From mixed-use to mixed-experience

Hello friends of the art of gathering! You will no doubt remember that last week I shared some words on our fast-emptying cities and invited thoughts, comments, and hopefully push-backs. I received all three, so thank you for jumping in, joining the conversation, and giving me much to ponder going forward.

In the same spirit and vein, I thought that this week I might focus on how we might go beyond the 'mixed amenity' approach to planning for gathering well in the workplace. As many of you will attest, much of what goes into planning for and delivering a workplace that has the capacity to attract and involve present and future talent is the 'scope list of benefits' that might come from the proposed 'mix of positive amenities'.

This is great, but often falls down on how they might properly link up as an integrated experience. I'm interested here in those interventions that go beyond the listing of ingredients that make up the recipe for great workplace design, the kind that ask - in their planning, delivery, and maintaining - how they are properly informed by and flex to the experience of the end user.

You will, no doubt, have your own examples of those workplaces that do exactly this - and I look forward to hearing about those. If you haven't and for the purposes of rounding off this post, I urge you to have a look at the Australian bank Suncorp's now much vaunted home offices Heritage Lanes, designed, developed, and partly owned by Mirvac, and which was relatively recently awarded a Leesman+ (workplace experience) certificate.

Advertised as a 'destination office' before the post-Covid world began to speak of such things, it is a wonderful example of how to programme for many types of flow. The employee experience is reinforced by and constantly informs the use of its superhub and destination floors. The concierge service - real-world and digital - and the planting facilitate beautiful movement throughout the building. A calendar of regular and one-off events creates a genuinely festivalised feel. The building's the opposite of being a fortress: it is in permanent conversation with the city. Far greater than the sum of its amenity parts, Heritage Lanes is so much more than an office.

I know a bit about how Suncorp got here as FreeState was involved in helping create the experience framework that served and continues to serve as the 'experience underlay' to Heritage Lanes's design, delivery, and ongoing management. However, I don't want to overplay our part. Like all strategies, it will have evolved over the time, getting better and better as the research moved into design and on into build. In this respect, Suncorp will have benefited enormously from Mirvac's championing of the 'shared value' or 'mixed experience' development. As it concludes in Unlocking nexus value: From mixed-use to mixed-experience, a 'new metrics focused on shared value should be used to ensure our cities as a collection of villages, precincts and buildings are activated through programming to act as a magnet for people.' Heritage Lanes is that magnet.

So, friends. In the name of the art of gathering, don't hold back: examples of and ideas on what it takes to create workplaces that are as enjoyable as they are productive. Let's get the conversation going.

(Previous post: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/art-gathering-adam-scott-bgfae/?trackingId=Bjf6zpbPRSqCPC4fjjWZzA%3D%3D)