As any workspace should be, HARMAN’s Litehouse BLR studio is a constant work-in-progress, a living breathing space that’s continuously molding and adapting itself to the needs of its inhabitants. HARMAN’s teams such as Litehouse are constantly producing and evolving new ideas and innovations, it’s not just favorable but also imperative for the workspace to be a physical reflection of this culture, never remaining static, and always embracing a state of flux.

So let’s take a look at some of the things we’re trying to achieve as we evolve our workspace.

Tear down the walls? A balance between public and private spaces

Now more than ever, there’s a misguided belief that when walls come down, collaboration and creativity automatically rise in the workplace, which is magically followed by innovation. There’s a romance attached to the idea of openness, and while surely an open environment encourages free-flowing communication, it’s not the be-all-end-all of an ideal space design. HARMAN’s Litehouse workspace is a reflection of where we locate ourselves along the business spectrum – a studio space that nurtures unconventional creative talent smack in the middle of a traditional organization with conventional business practices. The workspace too embraces a dynamic mix of old and new working styles. Glass walls, conference rooms and cubicles border the area, creating pockets of open spaces in between them, allowing people to quickly switch between formal one-on-one meetings to a more informal, collaborative brainstorming session.

Professional enough with a personal touch. Our huddle joints

Often that sea of cubicles offers little space, physically & emotionally, for creativity and innovation to flourish. However, a lot of workspaces don’t realize they can exploit the incredible potential presented by traditional cubicles: they are extremely flexible & modular structures, open to rearrangement. At the space occupied by the Litehouse team, HARMAN has reconfigured workspace cubicles to create spaces that can serve different purposes, removing entire partitions to create large huddle joints, realigning desks to create collaborative spaces for small 3-4 member teams, while retaining many traditional single-person cubicles for those that just need a private bubble to finish the day’s work.

Here’s to our modular workspace.

A hub for latest and greatest technology gadgets. A space that is abundant in inspiration

At HARMAN, we’re continuously seeking to embrace and master the newest technology, and we invest in a plethora of technological tools and resources to support workplace creativity. From something as simple as large monitors, tablets and best-in-class smartphones to conduct product demos on, to something more high-end like AR/VR gadgets to simulate full-blown virtual experiences and user journeys, we’re constantly leaning on the latest technologies to create immersive, experiential narratives that can showcase our products and case studies. And let’s not forget, good audiovisual technology – monitors, speakers, boomboxes – make for great in-house movie nights.

Experience the creative process, live. A workspace that is owned by its people

From hand-painted walls to objet d’art, you get to judge our creativity as you walk through our corridors. Creative people are better at their work when they get to personalize the space they inhabit, and HARMAN’s Litehouse workspace strives to mirror the diversity of its team. We make it a point not to impose a larger curative vision on the office artwork, instead letting the team (and that includes everyone, not just the designers) collaborate in a democratic fashion, bringing their ideas and inspirations to the table and helping each other execute the final output.

As we at HARMAN continue to align our processes towards better addressing tomorrow’s hyper-connected world, we believe our thinking needs to be replicated in how our people work and invent industry-leading solutions. With our Litehouse team’s workspace, we’ve tried to do just that and we aim to continue thinking of ways to evolve our workplaces, systems and processes that spur original ideas, technologies and innovations.

The original blog post was published here: https://litehouse.harman.com/approaching-our-workplace-with-design-thinking/