Our Corner of Space: Flexspace, hoteling and unassigned spaces, oh my!

Feb. 16, 2024

— Brittany Van Eck, space planner and leasing manager

Sometimes I feel like the land of space planning is a little like the Wizard of Oz. I came into the position in late 2021, when we all were working on what it meant to be “at work.” Since then I’ve had the opportunity to work with many of you on what it means to organize around hybrid, remote, and in-person work. Along the way, I’ve witnessed bravery, compassion, ingenuity, and a desire to make space better for people. One of the areas I’ve seen creatively pivot their space to meet changing needs is the Center for Teaching and Learning. I was able to walk through their Bunnell space with Sean Holland, the media and innovation manager, and wanted to share about their journey down the blue and gold brick road.

Pre-COVID, CTL had 30 workstations in their Bunnell space. Each desk was assigned to an employee and no spaces were shared. After it became clear that no one was asking for a return to pre-Covid work, they decided to try something new with their space. First, they imagined an alternative where only some workstations were assigned, and asked their teams what issues they saw. Then they worked to build a space that ultimately eliminated 10 workstations, allowing for their new makerspace to be created. Here are some of details:

Of the remaining 12 workstations, six are unassigned. Managers are in two of them, one is assigned to a student services subgroup who manages the testing area, and the other two are assigned to the media team who has to be physically connected to the campus network infrastructure in order to do their job.

Rules of the space are simple: you have the option to have an assigned space if you’re in the office 50% of the time or more, and the flex spaces should remain clean, neutral, and welcoming.

The six unassigned work stations are first come, first serve. They each have monitors and Caldigital thunderbolt docks. Staff who use the spaces use their existing laptops.

For the set up, they were able to use existing desks and workstations, as well as chairs. CTL invested in a couple monitors to fill in the gaps, as well as the laptop docks.

Staff have the option to have a rolling filing cabinet for their belongings that are stored along the side wall.

Paper is minimized, therefore office supplies and storage are limited.

I was also able to talk to a couple of staff members who shared their thoughts on the space design. One of the individuals shared that the ability to move around to different desks is desirable as it allows them to work in a space that supports their work day - a quieter cubicle away from the windows when they need to focus, or a cubicle in the middle of the space when they want a higher level of interaction. Another staff member shared they often gravitate towards the same cube. This staff member also expressed that the move was a change in predictability, which can be challenging to grasp. A note on the “stuff” that folks accumulate was that in general the move helped folks purge and organize - family photos were moved to mobile digital frames, plants became shared, and many (many) stacks of paper were shredded.

Other strategies that are implemented in this very open space are headphones for meetings, white noise machines to dampen all the sound(s), and an option to overflow into the conference room or the Makerspace when everyone happens to be in person at once. Sean shared that in general they would rather have clean and organized spaces that look welcoming, instead of many very personalized but mostly empty work spaces. When they originally designed their space back in 2015, they focused on open lines of sight to the windows versus high partitions, and spaces that made it easy and desirable to work. This has allowed them to be flexible and pivot quickly over the last eight years, and it has allowed them to optimize their current space to support their staff growth while keeping the same space footprint.

Another practice CTL exercises is hybrid meetings are the norm. Because they have staff that are fully remote who need to be included, they rarely have mandatory in-person meetings. Sean shared that “the organic feeling of conversations that occur spontaneously is often more valuable than being together in a room for a meeting in which all of the interaction is managed and channeled.”

As far as how they decided on the number of workstations they did, Sean said “we didn’t decide that we needed a certain number of workspaces. It just sorted itself out this way when we realized that staff preferred this arrangement. We started with 2-3 that were set up specifically with the tech to make the space function and then we expanded it to 6.” Change and experimentation is kind of this group’s thing - and they definitely embrace making their space work for them. Important to this practice is flexible space, and flexible furniture, much of which they’ve salvaged from their space changes and surplus. Some last advice from Sean is, “don’t think too much, just do it. Iterate. Don’t spend money at first, just try it and don’t get trapped in all the questions.”

I also wanted to pass along that the staff at the Center for Teaching and Learning welcome anyone to come in and try out any of their spaces - you can work at an unassigned desk and test the tech, experiment in the Makerspace, and record content in their studio. I encourage you all to take advantage of the work they’ve done and see if any of it may work for you.

The Center for Teaching and Learning, “promote(s) a culture of learning by supporting effective teaching practices, deeper learning for students, and university wide partnerships.” They have space in Bunnell first floor, including testing, a media studio, offices, and a new makerspace, The Mill (Making Is Learning Lab), in partnership with the MIX; a media studio in Rasmuson; and a media studio in Irving I.

Our Corner of Space is a column focused on optimizing UAF's space through the office of space planning and leasing.