Woods Bagot’s design for Cisco showcases current trends in workplace design

Technology and demographics have been the key drivers of workplace design in recent years. A younger workforce that is quite comfortable with computers, and able to adjust quickly to the idea of moving around a building, rather than being tied to a desk, have embraced the idea of the “deskless office”. Technology today allows people to break free from their workstations. With wireless access, people can work from cafeterias and conference rooms, especially within large offices.

The bright, crisp interiors of the new Cisco offices in Dubai showcase these trends. Woods Bagot won an international competition for the commission of the new Middle East Headquarters for Cisco. Woods Bagot’s design team were led by Duncan Parkinson and Julie Knight.

On trend: Plenty of breakout areas with ergonomic furniture

Cisco has taken a whole building in Knowledge Village in Dubai. The ground floor houses the main reception and the Customer Briefing Centre. The CBC is a fundamental resource for the Cisco sales team, and houses a number of suites demonstrating the various functions of their products.

The seven floors of office space for the Field Sales Office are open plan with the managers’ offices on the inner core. This creates a light open space that the staff will enjoy. Other features include a central breakout restaurant to encourage interaction between all divisions, and a relaxation floor on the upper level.

This design theme was then delivered by Woods Bagot in Cairo, Kuwait and Riyadh.

Cisco’s approach has been to surrender their top-down management style in favour of a collaborative one, where in fact no one, whatever their standing, is assigned an office and in most cases, not even a workstation. Business groups and key stakeholders are co-located, so the new environment had to take into account the full spectrum of work styles. 

One of the key challenges with open office structures is the obvious concern with lack of privacy and interruption by others in close vicinity, and whilst collaborative open environment helps people to become more visible, much of Cisco’s work involves engineering which requires deep concentration and active avoidance of interruption.  The new workspace has taken these divergent needs into account with the provision of collaboration hubs of various sizes and some 35 small focus rooms.

Woods Bagot are keen advocates of activity-based workplaces, where essentially, team members can choose where and how they want to work.

Collaboration at Cisco is the collective norm, and this is greatly enhanced by the openness and structure of the space and supported by numerous group work areas. Casual and informal meeting spaces are scattered throughout all levels, embedded within the workplace - these include pockets of living room areas and stand-up meeting areas, which are great for time away from desk-based activities or a quick walk-by meeting.  Team areas have floor to ceiling writable surfaces which groups use extensively for brainstorming and design sessions. Copy and printing hubs are demarcated by a flash of colour.

Cisco also relies heavily on Telepresence, a next generation conferencing system that is installed in its offices globally allowing meetings to be called spontaneously and team decisions made quickly without the need to travel, making the new workplace facility round the clock operational.  This hive of creative activity supported by carefully designed refresh-spaces with e-cafes and outdoor terraces provided on both the client facing and employee floors.

SHARING IS CARING

After recognising that traditionally assigned office space is vacant about 65 per cent of the time while meeting rooms were often in short supply, Cisco IT and Cisco Workplace Resources developed the Connected Workplace.

This new concept virtually eliminates dedicated workspaces and increases shared spaces available to everybody, adapting to the increasingly mobile and collaborative work styles of Cisco employees and contractors.

To quantify the environmental sustainability of the Connected Workplace compared to traditional office environments, Cisco commissioned a study.

The results of the study documented benefits including reduced consumption of materials and equipment, improved energy efficiency, increased space utilisation and reduced electronic and office waste.

Single Tenant Building G+7
Main Contractor: Al Tayer Stocks
Commencement: March 2008
Completion: November 2009
Glass partitioning and panels: Office Acoustics/JEB/Infinity Glass
Workstations: Knoll
Meeting tables: Knoll
Cafe Furniture: Arper