New Minneapolis Impound Facility to Showcase New Era Design IdeasWe really are living in a new era with an increased sense of urgency for how we treat each other, live side by side, and respect nature. With the recent revelations about institutional discrimination and community medical responsibility, Clever Architecture has taken a bold stance on how positive, responsive design can help bring our communities closer together, no matter the facility or project. Our recent design for the new Minneapolis Impound Facility showcases several new concepts:
Positive Human Relations We developed a place that had respect for both the employees and the clients of the Impound Facility. It's not an easy thing to get a car towed, but the service is something our entire community needs in order to keep our streets functioning. So we designed a space that is comfortable, approachable, dials down conflict, and shares uses with the community in an effort to live well together. Respect for the Environment Built on contaminated lands, we took an approach to develop a site that was modern, forward thinking, and lives harmoniously with rainwater, plantings, and the facility needs. Our LEED Silver level building compliments the site with a generous amount of natural light and ventilation. Modern Classic Materials Our materials palate for the building and site combined classic, well tested materials with innovative placement and detailing for a building that looks modern and will last the test of time. As with all our designs, we marry the program and needs with an approach that is sensitive to our new Era of human community respect and environmental sensitivity.
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Architecture has always been a champion of Green and healthy living design. Minnesotans recognize the benefits of a strong connection with nature as seen by the many parks and green spaces in our communities. Biophilic design is one aspect of green design that promotes increased natural light and ventilations, enhanced user control and physical comfort, and natural and nature-like materials to improve user mental and physical well-being. Our connections with nature are present daily, from the views out of our windows to the landscaping and gardens we tend. Clever Architecture’s recent single-family residence represents the biophilic design philosophy in action. Early on in the project the family identified a want to be stewards for their land and nature. We designed a home that is nestled between large wooded wetlands that are home to diverse flora and fauna. The single level residence was designed to minimize flood impact while maximizing natural light with a roof height that was below the tree canopy. Windows that extend closer to the floor allow for increased natural light while a lower roof reduces negative impacts on the local fowl community, which a taller home would have presented. These design decisions help reinforce the context of the home within the landscape while aiding in building a more inviting and nature conscientious project. The biopic design principles used in this project mirror Minnesotan values and show why a strong connection to nature is essential now.
Clever Architecture is committed to crafting spaces that respond to users and nature. We focus on your personal journey to design spaces that respond to your life. We work to understand what your typical day looks like and your path through it. We learn about what spaces inspire you, or could be improved, to develop your lifestyle solutions and improvements. Our team balances biophilic design with your vision to deliver a space that connects you to nature and improves wellbeing. Our communities will have to learn to live with the Covid 19 virus for some time and in this process we will transform our built environment into a safe and healthy place. Clever Architecture will strive to improve indoor air quality, increase accessibility for everybody, embrace nature, and rediscover the benefits of biophilia. Individual actions like wearing masks, trying to stay six feet apart or diligent wiping counters with disinfectant towelettes are important but are not enough to release us from the virus's grip. Hazard controls like Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), Administrative Controls like social distancing and Engineering Controls like ventilation are all types of “mitigations” and they are stackable. The more mitigations we have available the more effective they become. We want to use all the tools and resources available to us in order to make our world safe for ourselves and our loved ones.
Improving ventilation is critical because rapid dilution of viral build-up in indoor air is very effective in diminishing the ineffective qualities of the virus. We want to bring in fresh air from the outdoors by opening windows and doors where possible and increasing air exchange in more complex buildings. We also want to filter at appropriate levels and add UV disinfection to interior spaces. We will add substantial partitions (not temporary plastic corrals) to create contained, controlled and treatable pools of air. We will install “touchless” doors, lighting and other fixtures to make it possible to move through these spaces, decreasing risk of contamination. These improvements will have the secondary effects of improving our acoustic space, making the built environment accessible to everyone and creating more hygienic spaces in general. We will even likely see handwashing stations installed in entry ways and where we find water fountains. As outdoor air is the safest air to breath we will spend more time in nature and design means to make it accessible and to conserve it. We will create intermediary spaces that are truly transitional operating as both indoor and outdoor spaces. We will bring the outdoors, nature, into our indoor spaces. We will find ourselves living in a less polluted, quieter, accessible more natural place. It's going to be good. Finally we will perfect working remotely and even this has already proven to have the secondary effect of improving our outdoor air quality. Residential construction and remodeling projects are increasing because most of us are spending more time together. The places we inhabit need to be updated to accommodate new and diverse uses or we have revealed a need for more space to get away from those we are closest to. Either way it is more important now than ever to understand our relationships between our communities and nature. We are at a point where our routines have started to naturally form after six months of uncertainty due to Covid 19. The resulting confidence is creating increased demand for building materials as we tackle professional and DIY upgrades to offices, learning spaces, home gyms, and workshops to name a few. Creating and recreating our living environments increases well being and can be enhanced even more by incorporating biophilic design principles into a project. Architecture has always been a champion of Green and healthy living design. Biophilic design is one aspect that promotes increased natural light and ventilations, enhanced user control and physical comfort, and natural and nature-like materials to improve user mental and physical well-being. Our connections with nature are present daily, from the views out of our windows to the landscaping and gardens we tend. Our clients recently constructed home represents biophilic design philosophy in action. Early on in the project the family identified a want to be stewards for their land and nature. We designed a home that is located between large wooded areas that are home to diverse flora and fauna. The single level residence was designed to maximize natural light with a roof height that was below the tree canopy. Windows that extend closer to the floor allow for increased natural light while a lower roof height reduces the negative impact on the local fowl community, which a taller home would have presented. These design decisions help reinforce the context of the home within the landscape while aiding in building a more sustainable and nature conscientious project. Clever Architecture is committed to crafting spaces that respond to users and nature. We focus on your personal journey to design spaces that respond to your life. We work to understand what your typical day looks like and your path through it. We learn about what spaces inspire you, or could be improved, to develop your lifestyle solutions and improvements. Our team balances biophilic design with your vision to deliver a space that connects you to nature and improves well being.
At home or in the office, how we work has changed. Some people may return to fully staffed work environments where others may stay at home. But in most cases there will be changes to what our offices look like and how they respond to employees needs. We crafted a co working concept for a client that uses biophilic design principles. The results were a space that maximizes natural light while maintaining individual privacy, balances work stations and social areas to promote controlled collaboration, and utilizes natural, and nature-like, materials to encourage creativity and aid in wayfinding. The layout of the space was designed in such a way that users have control over common areas, which can adjust from individual meeting areas to a single presentation space. The design also incorporates active elements including adjustable height desks, treadmill, and stationary peddling accessories to promote health brain and body functions. Incorporating biophilic designs resulted in a concept that promotes improved well-being and productivity for users.
We are sharing our Covid 19 Design Guide for Restaurants. The information in this sheet is based on the MN Employer Preparedness Plan Requirements Checklist. We hope the information is helpful. We are available for free consultations regarding Covid 19 and architectural services.
Here at Clever Architecture we recently designed a house made with easily sourced, recycled and sustainable materials that you can build for yourself! Ok. It is a birdhouse. But it is still a lot of fun and quite affordable. We designed a clever little birdhouse that has a striking form and elegant functional- ity. It looks a bit like a viking sailing ship crossed with an airplane. It’s handsome steep roof and thrusting overhangs are functional in that they efficiently shed rain and snow and provide protection from the same. It is naturally ventilated and has the safety of its occupants in mind. The materials are safe for baby birds, insulative without being overly hot and there are no perches that would enable predators to attack. Just add the string and hang it from a tree or make a couple extra folds to create a flat back to mount on a fence post. The base is angled in to embrace the nest and the entrance hole can be adjusted in height and size depending on the bird type. It is folded together like a paper origami crane and so it can be unfolded for seasonal cleaning and storage. Just download the file and print it out. If you can print on a large format printer the pattern can be on one piece of 24”x 17” paper or tile it and tape it together. Then you need to transpose the pattern onto a more substantial substrate like poster board or cardboard. Preferably you are re-purposing a material which is heavier than printer paper but still fold-able if you give it a light score. After you have cut and scored you could think about decorating the outside of your birdhouse. Paint on it or draw on it. Then fold it together and use a little glue if you need to secure the base. Be sure to add the hanging string as you are folding it up. Once it is together you will want to waterproof the exterior with a coating of melted wax, clear acrylic varnish or paint. Remember this is for the birds and so you need to use safe natural materials on the inside and the outside just like we do for our own houses.
