For the Sustainable Futures project we were asked to study within four areas; Work, Play, Home, Body. I first thought ‘Home’ would be the right option for me as I am planning on studying Interior Architecture at university, but I later changed my mind to study the ‘Work’ area instead because I am fascinated about how businesses and companies can improve the design of work, office spaces in particular, to create a happier set of employees that are more productive and enthusiastic.
At the beginning of the new project we were split off into small groups and were given the task to create a mindmap about what a sustainable future might involve or look like:
My ideas started to blossom after a helpful chat with Sarah and Kate one day. They gave me plenty of ideas that really created an awesome project. Here is my notes from those chats and evidence of my first ideas and research routes:
I found that I really connected with the research aspect of this project, and really enjoyed reading articles and books, and because of this I found it different to create artwork that linked to this particular title. However, I think the work I have created still adds to the project and makes it a moderately good response in showing a ‘sustainable future’.
For my project I researched many things, I looked into the background of work life and how in the past Fordism and Taylorism were very popular ways of running factories. I also focused a lot of my project on how companies could actually achieve productivity just by changing the design of the offices. I read my articles and books on how both colour, collaborative work spaces and also plants make a huge different in offices spaces, by ultimately generating happier and more productive employees. Finally, I also performed some playful experiments within my Brookes building to see how people interacted with a changed space: my aim was to record how students would react and work in a classroom where all the tables and chairs had been moved to the side or if they were placed in inconvenient places – it was interesting to see whether people were ultimately more or less productive. In addition to this, I also stayed on the focus that my work life is mainly at Brookes. I also took the time to look into the design of Brookes University and how successful I think it is, I also had a go at creating some rough digital collages that linked to my plant project.
Immie Cory 