City of Westminster College Launches “Hot Desking” Initiative
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CASE STUDY City of Westminster College Launches “Hot Desking” Initiative Following a substantial grant from space that would simultaneously Liberty best suited our needs—it the Learning and Skills Council, City meet the needs of a modern was the most comfortable, had the of Westminster College, located learning environment, exhibit a right feel, had a sensible design, and in central London, was presented “ timeless and flexible design, and looked good without being too fancy. with the opportunity to move from allow all students and staff to Everyone who sat in the chair was deteriorating premises into a superb very pleased. find areas suiting their individual new Paddington Green Campus interpretations of “comfort.” And that better supports 21st-century David Pigden, Deputy Principal, when it came to one of the most teaching and learning approaches. City of Westminster” College important aspects of this new and improved space— the seating—the to 80 plus—but also in the courses same high standards applied. NEW DESIGN, it offers. Given this diversity, NEW PRIORITIES creating a unified community CHOOSING THE CHAIR City of Westminster College is was an integral—and sometimes In deciding which task chair to vastly diverse, not only in its student challenging—goal of the new design select, it was imperative that the body—which ranges in age from 16 plan. The College needed a new seating choice be intuitive and CASE STUDY CITY OF WESTMINSTER COLLEGE flexible enough to accommodate the most comfortable, had the right feel, working. In terms of productivity, College’s vastly diverse community. had a sensible design, and looked the number of applications has A “hot desking” environment was good without being too fancy. increased by about 30% as a result to be implemented, requiring the Everyone who sat in the chair was of the move, attendance to open task seating to be adjustable to the very pleased.” days is up, and there has been a individual quickly, easily, and without noted improvement in behaviour. the need for a lengthy instruction CITY OF WESTMINSTER We now operate in a newer, better manual. way.” COLLEGE TODAY Today, in its final, complete Following user trials, including form, the new Paddington Green six other task seating solutions, Campus—which includes the artful Humanscale’s Liberty task work of schmidt hammer lassen chair proved most popular with architects, interior design by Dyer students, teachers, office staff Associates, and Humanscale’s Because of its innovative design, Liberty and management alike. In addition Liberty seating—possesses a was the only office chair included in the 2007 National Design Triennial at the to exhibiting a complementary timeless, visibly high-quality Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National aesthetic, Liberty was simply the aesthetic and has won two major Design Museum. Its tri-panel Form-Sensing most intuitive and easy to adjust— architecture awards since it opened. Mesh Technology offers perfect lumbar support for every body type without external perfect for the “hot desking” The College now has a learning devices or manual adjustments. And its environment of the College. environment that’s flexible enough weight-sensitive recline ensures that all to support over 7,000 students and users have perfect recline support without having to make a single adjustment. With In praise of the Liberty chair, David staff. As Pigden notes, “Staff are 40% fewer parts and 40% less material than Pigden, Deputy Principal of City of delighted by how well students have the average task chair, Liberty established Westminster College, says, “Liberty responded to the new building, the a new bar for sustainability in the high- performance task chair category. best suited our needs—it was the new space—and the new way of .