Bidding Under Way For Clever Architecture’s New Service Centric Minneapolis Impound Facility2/18/2020 Minneapolis Impound Facility Entrance and Drive Through Rendering | Designed By Clever Architecture Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Impound Facility Gets Multiple New OpportunitiesPRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release 18 February 2020 Contact Russell Peterson 763 | 226 | 3063 Russ@CleverArchitecture.com Saint Paul, Minnesota | After several years of intense design focusing on improving the neighborhood and creating a more approachable and service-oriented site, building, and customer process, Clever Architecture’s new design for the Minneapolis Impound Facility is currently bidding at the following link: https://comet-fs.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/psc/fs92prdsupplier/SUPPLIER/ERP/c/SCP_PUBLIC_MENU_FL.SCP_PUB_BID_CMP_FL.GBL "Our team spent considerable time analyzing data and looking for opportunities. We were focused on building a good neighbor facility and establishing a customer centric complex that improved image, process, and security,” said Russell Peterson RA CID. “We created an improved flow for movement, used overflow as an opportunity to give back to the community in a flexible meeting space, and repositioned the building to create an intersection on Van White Boulevard that takes traffic out of the neighborhood and gives the City of Minneapolis the opportunity to develop land that had no previous access,” continued Peterson. “We really gave this project every potential opportunity we could!” Some of the other design features include natural daylighting, a custom created durable flooring, safe and modern interiors, functional customer service counter, modern restrooms, and a site that was sensitive to the existing land history and water runoff. End Release Understand your company's space and strategy needs first.Frequently we are asked to provide Fit Planning services for a tenant or building owner. Many believe that this is the first step to understanding how a company might occupy a leased or even a purchased space prior to understanding the deal. It is important to understand how a company might fit or grow into a space, but the first step is actually programming or needs assessment. We might even argue that the review and establishment of new workspace standards should even come before fit planning. Or that strategic planning might need to pre-date either of those.
Walking through one space with a client, the Landlord pointed to a drawing arrangement of offices and said to the potential tenant, "There's your new office." To which our client said, "No it isn't." The landlord was trying to sell the space by showing the tenant that there was a good arrangement of work stations. An admirable, but flawed approach. Our client was savvy enough to know that their needs assessment and strategic plan would drive the space, not an imaginary arrangement of offices for any company. We have found that some companies negotiate deals without fully understanding their needs. This includes strategy, growth, variety and relationship of spaces, and standards that define work areas or workstations. These are all important in terms of size, placement and relationship, and overall organization over time. Without this information, most Fit Plans are really just an exercise in selling space without quality information. As an example, imagine that you have the choice of two spaces. A 20' column gridded space or a 30' column gridded space. For this example we will only look at one two dimensional arrangement. If your current work space standards are a basic 10x10 office, then you could really only fit one office per 20' without compromise to other offices. In the 30' you could fit two. The reason is that the column takes up space and will make you modify the subsequent offices. This means changes to many offices which is an increase in cost and inefficiency across the floor plate as you try to make up the space used by the columns the best you can. Let's imagine the 20' column grid has 17' clear between columns. If you had 8.5x10 offices you could possibly get two full offices without compromise. In the 30' columns you could potentially get three. So the identification of optimum workstation size could affect a great deal of square footage in just this one area. There are other things to consider such as benching, hoteling, collaborative spaces, adjacencies, and priorities that all make a big difference in how square footage will be used. Yes, it is possible to us the Fit Planning process to explore those options, but then you would be doing needs assessment/programing a bit backwards and using the space as your driver instead of the way your company should work as the driver. Additionally, there are newer systems that can help a company optimize their spaces using micro measurement units improving the overall storage and layout of offices. These kinds of office systems can greatly help reduce the workstation footprint and provide incredible savings across an entire floor plate of a building. Ultimately there may be a compromise with availability and dollars, but it is still a good idea to understand and define your optimum requirements for your company before you begin any Fit Planning process CONNECTING YOUR STRATEGY IN REAL TIME DESIGN8 Design Trends In Future Employee Centricity
