Establishing Priorities

When Arup, a global firm of consulting engineers, designers, planners 
project managers headquartered in London, decided to  outfit their new Cape Town office in October 2011, they sought to create an environment that fosters inspiration, creativity and productivity. They needed a space that would both physically support their bottom line (their ever-growing group of employees) and reflect the company’s values internally and externally.

To achieve this, Arup needed the correct “tools,” as Arup Associate Director Con Strydom explains, “not only to create comfort, but also to critically address issues such as productivity. We needed clutter-free working space, simple and effective mechanisms, and accessibility.” As a company owned in trust on behalf of its staff, Arup is truly “all about the people,” as Strydom describes it—meaning that benefitting its members (a.k.a. its stakeholders) was especially key. With these priorities in mind, Strydom was seeking best-in-class ergonomic products.

Arup wasn’t going into this process naively—after all, if anyone knows design, it’s them. Their 60-year presence in South Africa has helped shape the built environment as we know it. With such extensive knowledge of design and strong commitment to sustainability, Arup had high standards when it came to selecting an architecture and design (A & D) firm. After careful consideration and a reliable recommendation, Arup chose to entrust the A & D experts at Source Interior Brand Architects with the design of their new office, situated in the idyllic Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.

Completely understanding Arup’s priorities and goals, Source’s Head of Workplace Hugo Houlmann set out to “design an interior that mirrors [Arup’s] core business of state-of-the-art engineering, sustainable design and forward thinking.” He knew that in order to be both practical and aligned with Arup’s philosophy in this way, the new design would require high-performance ergonomic tools with no compromise on aesthetics, sustainability or functionality.

Finding the Answer in Humanscale

Though aware of the many options to choose from, Source determined fairly early on that Humanscale’s products would best meet all of Arup’s specific needs, especially when it came to seating. Houlmann says, “We were looking for a very comfortable task chair—one well-designed from a functional, as well as aesthetic point of view, and one that was as green as possible and obviously cost-effective, too.” Considering these criteria thoroughly, Source was quick to specify Humanscale’s Liberty task chair. Houlmann explains, “We were looking for a product with a traceable origin, manufactured according to high standards and offering good guarantees—all of which the Liberty chair demonstrates.” Houlmann also specified the Liberty conference chair, saying, “The Liberty conference chair offers comfort without being too bulky as some of the other conference chairs tend to be.” Impressed with the entire Liberty family of chairs, Source even chose a select number of side chairs for Arup’s visitors, as Houlmann explains, “It is very nice to be able to have a diversity of chairs, but from the same family.”

Knowing that an ergonomic workstation involves more than just the chair, Houlmann also specified Humanscale’s M2 and M8 monitor arms and the CPU600 CPU holder. He praised the CPU600’s tremendous adjustability and was particularly impressed with the flexible, supportive M2, declaring, “There is no other model that combines functionality and good design as well as the M2.

A Long-Term Solution

For Source, specifying the high-quality Humanscale products for Arup was all about foresight.  “Humanscale offers a very attractive price/quality ratio ... We always try to motivate our clients to invest a little bit more in quality because we know that it will last and that they will profit from it in various ways, and for a much longer time,” says Houlmann. Today, that investment in best-in-class tools has made Arup’s vision a reality. Strydom couldn’t be more satisfied with the end result, saying, “The Humanscale components really fit into the overall system at the Cape Town office. More importantly, with Humanscale, we’ve discovered a long-term solution that helps increase the productivity and creativity of our members.”