the materials or products that we create and
put out into the world. As designers, it is our
responsibility to know the product’s chemis-
try, its chain of custody, and what will happen
to it at the end of its useful life. We need to
be aware of the impact of the entire produc-
tion process, as well as the end result. It is
not right to simply design something and say
here, have it world!
When Interface asked me to come on
board in 2015, I think it was our shared values
that made me uproot my life in New York,
close my studio and start anew in Georgia,
working for a company in a position that had
never existed before. I had all the faith in the
world that it was worth it, because of our
common concerns.
Those concerns go further than a design’s
environmental footprint, though, to
embrace its influence on society. An example
is Interface’s Human Spaces Report. How
would you introduce the report to people
who are unfamiliar with it? I would say that
there is a study, led by organizational psy-
chologist and Robertson Cooper cofounder
Sir Cary Cooper, that shows how biophilic
design has a direct bearing on the way people
behave in the workplace. Whether lowering
blood pressure or increasing performance,
references to nature in design can affect the
health of employees and, consequently, the
health of the company that employs them.
Offices designed as neighbourhood-like
spaces have also proved beneficial to the
performance and wellbeing of employees.
Why do you think that is? In a neighbour-
hood people come together, part, and meet
again. Most neighbourhoods are extremely
diverse. The people who live there have
constant opportunities for stimulation,
engagement or reflection time in quiet areas.
Neighbourhood-like design in the workplace
offers the same opportunities.
What’s really great about these kinds
of spaces is that when opportunities for
interaction are provided through design,
you’re enabling something called ‘the adjacent
possible’: until two people get together and
exchange ideas, the possibility of any sort of
outcome doesn’t exist, but when they do meet,
the encounter triggers any number of pos-
sibilities. That’s what happens in communities
- it’s sort of what communities are all about.
Interface recently inaugurated its new global
headquarters in Atlanta. Is the building
designed to foster chance encounters?
Employees at Base Camp – our name for the
new headquarters – are guided by changes
in light and materials to areas and facili-
ties for collaborative work, pods designed
for concentration and spaces intended for
impromptu meetings. It does indeed function
as a neighbourhood, where people navigate
to the place they need to be in order to per-
form the way they need to perform.
Kari Pei poses inside Interface’s recently
inaugurated global headquarters in Atlanta,
which exemplify the company’s preference
for conscientious design.INTERFACE X FRAMEHow important are materials in this equa-
tion, and how can Interface’s products
contribute to community building in
workspaces? Materials are essential. The
thought that goes into the choice of materials
needs to be in tandem with the design of the
overall space. My view is that the floor acts as
a blank canvas for a designer’s approach to a
project. When it comes to Interface, both our
soft and hard modular products support and
clearly define spaces, while serving as guiding
elements and establishing different moods
with texture and colour , uninterrupted by
transition strips. Our strategy in developing
a product line is based on a total-systems
concept. We don’t make one-off, stand-alone
collections. We pull colours and textures into
the new designs, choosing those that go well
with our previous offerings. In that way, we
can compile an entire library of options for
our customers, complete with a vocabulary
of texture, colour and pattern. ●
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