b'What experts sayEvodia Alaterou, Principal and design strategy leader at HassellEvodia Alaterou is leading the design strategy team at Hassell, a leading international design practice with studios in Australia, Asia, the US and the UK. Within Hassell, Evodia and her team are responsible for design strategy, which is all about understanding the needs and ambitions of clients and users.I have noticed that you use the term Designdifferent ways to make their space more elastic. Strategy at Hassell. How does that conceptThe key is about thinking beyond the traditional relate to briefing?lease for a fixed amount of space for a fixed (long) Design Strategy encompasses more than briefingterm towards different ways of meeting space for individual projects. At Hassell we bring bigneeds in more immediate and on-demand ways.picture thinking to our projectswell often incorporate broader sectoral research andWhat makes a good brief according to you? knowledge into our engagements with clients. WeA good brief starts with why, with purpose. help them think through the immediate questionIt captures the uniqueness of the client and (such as How much space do I need?) from athe situation. It builds excitement about the broader, more impactful, perspective (such asopportunities to make a tangible and measurable How can we empower people to do their bestdifference for the people who will frequent and work in this new building, and what role doesenjoy the space it describes. A good brief is not space play?). just about space types and square metres, its We also refer to our work as being designabout starting the process of doing something ready strategy, which means we translate anreally wonderful for people. organizations higher order aspirations into a spatial direction. Architects and designersHow do you see the future of briefing? therefore know what to design, theres no gapI think well see an increase in the use of tools between the strategy and the information neededthat support the briefing process, for example to start design. live data capture and analytics, 24/7 dashboards, chatbots that interact with space users, that sort You have a lot of expertise on workplaceof thing. These tools have a purpose and are useful strategy, which is a very challenging fieldfor discreet tasks, and over time theyll probably at moment. What do you do to get anevolve into very sophisticated supertools. This is understanding of an organizations futurean exciting prospect, but I really hope they dont need for space when so much is still in flux?replace human interaction entirely.That is the million-dollar question! The process of briefing is about exploring Weve been seeing workplaces evolve awayopportunities, often random, unexpected from cellular places for individual thinkingopportunities. Its about questioning and being towards more active and vibrant places foropen to challenge, experimenting, throwing collective activities for decades. The pandemicthings together, trying new things. Data, and data has accelerated this evolution.capture tools, serve a purpose, but if relied on Whats interesting for me is that, in answeringentirely might oversimplify the process, turn it the how much space question, were forcedinto a formula, and not allow the nuance and the to go back to first principles and ask ourselveshuman aspect to come to the surface.what is the (new) role of the workplace?If we want to create great places that have a And were seeing that its different for eachpositive impact on people, we have to continue organization. While businesses consider the typetalking to people and bringing their stories into the of organization they want to be into the future, andprocess of designing for them as much as in the how their people will work long term, we wrap thebuilt form we create for them. spatial response around that. Often, well model a number of scenarios for the spatial response, soAny recommendations for construction business leaders can get a sense of the optionsclients?that might address their changing business needsGive yourselves the time to explore the over time. opportunities before starting to draw or build Flexibility is the name of game, now morethings. Its a gift! Buildings are made to last for than ever. We help our clients think through thedecades, and sometimes bad buildings negatively 192'