How open-concept workplace design helps increase collaboration

Open collaborative spaces are the new norm at Metso Outotec’s York County office after a major upgrade by the Murphy & Dittenhafer Interiors Studio.

When Metso Outotec sought out the help of Murphy & Dittenhafer Interiors to upgrade its building in York County, Pennsylvania, the goal was to accentuate how people work.

Prior to M&D coming into the space, each of the building’s three floors was made up of dozens of individual offices. There was very little shared community-use space.

Metso Outotec is based out of Finland, where private offices are not the norm, says Lisa Clemens, Associate Principal and Lead Interior Designer at Murphy & Dittenhafer Interiors. Instead, M&D got rid of every single private office and designed each floor to have a “Huddle Core” with open office spaces around it.

“A lot of traditional concepts are going away because people are changing the way they work,” Clemens says. “It’s more collaborative and more remote.”

The design included various-sized meeting spaces throughout the building so when employees need to have a meeting or make a private phone call, there are places to go besides at an open-concept desk.

The Metso project was the first time Clemens designed a space with every desk having a sit and stand option. The entire desktop goes up for anyone wanting to stand while working.

Listening to their clients

With so many major changes to the workplace environment, Clemens knows the importance of communicating with her clients.

“The challenge with an open office concept is you’ve got to find a way to communicate that change with your users in a way that they’re going to get excited about it,” she says. “People say, ‘I need my tchotchkes, I need to hang stuff on my door.’ We’ve all experienced opportunities to work differently in the last two years. The whole concept was moving that direction already — COVID-19 just helped push it along.”

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Clemens sat down with each department to talk about storage and space needs and to learn what was most important to people. Balancing employee wants with company requests was a top priority.

“A lot of time you say interior design — and people think you mean paint colors,” Clemens says.

The process involves so much more, such as processing how people move and work in a space.

Through talking with the employees, she learned that Metso has two different sets of engineers. The first group works on repairing and upgrading older equipment. The second group builds new equipment and is constantly coming from and going to the lab, which is at a different location in York. This group hardly ever sits down.

Clemens designed a floor for each group of engineers, each encompassing around 150 employees.

The second floor became a more collaborative space, with additional central “Huddle Core” seating where engineers can intentionally overhear each other’s conversations.

The third floor, more geared toward the repair engineers, has more traditional cubicle spaces and more storage.

One of the greatest benefits of the open concept spaces has been opening every workspace to more natural daylight. It’s something that M&D often tries to do in its designs.

“People are just happier,” Clemens says.

Creating useful elements

Clemens typically tries to include the use of curves in every design. She also aims to turn corridors and circulation spaces into useful areas.

In the Metso project, there was a wide corridor near the elevator on each floor. Clemens designed a curved wall on one side and tucked four small focus rooms behind it for one to two people. The spaces are intended to be used by those needing a break, private phone call, or meeting.

Overall, the experience of designing the Metso space was a positive one for Clemens.

“The people are always my favorite part,” she says. “I also love doing space planning. It’s like putting a puzzle together. I care about space so much more than colors.”

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