Building the future workplace for Norway's largest energy company.

A living room scene showing the giraffe chair in a sunny corner.

Overview

Equinor, the Norwegian energy company, approached frog to help them boost creativity and improve the way people work together in-office. Our team created a Pilot Office incorporating multiple tools, components, and configurations to test which concepts worked best. This project is protected by an NDA; I am only showing here what has already been publicly shared about the project by frog.

Organization
frog
Duration
12 weeks
The Team
Brennen Birch with the frogPlaces team
My Focus
Conceptual Designs Client Workshops Construction Documentation 3D Modeling

My Role

I created design deliverables including renderings, construction drawings, and more to guide the decision-making process. I also introduced virtual reality to the design process, allowing us to get faster sign-off of ideas from the client.

Problem

No items found.

Opportunity

How might we amplify creativity, increase collaboration, and revolutionize how people work at Equinor?

Solution

Understanding the Users

Defining the Problem

The open office ≠ innovation.

Equinor knew that their cubicle-farm office format was not conducive to innovation. They needed to transform their space to allow for collaboration and creativity, but weren't sure where to begin.

In addition, the space we had to work with was small. We had only 2,120 square feet to accommodate as many as three R&D teams.

Design Solutions

A typology for every task.

Our team worked with the Equinor R&D teams to understand their key daily behaviors and tasks, then designed from there.

We identified their teams' key behaviors and routines and designed a space tailored to each part of their process. For example, we looked to an informal "living room" typology for to create a space for the team to gather and share. Smaller "think tanks" were spaces where team members could focus and reflect.

We identified their teams' key behaviors and routines and designed a space tailored to each part of their process.

Measuring effectiveness.

The Pilot Office contained a mix of components. We deployed different combinations and configurations in each space. Feedback and usage data helped us understand what was (and wasn't) working.

The Pilot Office employed a mix of different components. Measuring their impact on business was crucial to the project's success.

Results

Process

Leading the client from macro- to micro-decisionmaking.

Before our design work began, we engaged the client in a series of workshops to understand their challenges and goals. From this process, we delivered beautifully illustrated "storybooks" to establish our shared vision for the project at a macro level.


Environmental graphics played a key role in the project design. I used our own office as a laboratory to rapidly test different environmental graphic strategies. These rapid tests helped win client sign-off on more minor decisions and move the project forward. One such example of a micro-decision: should the window privacy film be partial or full height?

I used our own office as a lab to rapidly test different environmental graphic strategies, like these window film studies.


Outcome

Reflections

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