CIDA Collaborative Strategies Report / December 2010

Introduction

On Friday, November 12, 2010, the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA) Board of Directors convened representatives from disciplines impacting the built environment to discuss collaboration. The session, entitled Collaborative Strategies, was focused on identifying and better understanding factors influencing collaboration across related disciplines, and how these impact future practice.

The CIDA Board selected session participants who represent a range of professions involved in designing, constructing, and managing where humans live, work, play, learn, heal, and relax. While the session representation was not intended to encompass every discipline that impacts the built environment, the CIDA Board selected professions that have a high degree of impact.

The ASID Foundation is a proud sponsor of the CIDA Collaborative Strategies session. Herman Miller hosted the event in their Washington, DC showroom. Doug Parker, Managing Principal, with the Greenway Group facilitated the session.

Practice leaders who participated in the session and the disciplines represented were:

Dan Adler, D*MN Good, Washington, DCGraphic Design
David Callan, Environmental Systems Design, Chicago, ILStructural Engineering
Nancy Clanton, Clanton and Associates, Boulder, COLighting Design
Rob DePinto, Cisco, Charlotte, NCTechnology
Bob Fox, FOX Architects, Washington, DCArchitecture
Gretchen Gscheidle, Herman Miller, Chicago, ILProduct Development/Ergonomics
Lewis Goetz, Group Goetz Architects, Washington, DCInterior Design
Jan Johnson, Allsteel, New York, NYInterior Design/Environmental Psychology
Tim Kelley, Blue Sky Exhibits, Marietta, GAIndustrial Design
Diane MacKnight, MacKnight Associates, Washington, DCFacilities Management
Heidi Painchaud, B+H Architects, Toronto, ONInterior Design
Vaughn Rinner, VHB, Virginia Beach, VALandscape Architecture
Linda Sorrento, USGBC, Washington, DCInterior Design
Randy Wilda, Steelcase, Grand Rapids, MIDesign Research
Andrea Wright, Barton Malow Company, Southfield, MIConstruction Management

The session focused on four key questions:
1) What are the driving factors that will increase and accelerate collaboration in five years and beyond, in all aspects of life?
2) How will collaboration affect the built environment?
3) How will a multidisciplinary design team look and function in five years?
4) What are the common factors that will be required for a high degree of collaboration across multidisciplinary design teams?

Several observers who are interior design practitioners, educators, and organizational leaders attended the session and took copious notes, which greatly assisted CIDA in preparing this report.

CIDA is sharing the outcomes of the Collaborative Strategies session in as much as the discussion points more broadly benefit the professional community. CIDA sets quality standards for interior design programs based on a diligent process of community consultation. The following report informs CIDA’s process for standards development, but additional input is sought to develop and calibrate expectations for professional-level interior design education.

Discussion Question One: What are the driving factors that will increase and accelerate collaboration in five years and beyond, in all aspects of life?

Each session participant was asked to contribute three driving factors with a high degree of impact on collaborative practices in all aspects of life by 2015.

Lewis Goetz asked the immediate question of whether five years was too short a time frame. Doug Parker suggested that the timeframe could be longer if one was able to reasonably envision beyond 2015.

The discussion was open and allowed participants to build on one another’s topics. The facilitator grouped similar points. In some instances closely related topics appear in separate lists. Groupings reflect the nature of the discussion. A sample of participants’ comments is also provided under each topic.

1.COMMUNICATION

Key points:

  • An increasing amount of information requires strong ability to discern quality and relevance of content.
  • Speed of access to information and need for immediacy is more prevalent and must be accommodated.
  • Generational differences are more pronounced and place increased importance on design for a range of user needs.
  • Face-to-face communication is still important, and requires the ability to receive/interpret non-verbal signals that are critical for good communication.
  • More recognition is given to the value of soft skills (people) versus hard skills (technical/dealing with the physical environment).
  • The delivery process needs to change to allow for new collaborative contracts/processes.
  • BIM plus other new technologies result in project databases being available as learning tools.
  • New media platforms change human behavior, for example, the way social media has influenced behavior.
  • Design process and organization are tools that will be used to develop models and systems.
  • A highly litigious society may force silo-ization, creating significant barriers to open communication and leading to poor solutions.

