ABOVE: SAP Innovation Center and HanaHaus. Newport Beach, California. Architecture by H. Hendy Associates. Photography by RMA Architectural Photography and Troy Ament Photography. BELOW: Living room. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Architecture and interior design by Davignon Martin Architecture + Interior Design. Photography by Eymeric Widling.
by Donald M. Rattner, AIA
There’s no place like home, Dorothy famously declares at the end of the classic 1939 film Wizard of Oz. Today, we in the design and building industries might be tempted to add “…except for the office.” For that we can thank the growing influence of resimercial design. A synthesis of commercial and residential elements, resimercial design is purported to bring numerous benefits to the workplace, including a boost in creativity and innovation. But what is the evidence for this claim? Are there particular aspects of residential design from which building professionals can draw that have been shown definitively to enhance idea flow? Determining the answers to these questions is imperative if the design community is to advocate for a resimercial approach on an informed rather than intuitive basis. Otherwise we are merely parroting vague and unsubstantiated talking points repeated ad infinitum in the professional and general press.
Let me cut to the chase by answering the second question first: yes, there are specific design components and behaviors common to residential environments that researchers have found to foster creative thinking. I am confident in this assertion because I have spent the last several years researching and writing a manual for creativity-driven home design, titled My Creative Space: How to Design Your Home to Stimulate Ideas and Spark Innovation.
According to data, people get more ideas at home or while engaged in activities associated with domestic life than at any other time or anywhere else. That includes the workplace which, I’m afraid to say, consistently ranks toward the bottom of the list. Viewed through the prism of these findings, it is understandable that building professionals should turn to the residential sphere for guidance in shaping the innovation-driven workplace of today.
Some have already entered the repertory of resimercial design; others are less widely practiced or infrequently offered as justifications for its implementation. Some are specifically design-oriented; others involve domestic behaviors that have been observed to improve ideation, and which can therefore drive programming choices as to the kinds of spaces and furnishings required to accommodate them.