Why Your Office Space Matters More for Productivity Than You Think
Office space design can make the difference between people being able to concentrate and not

What's the relationship between quality of office space and company performance in tech companies? originally appeared on Quora, the knowledge-sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by Yuval Ariav, VC, founder at Fundbox, product at Onavo (acquired by Facebook), on Quora:
Here are a few observations from years (and years) of firsthand experience, and from discussing this question with quite a few founders and managers:

• Bringing heads together: The better designed the office space is, both aesthetically and functionally, the more time employees will stay in. And the more that happens, the more productive they'll be overall in collaborative roles. In such roles, most initiatives in tech require a group effort, e.g., interactions between PMs and engineers, marketers and designers, or people from the same department working together. Most of these efforts are iterative processes that progress a lot faster when response cycles are faster. Slack seems to be doing a good job closing the gap between being together physically vs. virtually, but my feeling is it will never recreate the experience of sitting together in a room and having a face-to-face discussion.

• (Not) bringing the noise: Particularly for younger teams in smaller offices, office space design can make the difference between people being able to concentrate and not. Especially if you have a sales team. Or you are big on meetings but are short on meeting rooms. The sounds can just get unbearable. Most people say it's hard to quantify, but it's actually really easy. Just calculate the average number of daily out-of-the-office coffee breaks people take.

• Office space and culture: This might seems silly, but there are many ways in which the office design can help shape and instill the company culture, and by doing so, increase the alignment of all employees. The best known example, perhaps, is the open office design, which is being hated on of late, although my feeling is that it's just misused and mismanaged. Some of the ideas behind open office are projecting transparency and facilitating communication between team members, both of which are cultural values. There are other ways in which design reflects on culture: how many meeting rooms you have, the ratio between male and female bathrooms, etc.

• High-quality office space helps in recruiting top talent: And top talent boosts company performance (duh!). This is very obvious. Before office spaces were a thing to brag about, companies that emphasized work environment had a competitive advantage in the job market. Today, it's table stakes.

This question originally appeared on Quora, the knowledge-sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Source: Inc.com

An insightful glimpse into the office of the future told by fast coexist author Ben Schiller. 
Office chairs that adjust to your body based on biofeedback. Walls that slide, shift, and change color according to worker needs. Three-dimensional printers that produce food and replicate office supplies. These are some of the possibilities in the "office of the future."

​The days of classrooms where a teacher desk sits at the front of the classroom and students’ desks are neatly aligned in rows are over. Learning technologies, and changing pedagogical methods, are not only changing the way we teach but also the physical environments we teach in. The role physical environments play in our learning is just beginning to be studied and understood.

CONTINUE READING

Source: Education-2025

Here is a well written and insightful 2016 Workplace Report created by the architectural firm, Ted Moudis Associates. Ted Moudis Associates has offices in New York, Chicago and London.

Jennifer Magnolfi thinks about the future of work from her own unique perspective — that of an architect. Born and raised in Italy, she has also spent a lot of time in North America exploring workspaces and what they mean in the context of society. She has worked with large web corporations and new workspace networks. She has also spent time working for Herman Miller, the iconic furniture company.

BFI is pleased to welcome Helena Loman to the BFI-New York Office as a Sales Executive, Business Developer. Helena comes to us after a successful tenure at Innovant as a Senior Account Executive, Business Development and Dovetail, Director of Business Development and Sales. Helena also is a licensed financial services professional holding series 7.9.10, 25 63 and 65 FINRA credentials and has enjoyed success at PaineWebber and Wachovia Securities. She is also a licensed Real Estate Broker. Helena is active in CoreNet, IFMA, IIDA CIANJ and Professional Women in Construction NY/NJ.
 
She was born and raised in Sweden where she received her nursing degree and is multi lingual. Helena is quite networked in New York City architects, designers and other professionals and has worked with BFI-New York on several financial service opportunities during her tenure at Innovant. Some of her major accounts include Rothschild, Vermillion Asset Management and Aflac Financial Services.
 
Welcome Helena!

You may look at Belmont Ridge Middle School seventh grade teacher Jason Augustowski's language arts class and see a bunch of couch potatoes, but that's not the case.

The teacher has swapped out the desks and chairs for couches and coffee tables to set the mood for something different in how students learn.

The experiment will be assessed at the end of this marking period and could be expanded to other classes if it proves to help students learn.