Studio TK’s Koorosh Sharghi explores how thoughtful office design—supporting diversity, neurodiversity, accessibility, and emotional well-being—can foster a true sense of belonging and boost engagement.
It’s common for employees to adopt a persona and mask who they truly are during their 9-5. This is done either to fit the invisible mold created by their employer or to meet the normative expectations set upon themselves based on society’s definition of what it means to be an outstanding worker.
One way to ease employee stress is to design workspaces where people feel like all parts of themselves belong, allowing individuals to bring their entire selves to work. People are diverse beings with their own unique perspectives, values, and experiences—cultural, religious, and even environmental. When safe spaces are created, allowing everyone to freely share their personalized experiences, not only does their true value shine through, but it creates relaxed and authentic environments.
Leaving Your Persona at the Door
The one-size-fits-all approach no longer meets the needs of today’s workforce. Instead of supporting diversity, the outdated idea of “leaving your personal life at the door” stifles individuality and decreases employee engagement. As a result, employees feel they need to separate their personal lives from their professional ones, creating a disservice for the employee and the employer alike.
Diverse people need diverse environments that allow them to work in a way that’s best suited for them, considerate of different postures and work styles.
Design can help to foster belonging through:
- Open-concept offices that provide both privacy and connection, supporting a large range of working styles and personalities.
- Configurable furniture that adapts to changing team needs and encourages collaboration.
- Dedicated social zones that offer moments of respite, helping teams recharge and be themselves.
- Accessible layouts and technologies that ensure all employees, regardless of ability, can navigate and participate fully in the workplace.
- Sensory-conscious environments that consider lighting, acoustics, and materials to support neurodiverse needs.
- Brand elements woven throughout the space that reflect shared values and diverse identities, helping individuals to see themselves as part of a greater whole.
Supporting Choice
It’s important to create spaces where all parts of us can fit, stay easily connected, and truly enjoy being ourselves. Looking at the evolution of the office, the landscape has shifted from fixed desk configurations to unstructured layouts that created noise issues and tech integration challenges. Today, we’ve shifted to hybrid models that have only further highlighted how unsupportive traditional workplaces, which lack variety and upgraded technology, have been for decades.
Gone are the days of cubicle farms or completely open office plans. Thoughtful modern office designs include a mix of intimate and open settings, fit with the tools for individual, collaborative, and relaxed work. People need quiet zones and nooks for heads-down work, tech-enabled spaces for group tasks, and softened casual spaces for relaxed assignments. Think about it practically: introverts and extroverts thrive in different spaces and need the proper support to perform at their best.
Design-wise, this involves a mix of seating options, varied table heights, and a blend of different materials and colors that will stimulate and empower employees no matter where in the office they choose to work. Blending softer, hospitality-style seating and lounge options with high-performance products is one way designers can strike a healthy balance between casual and fixed environments.
Designing for Neurodiversity, Accessibility, and Inclusion
Workspaces need to be designed to actually work for each of us, all at the same time, allowing our full range of motion and emotions to be expressed if and when we want. We need to learn how to accommodate one another, especially when it comes to accessible designs that meet both regulated and broader human needs. Regulated needs encompass ADA-compliant spaces, as well as accessible spaces for nursing mothers or even daycare areas for employees with children. Sensory design, such as lighting, colors, materials, and acoustic elements, is a human need that offers neurodivergent and non-neurodivergent employees emotional safety within a space.
These sensory design elements are part of the emotional layer of the workplace. Not only are light, color, and material choices important for establishing accessible office spaces, but they have the power to shape the narrative within each environment. Brand colors and thoughtful wall graphics create a sense of identity and pride that make people feel empowered and connected to where they work. Reflecting the company’s brand and purpose throughout a space also curates authenticity and a sense of ownership that can impact employees’ mood and focus.
Leadership’s Role
Well-designed workplaces can be made more successful with the proper support from leadership.
Beyond design, authenticity is key to allowing employees to stay connected and feel secure enough to be themselves. It’s one thing to create diverse spaces that cater to the needs of each employee. For the model to work effectively, leaders need to be cognizant of their actions, making sure that they’re creating a workplace culture that values diverse input and welcomes feedback from employees at any level. Creating a safe space where employees can speak their minds promotes healthy communication and shows employees that their thoughts are truly heard, considered, and valued.
Making Space to Belong
Modern and future workplaces that make employees feel emotionally and physically supported allow people to be themselves and bring their full value (and potential) to the office every day. Designing for belonging means understanding people’s differences but also their shared values, and learning to design for specific needs instead of designing around them. While everyone is different and has their own needs, it’s variety and choice that designers need to be designing for, making spaces for each of us to have what we need: to focus, to play, to rest, to belong.
