Design = optimism
In our experience, most designers are optimists. We believe we can design a better way. In the built environment, this is all about creating spaces that inspire and support people, accommodating their needs. We have been trusting our gut for ages when it comes to interior design, but in the last decades, the scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of spaces has become a source of definitive proof.
(dis)engagement
Historically, the people using a space could not find (or create) the environment they needed to do their work and feel good doing it. We went from the cubicle to the open office space, without realising that one-size-fits-all usually fits no one particularly well. A monolithic interior at either extreme ignores the data which says that we need some cube time, open collaboration time, private phone time, nap time and time to sit in the sun and daydream, all in the same day.
Today’s challenge is to create +Positive spaces, environments that enhance the productivity, creativity and wellbeing of their users, instead of minimising their costs. Luckily, the business case is on our side.
Future-proofing
Considering the future, it is clear that younger generations of workers, students and patients coming into facilities will demand choice, variability and control.
We must offer flexibility – allowing people to grow and create their own meeting places, their own rhythms and traditions. Spaces succeed if they respond to feedback and change to meet the new cultural conditions – a need in all kinds of built space. Offices, higher learning, hospitality and healthcare facilities are starting to look more and more alike. If the space offers a choice between sun and shade, stimulation and reflection, connectivity and privacy, we have a sense of control and wellbeing.
From our experience, we look to modularity and nature for the answer. The best spaces consist of connected, interdependent zones, just like a forest. Modular building blocks offer the flexibility, functionality and aesthetic to establish these +Positive spaces. They let us facilitate increased user engagement.
In 2017 and beyond, we want to contribute to +Positive spaces in the widest sense. Our modular flooring system offers a unique breadth of design and functionality to create areas that are fit for purpose without diluting the overall aesthetic. We’re expanding our offering with resilient flooring that’s designed to combine with our leading carpet tile.
We want to create a movement around the idea of +Positive Spaces itself. Let us know what defines a +Positive space for you, and why it moves you. Are you stimulated by color, the people around you or maybe the view out the window? How do you create +Positive spaces? Join the conversation online by sharing #PositiveSpaces images, or connect with us to chat at a showroom or upcoming event.
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