According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United States workers spent an average of 1,749 hours in the office in 2010, or nearly 30% of their waking hours.

Where does the MKThink team spend 30% of our time a year?

[1500 Sansome Street in 1965 – Wx4]

MKThink is located on the top floor of the old State Belt roundhouse, just off the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Our view of the pier is uninhibited by office partitions; spaces are delineated by mobile whiteboards and shelving units rather than cubicles. The open floor plan encourages the interaction of MKThink’s three studios – Innovation, Strategy, and Architecture – by opening up the flow of conversation and ideas through visual and audio connections.

Theories on how to reconfigure and optimize the modern office abound, but they all center on maintaining the balance between people, environment, and business. Here are a few ideas for ways to approach these three components of the workplace.

Ray Oldenburg writes about the existence of the third place in his book The Great Good Place. He distinguishes it from first places (home) and second places (work); it is a space where the community gathers naturally and interacts casually – think coffee houses, main streets, and public parks. In an office setting, providing a space separate from the central working hub where people can pause and meet could create third places that allows for breaks in the constant flow of productivity and encourages the sharing of ideas in an informal environment.

In a recent article titled “The Rise of the New Groupthink”, Susan Cain argues that solitude, not collaboration, is the genesis of creative work. Constant brainstorming sessions interrupt and inhibit the crucial process of personally working through a problem and coming up with a creative solution. Cain suggests a more balanced approach towards the office environment that allows for small group meetings but does not impose on the individual’s workspace.

An office should provide a flexible space to experiment with different set-ups and components, where individuals can easily flow from group meetings, to individual work, to small interactions. Open central office plans eliminate the need to define physical or mental edges – peripheral, rather than tunnel, vision is developed and allows for a vibrant experience of the whole space.

A business’s office is a chance to tell its story through a physical space. Imbuing an office with a unique identity gives it a sense of place and makes people feel they belong there. To develop company culture, the office could provide ways for employees to Own their personal workspaces and have different ways of showcasing their work.

To figure out which approach best suits a specific environment, MKThink performs a quantitative evaluation of the physical space that works in tandem with a qualitative assessment of how users inhabit that environment. Moving forward, guiding cultural and design principles determine the development of opportunity areas, ultimately resulting in a space that best serves the needs of its users and enhances their everyday experiences.

Architects, like myself, are regularly challenged during the Construction Admin process by doing time-consuming, tedious punch lists. I think we have all at times wanted a solution that will speed up the punch listing process by streamlining the workflow of punch listing. What is punch listing, you ask? It’s the process where architects take field observations noting construction defects and deliver these observations in a report to the contractor. The punch list workflow follows as such:



1) write a note on a plan showing where the construction defect is
2) take a picture of the construction defect
3) write in a note pad describing the construction defect
4) go back to the office and download and retype all of this information
5) combine this information in a report
6) format this information



There are two huge hassles I’m certain that architects regularly face with the workflow:


1) They have to have carry plans, a camera, a notepad, and a pen. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to do all this from my iPhone or iPad?
2) They have to have to reconstruct and format all this information when they get back to the office. Wouldn’t it be great that this be done while recording the information in the field?
3) Bonus: If someone were really ambitious, each one of these punch list items should be in a database that shows exactly when a construction defect is found and when it is fixed.


I’ve wanted to build an app for this solution for years, but I’m a complete novice. Unfortunately, now that I have the support to potentially make this dream a reality I’ve found a number of solutions also in this area of need. Below, I’ll highlight my “competition”, and then see if there’s still any opportunities for my app.



Archi Pad – http://www.archipad.com/en/
This punch list solution is for the iPad. It’s clunky and inflexible, and for $599, it does not offer the control or integration that would be expected of such a tool.



Punch List – http://www.constructionpunchlist.com/
The solution has one neat feature in that it takes a little plan snippet of the area where you note a construction defect. One problem: it’s still in development.



Newforma Punchlist – http://www.newforma.com/Project-Center/Newforma-Contract-Management/Newforma-Punch-List.aspx
This is probably the most powerful punch listing tool. You can take video, audio, and pictures to note construction defects, and you can assign teams a punch list item, and everything about the punch list system can be integrated into other tools. The cost for this system is a monthly fee, and for large projects, this seems like the best value for your money. The only problem might be that this app is android only at this point.



Punclist – http://www.fourthart.com/punchlist/
This program is my favorite for the type of work I do. You can:
- upload plans from multiple sources including dropbox,
- annotate each construction defect with a category, subcategory, description, image, ect.
- create project templates to speed up your workflow
- create reports instantly based on your punlist
- the app is $6.99
- use the punch list app for nearly any industry that requires inspection.



