Gday and welcome to the third episode in my series on making work more meaningful by learning from religions and creating meaning. Previous editions on Art and Community. This week we’re going to talk about architecture.
“It is one of the odder features of our psychology that we are different people in different places” - The School of Life
For better or for worse, the spaces we inhabit contribute to our mood, outlook, well-being, how we feel about ourselves, our communities, and so much more. Depending on where you are sitting right now, you might feel morose, ecstatic, distracted or worse, bored.
Architecture and the environments we inhabit have the power to shape the way we feel about ourselves, our understanding of the world and our place within it.
Because our environment has such a strong effect on how we think and feel, religions have long concerned themselves with constructing places of worship that have the power to influence who we are and what we believe in.
The effect our religious buildings have on us is truly remarkable. When you walk into the Sistine Chapel in Italy, or the Nasir Al-Mulk Mosque, in Iran, your eyes are drawn upwards - to the frescos and the tile work - but also to God. These same scenes inspire awe, wonder and a diminishing sense of one’s self relative to your deity. Consider the discomfort you feel sitting on a wooden pew or a small pillow, the metaphor for suffering and pain this conjures up.
It’s fitting that our places of worship, of celebration and community, be spectacular, awe-inspiring buildings.
But if we are losing our religions, does this mean we must also lose the sense of environment and place that religious buildings offer? Where can communities gather without churches of mosques? Where do we celebrate?
While we may not see a time again when three generations of stonemasons construct a local temple, we can still think of the places we occupy as more than desks and CAT5 cables.
I’m not suggesting we should be making our places of work our places of worship. Not for a second. But I think that we can take some lessons from how religions have created meaning through architecture and environment. In our quest to recover some of the lost meaning in our lives, we can look to the buildings we spend our time in to cultivate purpose and gravity worthy of our communities.
Making the Mundane Special
The following are a set of ideas that you can employ no matter your space or the budget you have.
Art
Religious buildings store and display all kinds of art. As covered in a previous chapter, art has the power to create meaning where there is none. You don’t need to have a big budget or to be acquiring antiquities. The art you keep should express how you are as a community and what inspires you. Put things up that make you feel good. It’s that easy.
Journey Mapping
It’s not just about the colours and the textiles - you should think about the journey a person takes when they enter your space. Create a guest journey map like you would a customer journey map. How does a person knock on your door? What happens when you greet them? Where do they go from here, and what feelings are you trying to cultivate?
More than just a workspace
The primary function of your workplace is, well, for working. But it can be so much more than this. Create rituals, celebrations and ceremonies that use the space you’ve got. Create meaning and add depth in your work by using the space for more than just typing.
Thresholds
Don’t get me started on thresholds. There is so much you could do here. Thresholds are liminal spaces. The characteristics that define liminal space include layering, dissolution, blurring, and ambiguity and can transform the occupant of that space as they move through it. When a person walks through your front door - when they cross the threshold from one world to another - weird things happen. You can change how a person feels, their sense of space, even their identity is impacted. I realise this is all pretty abstract, but if you can pay attention to where the moments of transition are, you can affect the way a person is and the meaning they draw from a space. Elements you can employ - music, temperature, lighting, journey (see above). If you’re into these ideas, here is a great place to learn more
There are many more elements you can play with, but these should get you thinking.
I’ll leave you with a small case study on Blackbird’s Sydney office. After years working from a clunky Surry Hills terrace, we were lucky enough to be able to design our own space.
Blackbird’s Sydney Office
Blackbird is a service business: our customers are our founders. When we designed our office in Sydney, my vision was to make the founders feel at home. Pitching VCs is hard, and I wanted to balance out the daunting power dynamic.
We’ve been hugely impacted by the idea of enlightened hospitality as described by founder, CEO and restaurateur Danny Meyer. I set about creating a space that would embody this philosophy.
When you come to visit Blackbird, you’re taken on a journey punctuated by a series of moments. It’s a sequence that goes like this:
Gifting
The first moment happens as we welcome you. We built a retail space where we can show off products and swag from our portfolio companies. We also make our own merch! When you visit us, we can offer any of the items on display as a gift. Offering and receiving gifts is important and fundamental to our humanity:
“When nebuchadnezzar ii wanted to remind his wife of her homeland, he gave Queen Amytis the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. When a group of President Truman’s fellow Missourians wanted to honour his accomplishments, they gifted the White House a bowling alley… Across the globe and throughout history, gifting has played a central role in strengthening our interpersonal relationships. In fact, the giving and receiving of presents is so fundamental to humanity that it may be hardwired into our DNA: Scientists have found that our closest primate cousins, bonobos and chimpanzees, give each other gifts of food and tools, and humans likely have been giving gifts since the first caveman handed a shiny tooth or colourful rock to a potential mate.”
From here your host will take you over to our cafe:
Service
Your host will offer you a seat at the bar and walk around the other side of the bar. As you sit, your host should offer you a drink and ask about your day. An important thing happens here. The act of crossing to the other side of the bar puts your host in a position of service. This symbolic gesture goes some way towards flipping the dynamic between investor and founder. We serve you.
As you wait, you can look at any of the other items on display in the retail space, which provides another gifting opportunity.
Once you’ve settled in, your host will direct you towards a meeting room where they will help you set up before the other investors are invited in.
Founders
We built elements to remind us who we work for - our founders. There are custom portraits of our founders on the walls. There are more scattered around the office, and I hope to update these with new images every year.
On the walls of our boardroom are sticks of wood surrounding our portfolio company logos. Like birds collect beautiful and rare objects for their nests, Blackbird treasures the companies we invest in.
Events
We built in a small space so that we can host community events. When we were in a smaller office, we relied heavily on AWS, Canva and Hall Chadwick to play host to our events. I am so happy to be able to pay it forward. When COVID restrictions ease up, we’ll be able to host more gatherings.
Design
We worked with The Bold Collective, and WBYK on the design and layout. It was a great partnership, and we were lucky to find designers and architects who speak our language.
My creative brief called for bold colour, lots of texture and a relaxing and fun atmosphere. Our lease is for 10 years, so it’s important we love coming in every day!
The spaces we live in have a profound impact on our identity, wellbeing and motivation. After many years in a terrace-office, we are lucky to create a home to call our own.
TLDR on all of this: the places we sit influence who we are, how we feel, and so much more. If we can all work to make our buildings just that little more special, we can create a beautiful, richer, more meaningful experience of work.
Next up - Saints!
Really enjoying these Joel, please keep them coming. :)