Workplace Future | Employee Centric DesignPart of the Clever Architecture process in creating a successful workplace is to connect a company's vision and strategic plan to design outcomes. When we do that, we inherently find commonalities between organizations. One such commonality of late is the idea that the future workplace will be designed to attract and retain the most talented and high performing employees creating individual and group efficiency having a positive effect on the company bottom line. We believe partnering with prefabrication expert DIRTT is the perfect way to help our clients in a variety of workforce environments anticipate the future and increase company value. We have identified eight future workforce characteristics or trends that should be considered when making important space and design decisions. 1. Employee Focused Experience We know there is no one identical employee. People work differently. Even in the same job or task. For years companies built seas of open offices or workstations where one space was designed and all had to conform. Now we see a move towards desking where many employees are forced to sit side by side assuming they all do the same task the same way in a very public experience. These two models could not be further from the truth. We believe the focus should be on a variety of experiences in both how an individual works and how they come into contact with others through either group work or casual encounters. This means a predefined variety of work environments that are flexible enough to change as the company grows and employees change. 2. Blended Culture The blended workforce has created a new dynamic. This is not just about diversity in ethnic culture it is about diversity in types of employees that include full time working side by side with temporary and contract talent augmented by artificial intelligence and robotics. Combining this with an increase in virtual workers makes teaming more flexible and creative with greater company agility and profitability. This is a dynamic and changeable environment. 3. Technology + Robotics Integration Ever increasing automation will offer new opportunities for creativity and to increase productivity. In the end creating new tasks and job types and evolving others. Many experts actually believe automation will increase hiring levels, but change the work environment creating the opportunity to morph environments frequently. Spaces that can adapt to these technologies quickly will be a key to the future. 4. Talent Attraction The use of workforce environment as a talent acquisition device has become a new mainstay in design. Providing flexibility within the physical space in addition to remote opportunities changes how the overall environment is built and is changed over time. This includes various opportunities for working singularly and within groups. Technology allows the ability to be more mobile within the physical environment. On site amenities for creativity and play/work are also a driver to attract talent. Newer generations are looking for more than just salary. They are looking for an attractive environment that speaks to the soul of their personality. 5. Changing Jobs As artificial intelligence, robotics, and other technology increases, no one really knows where everything is going. But jobs will change and companies who are prepared will be ahead of the curve and well positioned for profitability. Again, flexibility and adaptability will be key. 6. Increased Humanity More and more companies, driven by the new workforce's desire to help others, are increasingly paying attention to their impact on humanity. Not just being generous and helpful in general, but acknowledging that human skills such as empathy, persuasion, personal service, strategic thinking, problem solving, caretaking, etc. are an intrinsic part of the company's potential. Spaces that reflect and celebrate these characteristics will be the efficiency of the future. 7. Profitable Efficiencies As productivity increases, the need to get the actual work done increases through various techniques including environmental manipulation. Finding ways within the environment to help individual employees become more profitable on a case by case basis will be increasing. This leads to individualized options that can be flexible between employees. Additionally, effective use of materials and modular changeover with an eye towards the environment will reduce expense through recycling and the elimination of waste creating other layers of efficiency. 8. Turnaround Speed With all this increase adaptability and flexibility, there is an increasing need to turnaround workforce environment changes. Thus having a prefabricated system of components with a future view manufactured in a controlled environment off site nd then recycled will be ideal in saving time and money as environments change. DIRTT | Withum StoryThe Withum story is a great example of how a company used ICE and VR to create efficiency and adaptability in design as well as make employee focused design decisions prior to construction.
Clever + DIRTT | The Hive StoryClever and DIRTT created successful and adaptable space in a retrofit for the 3M Hive think tank. The spaces created became so popular that they had to put signs up to prevent other divisions from using their spaces. A variety of flexible and adaptable techniques were used that included fully integrated technology and acoustical controls for open workspaces, enclosed teaming rooms, breakout areas, and conferencing spaces. Author | Russell Peterson ALA CIDRussell Peterson is a strategist and architect with Clever Architecture in Saint Paul Minnesota. He enjoys digging holes in the ground to plant trees and singing unless his daughters tell him to shush. The following resources were used in developing this article:
https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/how-workforce-will-change-in-2019-6-predictions.html https://www.mercer.com/our-thinking/career/voice-on-talent/five-workplace-trends-shaping-the-future-of-work-which-are-most-important-to-you.html https://danschawbel.com/blog/the-top-10-workplace-trends-for-2019/ https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/13/5-top-workplace-trends-to-watch-in-2019.html https://blog.wunderlandgroup.com/in-with-the-new-8-defining-characteristics-of-the-future-of-work |
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