With so many solutions already on the market, where is the opportunity? Here is a quick brainstorm of how a new competitor could succeed:


- There is not a punch list solution for the iphone. A well designed iPhone app would make punch listing that much easier than dealing with the larger iPad form factor. Think single handed punch listing.


- The data formats from a punch list system should be extensible. That is, you should be able to take the data (maybe in xml format) and manipulated it into any template you want. This would allow the design conscious architect to get the graphic format however they wanted.


- freeing data would also allow for better analytics. So punch list data could be tracked for big picture trends. For example, one could track the type of construction defect which might reveal that one particular subcontractor is substantially under-performing.


- Although integrated solutions exist, I wonder if the price point could be better balanced between features and price. $6.99 on the low end to $599 on the high end is an insane spread. If someone could create a price point closer to $6.99 that were truly useful and approach $599 when the features got really deep this would seem to make more sense.

Published in the Honolulu Civil Beat: http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/12/15/14221-farrington-high-school-to-modernize-campus/

Farrington High School plans to break ground Thursday on a campus redesign that will provide much-needed upgrades while still maximizing existing buildings to save money and time.

The Legislature has committed $5 million in state funds to the project. This first phase is expected to cost $3 million. All four phases could take between 10 and 20 years to finish, and the current cost estimate is $100 million.

Civil Beat reported earlier this year about leaky ceilings, moldy walls and crumbling pedestrian ramps, which will be fixed with the campus overhaul. But the benefits to students promise to be far more than aesthetic. The redesign is expected to improve student life in four key ways:

Creating Smaller Learning Communities, or academies, similar to colleges or departments within a university.

Creating a pedestrian-friendly campus with restricted car access and plenty of outdoor furniture and other equipment to encourage outdoor gatherings.

Preserving Farrington’s legacy as one of the oldest campuses in Hawaii through signs and student exhibits.

Promoting environmental sustainability through solar energy generation, rainwater harvesting, organic gardening and student-led recycling programs.

Here is an aerial sketch of what the completed project is expected to look like:

Stage 1A: Culture Change — Smaller Learning Communities

The groundbreaking on Thursday is for the first Smaller Learning Community, which will house the school’s law and justice academy.

“It’s going to be a pilot, and eventually our academies for the whole school will be grouped together in certain areas of the school,” said 10th Grade Principal Ronald Oyama.

The new design will allow students and teachers in one academy to create a small sub-community in which all the academy students attend the same English and math courses in the same building together. They will rarely have to leave their smaller learning community except for electives or a science course that requires a lab elsewhere on campus.

“Studies have shown if they’re all in the same general area, teachers find it easier to service the kids,” Oyama said. “You get ownership of your area, and actually, you’re breaking down a school of 2,500 students to maybe 100 to 150 kids.”

Sustainability begins with the redesign process itself, because the school plans to gut existing buildings, instead of starting over with all-new construction.

The classrooms in all the new buildings will also have a generic design, equipped with furniture and technology that will allow them to be transformed for multiple purposes and class sizes.

With 2,500 students enrolled, Farrington is so full right now that it has four temporary classroom buildings. But they’re being used inefficiently, according to the school’s redesign plan, published by San Francisco-based MKThink. Fewer than 70 percent of current “classroom hours” are used for instruction, the plan states.

But Oyama said when students and teachers vacate the building being upgraded next year, it will be an opportunity for teachers to test how badly they need those multipurpose rooms.

From now on, Farrington teachers won’t have a designated classroom from which they operate, but they will become “floaters,” occupying a different classroom every period to ensure that every room is used every period, or “100 percent,” as Oyama puts it. During the periods they’re not instructing, teachers will share a collaborative work space.

“We want to be able to use the rooms sort of like collegiate atmosphere,” Oyama said, pointing out that Kapolei High School and Punahou School already successfully do something similar. “Teachers share an office space, but use the rooms interchangeably. It works really well for us because of our limited classrooms.”

The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Thursday on the Farrington campus.

layout by Marina Christodoulides
Designer

“Develop an infallible technique and then place yourself at the mercy of inspiration.” –Ralph Rapson (Architect)

“Master technique and then forget about it and be natural.” –Anna Pavlova (Ballerina)

Dance and architecture are both a manipulation of space and time. They are social constructs that are physical interpretations of a culture, a feeling, or an idea. One may not be able to tell the difference between descriptions or reviews of architecture and ballet: long sweeping lines, breaking of boundaries, repetition, expansion, flexing, dynamic, asymmetric, graceful, fluid, etc. The dancer and the architect are technicians that communicate their art in physical form. One functions purely to create beauty while the other creates beauty by fulfilling a function.

Rachel Posman brings a unique perspective to her role as an Analyst in the Innovation Studio at MKThink. Prior to attending UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Rachel devoted her life to ballet and spent many years dancing professionally throughout the United States. It is this experience that inspired her to compare dance and architecture in this photographic commentary.