People’s Architecture Office, headquartered in Beijing, China, knows the importance of comfort in everyday life; they brought this ideology into their design for Leping Social Entrepreneur Headquarters. The Leping Foundation is a non-profit organization founded and focused on social innovation. Their newly designed office needed to promote a healthy work environment for their own tasks as well as for four of their investing companies, all working in different and diverse fields.
To create an office for “social well-being” as the architects note, they had to find a way to connect the fields of job training, agricultural research, preschool education and microfinance into a cohesive, functional workspace. A central running track with suspended vegetation above ties together each distinct company.
“While intense exercise is mostly disruptive to office work, moderate activity often is not,” the architects write. “Simple activity over a sustained period can be as beneficial as vigorous exercise in promoting brain activity.” This layout provides a connection between each company, promoting conversation and opportunities to incorporate movement into various modes of work, such as walking the track while on a call.
Utilizing indoor plants has been proven to assist mental wellbeing and lessen anxiety or stress; the suspended plant loop also houses an advanced air filtration system to elevate the office’s air quality. Because of Beijing's significant pollution issues, many offices are now employing similar systems to collect indoor air quality and monitor it. Vegetables and aromatic herbs from the activity loop and other hydroponic gardens throughout the office communally harvested and prepared on-site for lunches.
To further mix working and lounging, the “mini mountain” sits at one end of the office space. The “mini mountain” boasts a variety of accommodations to support different postures. Other spaces for specialized activity in the office are a separate gym, meditation space and meeting room.
Overall, the design of Leping headquarters is meant to promote innovative work for social impact, which requires collaboration and interaction while strengthening an employee’s comfort. Social well-being cannot be achieved without taking personal well-being into account first. See stlouishomesmag.com for resources.
