The User Perspective: An Interview with Rossmann Architecture Inc.

Designing educational spaces is a niche all on its own, which should require the voices and input from a large number of stakeholders and potential users. While the end-user may not always be involved in the process, making decisions and building in affordances which will help the user feel comfortable in the space are part of the job for the design team behind educational spaces. Rossmann Architecture Inc. recently designed a new space at a University in Canada’s capital city and were able to create a beautiful, inviting space which is now open and being actively engaged with by students, staff and faculty.

Rossmann Architecture Inc. is an Architectural firm in Gatineau, QC. While they are located in Gatineau, they work across Quebec and Ontario, dealing with projects ranging from renovations to new commercial builds in both the private and government sectors. Rossmann Architecture Inc. is composed of young professionals and seasoned experts who all bring their experiences and passion to their work. The company believes in the natural answer to situations, often using analogies to nature in their work. Rossmann Architecture Inc. fosters a collaborative and supportive work environment for everyone and they are a true modern workplace. Led by their Executive Team made up of Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Erik Rossmann, winner of the Top 40 under 40 award in 2022, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Sara Rossmann, and Chief Operations Officer Shane Balcom, the team is dynamic and continually expanding into new territories.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with their Director of Projects, Richard Bitar, who spoke with me about designing an innovative learning environment. In this article, I highlight some of the key points from our conversation and draw your attention to what echoes higher education research. The team behind the project took neuroarchitecture and biphilic environments into account, the accessibility of the space, the flow of traffic and sight lines. As Richard mentioned to me, put yourself in the students’ shoes, and this is what the architectural team did in this project. Drawing on neuroarchitecture research, engaged learning practices and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles, they were able to design an environment which provides safety and community.

Please enjoy some of our conversation below!

Interviewer: What considerations were made when designing the XX [space]?

Richard: Well, there were a lot of considerations. The consideration for the students and functionality of the space. We also explored different textures and palettes, colour palettes, to allow for a more engaging space for the students. One of the important themes that we applied was something that would be timeless. We wanted to allow for something that would be left for the students for decades to come.

Interviewer: That’s an interesting point about timelessness. You also mention the colours. Why were blues and greys chosen? And texturally, there are waves and circles and all kinds of different shapes in the space on the walls, ceilings and the tables have different shapes too. Why is that?

Richard: I think that, well, what we had discussed was something that was timeless, but I think that we wanted something that is serene as well. We took a lot of inspiration from nature. So the greens the blues are the natural colours and the circles are like the sun. I think that evokes a space that is serene, that’s calm, and it allows for proper thinking and no distractions.

{Let me remind readers about a previous article this month, Neuroarchitecture in Design, which mentioned biphilic environments and the value that natural colours and shapes provide for students and office workers}.

Interviewer: In regard to how it looks, on one side of the floor there are more open spaces with long desks where students can sit together and it’s surrounded by the collaborative rooms that students can book on the outside walls. And then on the other side of the floor, you have the square tables beside the TV’s and semi-circular spaces with couches and lots of whiteboards. Not only do the study spaces have different shapes and purposes, but why was there a mixture of individual study spaces and collaborative study spaces together, in one open area?

Richard: The idea behind that was we felt like collaborative spaces are not just in direct correlation with the tasks that they (the students) are doing. Individual spaces can be collaborative too. I think that individuals, even though they’re not specifically working together, they are in the same space, and this can invoke a more collaborative environment for everyone.

Interviewer: It’s like a community.

Richard: Exactly. ?

{This response relates to research done in living-learning housing and how being with others and watching others work provides a kind of ‘peer-pressure’ to also work and study (Sriram et al., 2020). Spaces like this also open up the learning process so that it is not private or competitive (hooks, 2009; Crawford Barniskis, 2016)}.

Interviewer: Were there any other conversations, either amongst yourselves or with the client, about the pedagogy behind how the space was designed?

Richard: I mentioned this a little bit earlier that access to the most number of students possible was important to us. So, there was a conversation about different types of furniture to allow for different types of interactions students could have, whether they needed an area that was open to allow for discussion with other people, or an area to hang with a friend, or even an area to study with a friend from a different class. All of those [possibilities] were taken into consideration and all of those played a part in the layout and furniture.

Interviewer: Okay, so accessibility to everyone was definitely a focus?

Richard: Yes! For sure. Different types of studying require different types of furniture and spaces. We had to think about silent space and discussion space. We also had to think about accessibility for different physical abilities too. That’s one reason why we didn’t want the electrical cords to interrupt the space in any way.

Interviewer: You’ve already spoken to the location of the plugs and the layout of the furniture and how your team thought about each element in the space and the importance of these pieces being used most effectively. If you were advising other institutions on designing or creating a space like this, what would you tell them to consider or say should be included or not included in a similar space?

Richard: There’s a lot to unwrap with that question. Something else we tried to use well was technology and incorporate a lot of it. There are for example, SmartBoards in the space at some workstations and others have plug-and-play TV stations. What else is really, really important, and we had to take this into consideration too, is lighting, focal points and noise. We used a lot of acoustic panels and dividing panels. I think using the panels in a big space creates more secluded spaces within that bigger space, without necessarily closing-off or blocking-off areas. Closing one part of the floor makes it more segregated, which we didn’t want. Instead, we used acoustic panels, we used specific lighting, drop points, all those to allow the space to feel inviting while not feeling too, too open and intimidating. An open space can potentially feel intimidating if the ceilings are too high, for example, so you need to have different levels of tables and walls and drop points to make it feel more inviting and I think that we used those types of elements properly to make sure that the students feel comfortable in the space. And the more comfortable they feel, the better studying they will do. That’s what we’re hoping anyway!

Interviewer: Yes! And the panels you used were artistic panels. They were beautiful and some had the design through them, which I also thought was really interesting!

Richard: Ya, I think some of them also had some leaves on them.

Interviewer: Yes, they did.

Richard: So, it all kind of plays on the theme of nature and feeling comfortable. Ya, so I think the advice would be to make sure that you use technology to your advantage and pay attention to the small details. Lighting is one of those things. I think often times lighting is not well utilized. People just use the typical LED lights that go all the way across the ceiling, but that’s missing out on a big aspect of the space. Lighting evokes a lot of different emotions. It allows you to concentrate or helps you see the computer screen well and so different lighting is important. Overall, my advice is place yourself in the shoes of the student that is trying to do the work.

{The importance of lighting in spaces was also mentioned in my previous article Neuroarchitecture in Design.}

And that’s the takeaway this week, Are you designing from the user perspective?

A huge thank you to Richard and the team at Rossmann Architecture Inc.! Looking forward to seeing what you do next.

?---

Leo Quote: “In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” -Aristotle

?---

References

Crawford Barniskis, S. (2016). Creating space: The Impacts of spatial arrangements in public library makerspaces. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2016, Columbus, OH – Connections. Collaboration. Community in Session 79 - Library Theory and Research.

hooks, bell. (2009). Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. New York: Routledge.

Langridge Bitar, S. (2023, June 14). Neuroarchitecture in Design. LinkedIn. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/neuroarchitecture-design-sarah-langridge-bitar

Sriram, R., Weintraub, S.D., Cheatle, J., Haynes, C., Murray, J.L., & Marquart, C.P. (2020). The Influence of Academic, Social, and Deeper Life Interactions on Students’ Psychological Sense of Community. JCSD, 61(5), 593-608.

Photo in article from:?Cornwall. St. Lawrence College. (n.d.). tps://www.stlawrencecollege.ca/campus/cornwall