Details Workplace
A workspace for personal and professional development of Details Deconstruction crew.
Center for Social Design at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
Client: Details Deconstruction, Humanim Social Enterprise, Gensler
2016, Baltimore
Skills: Research Plan Design, Interview, Data Synthesize, Brainstorming, Rapid Prototyping
Summary
Through a 72-hour human-centered design challenge, we provided place-making and culture-building ideas that would address the needs of the Details staff.
Details is a social enterprise, that through a peer to peer training process, trains and employs people with significant barriers to employment. This enterprise was going to renovate a formerly car mechanic shop as its new headquarter.
Process
70% of Details employees have been formerly incarcerated and are managing significant stresses. We were asked to address the types of stressors that the staff was experiencing.
“How might we use the new Details office space to create a stable environment for team members before, during, and after the workday?”
Interview: We have generated the guiding questions and conducted interviews with a group of Details staff members.
Synthesize: We collected all the data that each of us acquired from the interviews and observations, discovered repeated patterns and created insights. New insights led us to new “How Might We” statements.
Brainstorm: We arranged a brainstorming session with the new “How Might We” statements. The outcome was emerging of hundred of ideas leading to these three categories of interventions:
- Spatial
- Personal
- Professional
Prototyping: We split into three different teams to develop low fidelity prototypes for each category. The goal was suggesting interventions for the new headquarter that facilitates the organic connections and support that was already happening between Details crew members, and focusing on demonstrating their shared histories and experiences as an asset.
Proposed Interventions
Spatial Intervention
we developed a 3D model, laying out different types of spaces that were responding to the needs expressed by the crew. These spaces were arranged based on the programs rather than the occupants.
The design includes showers, a laundry room, kitchen/pantry, relaxation and recreation space, a workshop/training space, and flexible meeting rooms.
Referring to the strong history of Details employees of sharing meals with each other, we proposed a rooftop garden where the process of growing, collecting and cooking food bonds the existing connections and initiate a community around food.
Professional Intervention
A wall space was dedicated to facilitate and highlight the company shared sense of community. This wall demonstrates where deconstruction crews are currently working, have worked, or where individual crew members are interested in working in the future.
While employees were already getting to know each other’s loved ones, there seemed to still be a need for a more visible way to learn about the lives of co-workers. The calendar section presenting the events assist the crew in planning and gathering with/without their families.
Personal Intervention
Details crew are mostly on job sites across the city or the east coast and may not visit the headquarter for a long time. We proposed a “Mind & Body Shop” concept that through a “home rotation” program, allows them to spend at least one day per month in the headquarters to access the services that they are interested most; one-on-one counseling session, gym and weight room, and financial training sessions.
We have presented our proposal to Details Deconstruction, Humanium, and Gensler.
Project Team: Matt Barr, Denise Brown, Jaynie Chartrand, María Isabel García-Díaz, Smile Indias, Devika Menon, Naeeme Mohammadi, Patricia Natalie, Rachel Serra, Irina Wong, Mimi Yang, and Molly Reddy.
Faculty: Thomas Gardner, Mike Weikert, and Bori Feher.
You can find the full presentation here: