Knoll Workplace Exhibition at the Boston Architectural College

Working Now: Exploring the Future of How and Where We Work  is an exhibition of workplace research and design presented by Knoll in partnership with Office Resources, currently on view at the Boston Architectural College. Open through January 31, 2017, the exhibition explores the influence of startup culture and the experience economy as factors that contribute to the increasingly blurred boundaries between life, play, and work.

"The BAC is a prominent design school in Boston located on Newbury Street in the Back Bay, a historic district of the city," explained Andrea Coan, Architecture & Design Manager at Knoll in Boston, who spearheaded the project. "Over the years, Knoll and the BAC have collaborated on a variety of lectures and exhibitions. The college came to Knoll and asked if we’d be interested in putting together an exhibition about how the workplace has evolved and the differences in how people are working today.”

A steady shift in working styles, which have become more casual and collaborative in recent years, has prompted the need for a new "immersive" work environment that is dynamic and flexible enough for the changing needs of its users. The exhibition highlights examples of workplace design that together illustrate a recent study from Knoll on the subject, which identifies a new paradigm for the modern office that better engages and motivates employees.

"In talking with the BAC, reviewing their concept, and discussing recent Knoll research on immersive planning, we decided that it would be a great project," Coan said. "It’s also a benefit for the Knoll Boston showroom and our dealer partner Office Resources to have an extension of our space for eight weeks, in order to really emphasize the changing ways in which the workplace is planned and how immersive planning really represents the new way of working."

Housed in the McCormick Gallery at the BAC, the exhibition involves in situ furniture systems and detailed infographics, allowing visitors to not only read about new workplace planning models and the stimuli behind them, but to experience these environments themselves by interacting with the furniture on display.

“The BAC hopes that the exhibition will bring people together and encourage a new style of collaborative working.”

—Andrea Coan

"When we were installing the exhibition on Thursday, there were already people looking through the glass, curious about it," said Coan. "Students are keen to use it in an interactive way, to study, to meet with faculty, to meet with their peers. The BAC hopes that the exhibition will bring people together and encourage a new style of collaborative working."

The exhibition Working Now: Exploring the Future of How and Where We Work will be on view through January 31, 2017 at the McCormic Gallery at the Boston Architectural College, located at 320 Newbury Street in Boston. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8am to 10:30pm and Saturday through Sunday from 8am to 8pm.

On January 24, 2017, Senior Director of Workplace Strategy Kimberly Smith will present a lecture on the contents of the exhibition, discussing technology, wellness, and mobility as pivotal concerns of the workplace. The event, open to the public, will take place in the McCormick Gallery at 5.30pm.