A sample of participant comments:

How do you handle desire for immediacy? There must be access to everything you need. My favorite mantra is that information is not wisdom. You may have 25,000 hits, but there is still the act of discernment. There needs to be wisdom. The design has to allow the environment to morph and change. (Jan Johnson)

If we can get there quicker through open innovation we need to do it. (Gretchen Gscheidle)

I remember when my partners didn’t think we needed to get wrapped up in e-mail. My kids are having six conversations going on via different programs and doing their homework. At work we are all using Skype and the amount of communication and speed is phenomenal. This communication wave is going to continue exponentially. (Bob Fox)

It is the play or balance of the soft (people side) and hard (the environment). What emerges? There is difficulty on the hard side to imbed flexibility because it is hard to understand the soft side. (Linda Sorrento)

I went more with the basics, which is to seek to understand. If we are not getting along and seeking to understand each other’s profession…what is going on? As technology moves forward the way we communicate is so important. We need to understand each other. I think the younger generation is losing communication skills, particularly verbal. (Andrea Wright)

I used a number of words. It is a little known fact that the engineer accreditation board requires the use of many words. Our business is too litigious to be truly collaborative. We have created, through economies of projects and the litigious environment, huge barriers to collaboration. It is important to recognize the practical limitation of our business. People are behaving badly and not working together. We need to put the lawyers out in the hall and figure out how to work together. You can look at the driver from the global standpoint, but I would like to shrink it down to the individual. What is different is that there is a lack of focus on the individual. We have moved to this technological spectrum where we can communicate a certain way, but would we? We should not morph ourselves around where technology leaves us…we have to, instead, focus on how people communicate. It is important to communicate that communication is about people and transfer of information, and not necessarily about the tool that allows you to do that. (David Callan)

2.TECHNOLOGY

Key points:

  • Increased bandwidthcreates new opportunities for effective collaboration and information management.
  • Ease of use increases exponentially.
  • Both positive and negative consequences result from increased use of technology, which leads to a desire for balance with human interaction.
  • The consumer will be further knowledgeable and empowered due to the availability of information.
  • New opportunities lead to multi-use, multi-source collaborations.
  • Work and entertainment are co-mingled, and clients/users expect both.
  • Clients will desire flexible environments that morph and accommodate a range of users and interactions (also related to environment and communication).
  • The speed of building development increases and must accommodate unknown technological advancement of media and materials.
  • The creation of smart/analytical enablers of collaboration will support the professions.
  • The workplace will become a system of related workspaces in a range of locations (the network effect).
  • There is a blurring of “where one works”. The idea/desire/need for ownership of an allocated space for independent work is decreasing as work becomes possible in a range of locations.

A sample of participant comments:

What has happened is that technology has matured amazingly. User interfaces are getting easier. So if I look at Cisco…any information on any device anywhere is our mantra. I have to be able to tie people together whether this is a personal device or a big screen. Video communication is the thing for the next few years. (Rob DePinto)

Our clients are asking for future flexibility. We are an architecture firm and we build “uber” buildings. What we are finding is that our clients are saying that we can’t keep ahead of the technology. Nobody knows where it will end. How will we adapt a building that will change 10 times before we finish the drawings? We are now looking at value advocates to incorporate into the project. How we assemble teams is different. There is someone assembling and facilitating the integration based on some early-defined principals and expected outcomes. (Heidi Painchaud)

Technology is driving the new communication. My kids are very social and are using the technology to be more social than we ever were. Every day I find something new in technology that can help me. This is a huge driver…just think about Apple Computer. It all started with what, the fax machine? The mimeograph? There is an ease and ability to get any information you need. (Lewis Goetz)

We need to be careful not to let our generational prejudice influence how we view what the younger generations want or how they view technology. (David Callan)

People now want to be entertained while they work. The ability to shift seamlessly from tool to entertainment, etc. will be expected in any built environment. (Diane MacKnight)

Over time we will see the workplace as a network of settings rather than owned by this company and in a single building. (Jan Johnson)

I went to a conference in London last week on the future of work. They did not think a built workplace will be around in ten years. (Gretchen Gscheidle)

3.SUSTAINABILITY

Key points:

  • A focus on humanity is increasingly central to design as resources become scarcer and a higher value is placed on community wellbeing.
  • Situations require design to be applied to public health as a priority.
  • Upcoming generations advocate for social responsibility, leading to client demand for responsible design solutions.
  • Environmental imperatives are a driving force, with an increased need for resilient and restorative design.
  • A greater demand for quality of the public environment requires strengthening the relationship between the indoor and outdoor environments.
  • The focus on occupants increases beyond the design of a building to include real-time information about the user experience.

A sample of participants comments:

This is also generational. Gen-Xers care more for the cause than the association. We recently collaborated with the NAS on national disasters here in DC and this was an interesting group because one side was about design and the other side was about national disasters (FEMA, Red Cross, etc.). The usefulness of the design practice to help drive solutions around the human condition was apparent. (Linda Sorrento)

I feel we all need to be advocates for people, the public, and the environment. My big frustration as a lighting designer is that so much of our built environment is designed around systems and looks and not for the occupant. I think it would change the economy completely if we changed our model. From a lighting point of view we need to feed the occupant...we need to respond to our Arcadian rhythms. I think that all of this should be together. Cross out sustainability and replaced it with restorative…we need to start restoring back to nature. (Nancy Clanton)

A lot of what landscape architects are looking at is human welfare and trying to figure out what that means. We are spending a lot of time trying to figure out how the indoor and outdoor environments relate. I think we should go back to some old ideas about making the public space larger and more shared. There needs to be a transparency between the needs of our environments. (Vaughn Rinner)

4.THE ECONOMY

Key points:

  • The global economy continues to be a forging influence and change agent for North American culture and practice.
  • Overseas offices grow at twice the pace of North American offices; the shift of world influence quickly moves to other nations.
  • The US is perceived as throw away culture internationally, and other nations are not interested in building for the short term. The US codes support the disposable/quick turnover approach and must change to support long-term occupancy and relevance.
  • The cost of doing business drives change, requiring efficiency and collaboration.
  • There will be strengthened capacity to conduct business virtually and serve international clients if practice adapts to global expectations.
  • North American cultural norms change due to new economic realities and scarcer resources.

A sample of participant comments:

The economy…in 2003 when my company started we came up with a model different from the industry in that we don’t do it all. We actually work with various experts outside of our company. This helped control cost and produce a better product. It has helped us sustain ourselves and be very profitable. Many of our other competitors have forced us to collaborate as well. The economy will force collaboration. (Tim Kelley)

From a graphic design standpoint, the economy makes people want to slash things. They are looking for efficiencies. I think the right money (economy) will bring the right people together. In a perfect world, I’d like the economic opportunity to call on other people to incorporate into the process. (Dan Adler)

Non-north American practices are growing rapidly. This is accelerating and there is no boundary abroad between disciplines. Soon we will build differently. There will be huge changes in the next 10 years. (Diane MacKnight)

5.EDUCATION

Key points:

  • Practitioners and teams need deep, subject-specific knowledge.
  • Innovation is the driving force; innovation is not an option, but a requirement.
  • The educational process becomes more interactive and less delivery of information. Integrative thinking eclipses test-taking mentalities. The importance of critical thinking skills is elevated.
  • Students are accustomed to collaboration, and upcoming generations are more naturally inclined to “group think” as opposed to seeking individual credit.
  • The imparting of core values becomes increasingly important, as practice is more complex and demands greater adaptability and advocacy, begging the question, “can values be taught?”
  • Educational experiences that develop how to value the point of view of others are critical.
  • A new appreciation of the energy that results from collaboration arises as seen through the pace of idea generation and enhanced motivations.
  • Recent changes in educational content are a direct reflection of the number of great thinkers at the educational level.
  • Collaboration must endure beyond ribbon cutting, through post occupancy evaluation and other means, in order to build a body of knowledge to support its value.
  • Education should ultimately strive to develop dynamic, multidisciplinary thinkers.

A sample of participant comments:

The educational practice will influence. I finished my masters two years ago in engineering. While I have a fine arts undergrad, because of my diverse team working collaboratively, I could bridge that gap. I think education is changing and using more team-based assignments. (Gretchen Gscheidle)

There is an expectation that people bring subject expertise and are needed. The collaborative process is one that needs these voices and the process must facilitate bringing these together. (Jan Johnson)

Discussion Question Two: How will collaboration affect the built environment?

This was an open-ended discussion. Doug Parker captured notes on white boards. Key discussion points are summarized below, along with a sample of participant comments.

Key points:

  • Group thinking spaces become the norm with multiple screens, supporting multiple simultaneous interactions; the personal computer does not survive.
  • Design supports connectivity, with a shift from individual to community.
  • Flexible, morphable environments are in high demand.
  • Blended spaces become more popular. These spaces support a variety of work/play/live activities (mixed use) and require a holistic design approach.
  • Full-emersion spaces move us toward increased distance communication.
  • Bio-mimicry and stress-free environments lead to space that responds to the human condition.
  • Recognition increases that high performance buildings require a collaborative design process.
  • Clients want more out of real estate; they want facilities that contribute to mission and serve as an asset.
  • Smart materials/material science advances and becomes a driving influencer.
  • Universal design/aging in place is even more important as the population ages.
  • More credibility is given to the value of emotion, encouraging design for productivity through delight and appealing to the human condition.
  • Design supports personal choice/personalization, with greater emphasis on mass customization/design-it-yourself approaches.
  • Strengthened energy codes drive change. Conversely, failure to strengthen energy codes prevents positive change.
  • Renovation of existing infrastructure becomes increasingly important for global competitiveness. More investment in infrastructure is required to move people faster, cheaper, and easier.
  • Owners recognize real estate as a strategic asset, and attitudes about ownership change.
  • Owners are under pressure to retrofit existing stock of buildings, including housing. The retrofit market booms, and designers must help clients reposition what they have.
  • Housing will become smaller, more practical, and affordable.
  • The residential market shifts toward simplicity and downsizing becomes more prevalent as economic realities, an aging population, and generational values/preferences lead to cultural shifts. In concert with this, the trend continues toward urbanization and development that supports/promotes the appeal of urban living.
  • The complexity and dynamics of future challenges can’t be solved in one dimension or by one discipline

A sample of participant comments: